New member introduction (fwd)

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Thu, 1 May 1997, Jonathan Bricklin wrote:

> Really?  Do you think it has anything to do with St. John of the Cross?

No.  (Never heard of him actually.)

> The Bal Shem Tov?

No.

>  How about Lao Tzu?

Nope.

> I do not think much about whether Buddhism of any kind has any relation to
> free will.  It is just one of many paths that can lead to an experience of
> non-duality.

For that matter falling down a flight of stairs can lead to an experience
of non-duality.  We're talking about Advaita Vedanta here.

> Ramakrishna, for example, was instructed in Advaita-Vedanta
> by his teacher, Tota Puri, but it was surely his own experience of
> non-duality, rather than the doctrine of non-duality  that led him to
> abandon his belief in will
>

As I wrote earlier today, a thing even the propositions of Advaita Vedanta
is either true or it's false.  It cannot depend on the experience or a
lack thereof of any person particularly a person like Ramakrishna whose
connection to the Advaita parampara was tenuous at best.  I don't think a
belief in Vedanta requires abandoning free will.  If you believe otherwise
you can try and prove it but that requires the use of things Advaita
considers authority sush as Shruti, Smrti, logic, tradition etc.  not
utterly irrelevant things.

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