johnw@farside.eng.ready.com (John Wheeler) (05/07/91)
I tried to post an article in response to the previous postings on Madhyamika philosophy, etc. Apparently it got lost in transmission. In the article I offered the opinion that in the final analysis Vedanta and Buddhism are very similar, if not identical, philosophies. There are several reasons for my believing this. 1) In both philosophies the source of suffering is shown to be the concept of a separately existing ego or self. 2) They both show that nothing in the objectively perceivable universe of experience contains anything that can be called "I". 3) The practical application of the teaching involves the relinquishment of ego-based conceptual thinking (this has nothing to do with the "unfiltered" awareness mentioned in a previous posting, which is a common misinterpretation of Buddhist meditation). 4) The idea that the Self is the Absolute or Brahmin as postulated by Vedantins is not only echoed in Mahayana Buddhism, it is the basic tenet of the teaching. For example, in the Ch'an school of Buddhism, which flourished for several centuries during the T'ang dynasty, the cardinal teaching was "Your Mind (Heart) is the Buddha." It is not unreasonable to assume the following two statements are the same: Self = Brahman Mind = Buddha Which boils down to the idea that your true nature and the ulitmate reality are the same, i.e. not-two. 5) Since masters of both schools have clearly demonstrated in their lives a complete transcendence of the cause suffering, i.e. they have attained the identical state, their philosophies are most likely talking about the same thing. This implies that Nirvana and Self-realization are synonomous terms. 6) Based on my experience, that application of either of these teachings leads to the same meditative experience. (Anyone have any of their own experiences to confirm/deny this?) 6) Several enlightened sages of this century who have had aquaintance with these schools have supported the view that they are essentially the same.