Concept of personal God and Advaita

[reachhemant]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephanie Stean" <cerebral_rose at MAC.COM>
To: <ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 5:13 PM
Subject: Re: Concept of personal God and Advaita


> How is advaita divorced from all experience?  Advaita, non-duality, is a
> form of experience.  Scriptural testimony is not necessary although it
> serves as a guide for many.
> > Hemant: I agree with this. Ramana got his experience first and learned
his scriptures later.
   However in India there has been an unbroken continuity of realised souls
who have realised through the scripture.
   To stray from the scripture is to be labelled 'unorthodox'. Buddha did so
and managed to achieve something.
    Buddhism however could not accept the method of extreme asceticism and
brought in surrender SaraNa to Buddha etc. Before long there were more than
a dozen school of Buddhist philosophy.


> I was reading Sankaracharya lat night (a work of his called Direct
> Realization).  And his description of advaita is described in terms of
> experience.

   > I agree with you, dvaita and visishtadvaita can be apprehended by every
day
> experience.
> Advaita also is apprehdended by experience, but a different kind of
> experience that is based upon knowledge and realization of the Reality of
> the Phenomenal World and of Ultimate Reality.
>
> Thanks and I look forward to your comments.
> Steph
>  It was the armchair philosopher that prompted the comment 'Metaphysics is
about giving bad reasons for what you believe on instinct.' Just as dualism
and qualified non-dualism can be trivially observed in everyday life so can
Advaita. Consider a man who becomes so angry that he forgets himself totally
in his rage. It is a statement of complete absorbtion of nonduality with the
emotion. Nanda's arguments are puerile. dvaita and viSishtadvaita are based
as much on scriptural testimoney as advaita.
                      Hemant

>
> On 5/22/02 3:10 AM, "nanda chandran" <vpcnk at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> >> I saw advaita in the Gita as much as dvaita or visistadvaita.
> >
> > Think about this : we see dualism (dvaita) everywhere. Even qualified
> > non-dualism (visishtadvaita) can be apprehended by experience - as it is
> > qualities that we perceive in objects. It is only advaita (non-dualism)
> > which is not experienced in the phenomenal world. For the first two you
do
> > not really need the scriptures as they are open to normal experience. It
is
> > only the third which is totally divorced from all experience which
really
> > needs a scriptural testimony.
> >
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