Agony of the soul (?) etc

[egodust]

Jaldhar H. Vyas wrote:
> It is equally shallow to assume Buddhists do not believe reality is void
> simply because you say so.  Care to provide some proof of your assertion?

The proof is in the experience that follows in the wake of Buddha's injunction
of shutting down the mind.  As far as scriptural documentation, Thich Nhat Hanh
in his book OLD PATH WHITE CLOUDS (culled from Pali, Sanskrt and Chinese texts)
relates how Shakyamuni explains to his dying father that, upon his death, he
will [paraphrased here] "become the entire Universe and Beyond, which has ever
been your true nature."  An ultimate reality is thus here implied, although he
would never expound on it, lest it become tangible to the discriminating
intellect and subsequently reduced to a phenomenology [undoing his strategy].

It should be borne in mind that the Buddhist focus on shunyata is strategically
the same as the method adopted by the ajaativaada doctrine of advaita: negating
all conceivable concepts, tenets and precepts concerning the nature of reality,
for the purpose of delivering the *experience* of Being Itself (sathyavijnana).

> As I and others have pointed out the acharyas of the Advaita parampara have
> interpreted the Buddhist position as the non-existance of any ultimate
> reality.  It should be easy to tell if they were right or wrong.
>
> Furthermore you have misinterpreted the Vedantic notion of 'ajatavaada' by
> which I presume you mean ajaativaada.  The Buddhists believe objects pass
> in and out of existence.  They are all created and they will all be
> destroyed.  Advaitins believe all objects are uncreated and will not be
> destroyed.  What is termed creation is just a change of state as all
> objects share the real substratum of Brahman.  It is Maya which is
> responsible for their apparent creation and destruction.
>

Of course there are many belief systems unique to these two approaches;
however, with diligence and time, there can be found an esoteric common
ground between them, revealing that [neither of them consequently] ascribes
to any belief whatsoever, because their realization rests on satchidananda
alone, which precludes any involvement with philosophical conceptions,
theories or questions...as any answers, assertions, or ideologies are
themselves mayavic.

Namaste.