Search found 103 matches

by songhill
Sat Jan 19, 2013 9:43 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

That's really not an accurate description to ascribe to Dzogchen, since loppon Malcolm has explained it this way: The Supreme Source seems Dzogchen to me. It even has a maker of sorts. "The supreme source, pure and total consciousness, explained: Listen, great being, to the reason. I, the supr...
by songhill
Sat Jan 19, 2013 5:44 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

Can you show me a living Buddhist tradition where the view of an ultimate ground, a creator source is taught? It is neither Yogacara nor Zhentong. It is much easier for us if you would provide the Sanskrit for your term "ultimate ground" and also the Sanskrit for "creator source.&quo...
by songhill
Sat Jan 19, 2013 1:23 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

Can you show me a living Buddhist tradition where the view of an ultimate ground, a creator source is taught? It is neither Yogacara nor Zhentong. It is much easier for us if you would provide the Sanskrit for your term "ultimate ground" and also the Sanskrit for "creator source.&quo...
by songhill
Fri Jan 18, 2013 6:21 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

If anyone is halfway serious about the distinction between Shankara's Advaita and Buddhism they need, first of all, to be very acquainted with Buddhism (this means reading the discourses - not listening to someone's interpretation), then study the Brahma Sutras of Shankara. I have spent time underl...
by songhill
Fri Jan 18, 2013 5:42 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

If anyone is halfway serious about the distinction between Shankara's Advaita and Buddhism they need, first of all, to be very acquainted with Buddhism (this means reading the discourses - not listening to someone's interpretation), then study the Brahma Sutras of Shankara. I have spent time underli...
by songhill
Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:21 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

Yes, it is apparent that your notion is different. The same does not apply beyond your imagination. Tathatā, meaning suchness, or "the way things are" is not about two different sets of things. The point is that in Buddhism, the idea that something "never comes into existence (bhava)...
by songhill
Thu Jan 17, 2013 7:18 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

So your definition of phenomena is as "a dream or illusion", and your definition of Tathagata is that he "neither exists/bhava nor is he non-existent/abhava". How is it possible to differentiate between two things when your definition of them is identical? My notion of dream or ...
by songhill
Thu Jan 17, 2013 6:13 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

The difference is whether this is seen to be truly existing or not. If it is truly existing then it has a beginning, as in Advaita, whereas in Buddhism it is beginingless. The Buddha's awakening transcends bhava and abhava. The Tathagata neither exists/bhava nor is he non-existent/abhava. Things—te...
by songhill
Thu Jan 17, 2013 5:27 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

The Buddha has never asserted a consciousness beyond the consciousness of the 5 skandhas. Most reputable scholars would disagree. Check out the Kevatta (Kevaddha) Sutta: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.11.0.than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; "'Your...
by songhill
Thu Jan 17, 2013 7:29 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

Best article on Sankara, Advaita (Mayavada) and Buddhism from a historical as well as metaphysical point of view http://gosai.com/writings/mayavada-and-buddhism-are-they-one-and-the-same Nice article. Here is Mandukya Upanishad with Gaudapada's Karika: http://www.swamij.com/upanishad-mandukya-karik...
by songhill
Wed Jan 16, 2013 7:32 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

Founder of Advaita (Shankara) was criticized by fellow Brahmins as being a Crypto-Buddhist. Although he did not acknowledge the plagiarism from Buddhism, his grandteacher Gaudapada admits that he is greatly influenced by Buddhism, especially Madhyamika of Nagarjuna. So no wonder both "appear&q...
by songhill
Wed Jan 16, 2013 7:11 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

The difference is whether this is seen to be truly existing or not. If it is truly existing then it has a beginning, as in Advaita, whereas in Buddhism it is beginingless. The Buddha's awakening transcends bhava and abhava. The Tathagata neither exists/bhava nor is he non-existent/abhava. Things—te...
by songhill
Wed Jan 16, 2013 6:06 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

Thank you all for the responses. Learning a lot! But also getting a bit (more) confused ... To cut to the chase, here's my predicament. I'm studying Advaita Vedanta, and much of it resonates with me, feels true. BUT (and it's a huge but!) the final conclusion of Advaita -- that brahman = changeless...
by songhill
Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:46 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

rachmiel wrote:
songhill wrote:Nakamura notes that Buddhist Vijñânavâdins called themselves Advitavâdinah. He said the word advaita existed before Sankara (cp. Nakamura, A History of Early Vedanta Philosophy, p. 119).
A-dvaita just means: not two. Right?
You could say non-dualistic monism.
by songhill
Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:24 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality
Replies: 364
Views: 73495

Re: Advaitin vs. Buddhist takes on awareness/reality

Nakamura notes that Buddhist Vijñânavâdins called themselves Advitavâdinah. He said the word advaita existed before Sankara (cp. Nakamura, A History of Early Vedanta Philosophy, p. 119).
by songhill
Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:12 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: A definition of "ego"
Replies: 20
Views: 5220

Re: A definition of "ego"

Actually I can't find "self" in there either, although there is an entry for "I". The point I was trying to make was about how Freudian theory was distorted when it became Americanized. In Europe, studies of Freud suggest that his idea of self is intrinsically interwoven with th...
by songhill
Wed Jan 16, 2013 12:13 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: A definition of "ego"
Replies: 20
Views: 5220

Re: A definition of "ego"

Johnson clearly had a concept of selfishness and so did the Buddha. Not with regard to the modern concept of "EGO" such as egoism, egoist, etc. It doesn't seem that you have looked at Samuel Johnson's dictionary. Égotism. n.s. [from ego, Latin.] The fault committed in writing by the frequ...
by songhill
Tue Jan 15, 2013 7:56 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: A definition of "ego"
Replies: 20
Views: 5220

Re: A definition of "ego"

To the author of the OP, thank you for your contribution. Going through my pages of notes I found this. "The ego has taken over the task of representing the external world for the id, and so of saving it; for the id, blindly striving to gratify its instincts in complete disregard of the superio...
by songhill
Tue Jan 15, 2013 2:40 am
Forum: Sūtra Studies
Topic: Access to Insight: An Incomplete Canon
Replies: 22
Views: 14217

Re: Mind versus Self?

I think you will find these suttas much more interesting and more scholary. https://sites.google.com/site/dharmafarer2/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
by songhill
Fri Jan 11, 2013 9:53 pm
Forum: Sūtra Studies
Topic: Access to Insight: An Incomplete Canon
Replies: 22
Views: 14217

Re: Access to Insight: An Incomplete Canon

I second that recommendation. Before I knew anything about the Buddha or any of the teachings, I was for some reason drawn to Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A translation of the Majjhima Nikaya . It ended up being the first book I owned when I started to investigate the teachings. I'm very...

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