[Advaita-l] Re: Buddhism Related Discussions

[Lakshminarayana]

Namaste ShrI Jaldhar,
 

> In 3.18.11 He 
> refers to his new Daitya followers as Arhats (a term
> for Jain saints.)

The term arhat is also extensively used by buddhists
to refer to buddha or to his enlightened disciples. 

Is arhat used in jainism for any jain sage or only for
mahAvIra and other tirthankaras? (I dont know the
answer). If it is the latter, then the arhat in VP is
more likely to refer to buddhists than to jains.


> For Nagarjuna shunyata is the ultimate.  For
> Advaitins, there is 
> something beyond mithya--Brahman.


I wonder what you mean by "ultimate" here but you are
right in that Nagarjuna has no brahman-counterpart.
Still for him, shUnyata is also shUnya. So emptiness
is NOT really something "ultimate" like brahman.
 

> In fact in this regard the Buddhist view is even
> more extreme than the 
> Charvakas who were atleast willing to admit atma =
> bodily self.  But the 
> Buddhists think concepts such as self and
> consciousness are momentary 
> (kshanika) This is why the karika refers to their
> view as "it does not 
> exist, it does not exist"


All buddhists are not kshaNika-vAdins. I dont remember
buddha himself mentioning kshaNika-vAda anyhwhere.
(Please correct me if I am wrong here). AFAIK, it is
only vijnAnavAdin-s who are kshaNika-vAdins. 

Further - Which karika are you talking about here?
Whether it is Nagarjuna's karika or gauDapAda's
karika, I would be interested in knowing the context
of your quotation and especially the verse. I dont
remember Nagarjuna mentioning kshaNika-vAda anywhere
nor do I remember gauDapAda calling all buddhists as
kshaNika-vAdins. I wouldn't consider the
non-kshaNika-vAdins to be more extremist than chArvAkas.

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