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Re: Buddhism and Hinduism
Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 4:48 am
by Huseng
Individual wrote:
It includes a lot of superstitious beliefs and seems foolishly concerned with devotion to and unification with a supreme divinity, but you could say the same of quite a few Mahayana Buddhist groups also.
That's a quite arrogant remark to make.
When they speak about unifying with a supreme deity like Brahma, do you think those yogis assume it to be a big guy with a beard in heaven?
For example, 'Brahma' in some contexts means 'purity' and in that sense unifying with the 'ultimate purity', whether you represent it symbolically with artwork and make offerings to it or not, would encourage the practitioner to rid themselves of desires and devote themselves to meditation.
You really don't know much, Individual. You should cease making such foolish remarks and actually sit down and do your research before uttering such offensive things.
Re: Buddhism and Hinduism
Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 8:46 pm
by DGA
Huseng wrote:
Otherwise you're just using such huge general categories and no meaningful discussion can be had.
Yes, indeed.
I think the OP isn't really asking about Hinduism as a totality, though, but is instead wanting to know if it's reasonable to compare the Buddhist teachings on the absolute or enlightenment with those presented in Adwaita Vedanta.
(Please correct me if I'm wrong here.)
If so, then it's possible to frame a question about it, which leads to a comparative study on claims regarding the enlightened state in these two traditions.
There are a spectrum of possible answers on this. At one end, you have the Perennial Philosophy school that would claim that it's all the same in the end, and that differences in description amount to cultural variations. At another end you have the more conservative traditionalist position that would claim instead that the enlightenment described in the Buddhist teachings is definitely different from that taught in any other spiritual tradition. Or somewhere in between these.
I'm not going to go there myself...