[Advaita-l] Budha & Advaita

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Wed, 4 Jan 2006, murali mohan wrote:

> Here are my doubts: When we assume that Shankara (or any other Hindu 
> sage) and Buddha are enlightened beings,

But Advaita Vedanta doesn't assume this.  Buddha was the worst of 
heretics.  An Avatara of Vishnu Bhagavan who made up nonsense to delude 
the daityas but accidently "infected" some people.

> how can they talk about 
> different realities when there is only one ultimate truth? Can we not 
> equate Shoonya to Nirguna Brahman? After all Emptiness and Fullness are 
> two sides of the same coin - depends on how one looks at it.

Everything depends on how you look at it.  How you look at things is 
precisely whats at issue here.

> Regarding rituals, although Buddha  was against all ritualistic worship,

How do you know this?

> we see the most elaborate rituals 
> in Buddhist monastries more than anywhere else.

Then how does this follow from your previous statement?

> Buddha is also called 
> Sankya Muni.

Aaargh.  Murali Mohan, before proceeding any further please buy yourself a 
dictionary.  Buddha is _Sakhya_ muni.  The Sakhyas were a Kshatriya caste 
in southern Nepal that Siddhartha Gautama was born in.  It has no relation 
to the word samkhya which describes a philosophy.

Furthermore prior to forming his own "middle way" Buddha studied under a 
Samkhya teacher named Arada Kamala whose teaching he later rejected.

I cannot comment on what Ramana taught but karma does not mean just 
rituals but all actions.  As long as you do actions, the obligatory 
actions must be performed.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>