[Advaita-l] Advaita and Madhyamika Buddhism
Raghav Kumar
raghavkumar00 at gmail.com
Sun Sep 18 03:31:20 CDT 2016
Namaste
Can we say that the अौपनिष्दं पुरुषं was likely to have been taught by at
least some of the माध्यमिक Buddhists? The similarities are there - such as
different orders of Reality etc. This would have been discussed before. But
My question is a more general one -
1. Can the content of advaita be unfolded and taught without explicit
references to shruti and bhAShya? Say in some other language...
2. What would be the key ideas which would have to be present in such an
unfoldment or pedagogy? (I was having in mind ideas like multiple orders
of Reality, importance of a prepared mind etc.)
3. We have the well-known vArtika saying that there maybe an endless number
of prakriyAs to unfold the truth. But what exactly constitutes a sadhu
prakriya and how may we discern an asAdhu prakriya?
For example, suppose a prakriya smartly (?) says that nirvisheSha brahman
alone is the paramArthika satyam , is it enough? Even if such a prakriya
says that vishnu alone is Ishvara as far as vyavahAra is concerned . ( this
is only an example i am considering and the specifics have already been
discussed 'threadbare' in a different thread.) This question of whether its
a sadhu prakriya or not applies to even the mAdyamika prakriyA lets say as
taught in the mUlamAdhyamika kArikA.
Om
Raghav
On 17-Sep-2016 3:44 pm, "H S Chandramouli via Advaita-l" <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> Namaste Sri Venkatraghavan Ji,
>
>
>
> Reg << Shunyata does not mean nonexistence or a void. Shunyata, as I
> understand
> it, simply signifies that things have no self-being or “essence” of their
> own. >>,
>
>
>
> I understand this is the new doctrine proposed as a modification of the
> shUnyata concept proposed by Nagarjuna earlier which meant nihilism only. I
> also understand that with this modification it is difficult to explain any
> significant difference between it and advaita. Advaita concept being
> earlier to shUnyata concept, the shUnyata concept loses its separate and
> distinct identity itself.
>
>
>
> Ofcourse I only know of this as a statement and really do not have an
> opinion one way or the other on the issue. Thought I would just bring it to
> your attention for whatever it is worth.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> On Sat, Sep 17, 2016 at 3:05 PM, Venkatraghavan S via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> > Namaste,
> > In reading advaita works critical of Buddhism, it appears to me that the
> > concept of shUnyata or emptiness as postulated by Nagarjuna has not been
> > represented correctly in advaita.
> >
> > Shunyata does not mean nonexistence or a void. Shunyata, as I understand
> > it, simply signifies that things have no self-being or “essence” of their
> > own. However in most advaita works it has only been briefly discussed and
> > dismissed as nihilism. Nagarjuna himself is critical of nihilism, so it
> > does not appear that he had nihilism in mind when postulating shUnyata.
> >
> > Does anyone know why it has been represented as nihilism and cursorily
> > dismissed?
> >
> > Regards,
> > Venkatraghavan
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