(nibbana) = (Nirguna Brahman) ?

[un824 at FREENET.VICTORIA.BC.CA]

Namaste,

Good to hear from you again, Jaldhar... congratulations on the
engagement. I wonder if we will notice any change in your
tune (tone?) ?

You say:

>While the Advaitin is not prepared to say much about the nature of Brahman
>as in "neti, neti", he can say with confidence Brahman exists.  The
>Buddhists are unable or unwilling to even say this much about an ultimate
>reality.  This is a big difference.
>

and again...


>The bottom line is that Vedanta asserts the existence of one ultimate
>reality and Buddhism asserts the existence of none.  It doesn't take any
>special knowledge to realize that 1 does not equal 0.
>

I don't recall getting a straight answer to this question last time
I asked, so I'll ask you Jaldhar -- do you think Buddhism fails to
assert nirvanna (nibbana)?  Do you think Buddhism fails to assert
that nibbana is the truth? I thought the Buddha did assert this,
regardless of whatever subsequent centuries of Buddhist exegesis may
say about it, but perhaps you know better than I.

Assuming Buddha did assert nibbana and nibbana is not what you call the
"one ultimate reality", then what *is* nibbana -- the Buddha's imagination?

Please advise...

Sincerely,

Allan Curry