Advaita and Christianity

[jkcowart@cari.net]

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

At 02:26 AM 03/27/2000 +0000, Anand Hudli wrote:
> I am sorry if I gave the impression that I was responding to such
> a claim of yours. At this point, the comparison of advaita and
> Christianity is only out of curiosity.

Thank you for taking the time to clarify that.

>ultimately, advaita is something more than any religion can offer,
> because it  tells us that even God is transcended at a certain stage!
> This is what makes a true reconciliation between advaita and any so called
> theistic religion difficult.

I wonder if this must be so.  As long as one recognizes that all we can deal
with are *images,* then the recognition that any image of God is trans-
cended by the incomprehensible and nondual ultimate reality should not
be so hard to arrive at (intellectually and emotionally).

Nonetheless, it is the sad and horrifying history of mankind that people
attack
one another (even to  the extent of mass atrocities) over their attachment to
such images.

How much better to step back from them  and admit our utter ignorance--
while yet accepting whatever benign aid (grace) those images may have
to offer in the living of our lives as we await moksha.

For now we live in a dream.  But it is a dream with rules.  And one of them
is that we ought not to reify even the most profoundly spiritual of images--
from whichever quarter they may arise.

I believe this can be avoided in the theistic context as well as in any
other one.

Literalists and fundamentalists of all faiths disagree with that view.  Wars
result--and each religion breaks down into smaller and smaller subgroups,
each
with its own reifications _en pointe_ at the others.

Quite frightening, given the present state of geopolitics, I'd say.

Yours truly,

John

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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