[Advaita-l] What causes samsara?

[V Subrahmanian]

Thank Anand ji, for the clarificatory remarks.  I have a question related to
Shankaracharya's observation on Buddhism.  I shall state it in a separate
post.

Regards,
subrahmanian.v

On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 5:36 PM, Anand Hudli <anandhudli at hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> V Subrahmanian wrote:
>
> >I have for long wondered why in some places Shankaracharya has clubbed
> >the Naiyayika
> >and the Bauddha for refutation.  He has also called them:
> >ardha-vainAshikaH and pUrNa-
> >vainAshikaH respectively.
> >Could you let us have your thoughts on this?  While the Bauddha holds
> >sarvam-shUnyam,
> >the naiyAyika does not.  So, where is the close parallel between them?
> >Is it only
> >on the basis of asat-kAryavAda?
>
> That could be the case. One more reason could be found by studying both
> systems.
>
> I have not studied Buddhist texts in detail but here is what I could
> gather.
>
> The Bauddha mata has been labeled vainAshika which means it teaches
> nonexistence
>
> and destruction. The vaisheShika doctrine is sometimes criticized as
> ardha-vainAshika.
>
> The Bauddha mata, for example Dignaga's influential work
> PramANasamuchchaya, speaks
>
> of svalakShaNa, a particular characteristic, something that is unique, and
> is experienced
>
> in pratyakSha, direct perception. One may claim that in similar fashion,
> the VaisheShika
>
> system speaks of the category of visheSha as the ultimate difference that
> exists
>
> between atoms. The nyAya system closely follows the vaisheShika system,
> except that
>
> the new school of navya nyAya does not recognize visheSha as a category.
>
>
>
> Anand
>
>
>