Advaita and Christianity

[jkcowart@cari.net]

----------------------

At 03:47 AM 03/25/2000 +0000, Anand Hudli wrote:
>Simply because some system seems to agree with advaita on a point or
>two does not mean that this system essentially preaches nonduality
>of the advaitic kind.

It is indeed wise to practice accuracy in these matters.

I, for my part made no systematic claim for Christian nonduality.
On Wed, 22 Mar 2000 19:32:57 -0800 I simply stated:
>There is a strong non-dual tradition in Christianity (Eckhardt and
>others).

It may not be "essentially preached" but its *essence* is there none-
theless.

At that time I also cautioned:
>...truth is not reserved only to a certain group, is it?  [I know people
>are killing one another over this very issue, but they ought not to be.]

On Fri, 24 Mar 2000 15:35:28 -0800 I wrote:
>It seems to me that the truth of advaita is to be found at the heart of
>every one of the world's religions.

Yet, an overwhelming majority of human beings across all cultures and
times have claimed a virtually absolute exclusivity for their own spiritual
perceptions.

When Ramakrishna was chided by the priest of a temple for sitting with
his feet toward a statue of Kali, he responded that he would gladly move
them if only the priest would point out the direction in which Kali was
not present.

I, for one, would not choose to make the claim that there is some place
where advaitan truth is not present.

As for its most systematic conceptual development, who would deny that
Vedanta may lay claim to that?   Yet, would anyone else deny that there
are and have previously been men and women who--without ever reading
a single line of vedic scripture--have understood these points:

        1) Spirit is the sole reality,
        2) the world is unreal in the sense that it is illusory
        3) the individual soul is none other than Spirit,
        4) one who truly knows this is liberated even while living?

In any case, it was never my intention to introduce a difficulty into our
discussions, and I regret any divisions my comments on undividedness
may have accented.

Most respectfully,

John

J. Kingston Cowart, M.S.
San Diego, California
<jkcowart at cari.net>

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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