message to my friends

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Fri, 28 Aug 1998, Greg Goode wrote:

> >the same way place and plaice sound the same but mean different things.
>
> But since there is really only one "place," ever, then there's no other
> place to go!

Yes but there are many plaice in the sea.  (A plaice for those who are
wondering what I'm talking about is an Atlantic fish related to the
flounder.)

See the problem?  We have two very different concepts which only have a
very superficial relationship, i.e. they sound the same.  You are putting
the logical cart before the horse as it were by assuming a conclusion and
trying to argue back from it.

And this is the problem I have with the brainless New Age types.  They
start off wth an unfounded premise like "All religions are the same" or
more likely "my favorite religions are the same" and then distort all
facts to fit that premise.  Serious philosophies don't do that. Vedanta
for instance calls itself an investigation into Brahman (the "place" you
mentioned.)  The conclusion comes at the end and for different schools of
Vedanta is very different despite the fact they started from the same
premise.

Having said that, I'm not prepared to say there are no other philosophies
that could take you to that place.  Rather, I'm saying one would have to
do a lot more research before one could make that claim.

>
> >Perhaps various non-dual philosophies are only superficially similiar.
>
> Some more than others.  But even with different labels, how can the moon
> that they point to be more than one?
> It can't.

Would that be the moon thats a piece of rock orbitting the earth, the moon
that's made of green cheese or the moon which is the secret control room
of a person who's making a movie of your whole life?

> If it is insisted that
> only one philosophy can take you "there" (and the one would be advaita
> vedanta as taught by Adi Shakara) then this is tantamount to saying that
> liberation/enlightenment/jnana has happened only to formal advaita vedantins.

I'm insisting something different.  That "there" is where Advaita Vedanta
as taught by Shankaracharya takes you.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>