[Advaita-l] athma is mere function of the brain [was: concept of soul]

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

Sorry. some late replies to this thread.

On Tue, 16 Oct 2007, latha vidyaranya wrote:

>
> "Jaldhar H. Vyas" <jaldhar at braincells.com> wrote:
>
> Why does it matter? A rock or piece of metal is as much Brahman as you 
> or I except it lacks consciousness so it cannot know this.
>
>  to say that it lacks consciousness may not be correct. i think it is
>  the limited perception of our human sensory apparatus that does not
>  perceive consciousness in inanimate objects and not that they do not
>  have consciousness.
>

You are right, I should have stated that differently.  Perhaps we can say 
it has chitta but not chaitanya?  Well, in any case I don't think we will 
see many rocks applying to join the list :-)

On Wed, 17 Oct 2007, Porutiu Daniela - SATYA wrote:

> Everything is Brahman indeed there is nothing else except Him, but if
> you really know the nature of Brahman for sure you will not say that
> Brahman could be a rock, or a piece of metal, or other things around.You
> will cease for the importance of things around you, because you will see
> Brahman everywhere. Instead of a rock or a piece of metal or a man you
> will see HIM, Brahman as pure consciousness, the world is apparent,
> never existed, taken in consideration the final truth. The only One that
> exists is the Truth. For the sake of language as a matter of explanation
> we can say the world is Brahman, and because Brahman is seen as
> fullness, Purna BUT the nature of Brahman Itself excludes the world .

You are also right.  But it has been observed many times in the past on 
this list that advaita is not "one" but "not two"  That's an important 
distinction because "two" is the natural viewpoint for the human species 
and to get from understanding "two" to understanding "not two" is the goal 
of sadhana.  Identification of Brahman with an ever-widening set of 
objects is a quite valid means to that end.  The danger for the sadhaka 
would be to consider a piece of metal or a rock (or even God or "the 
self") to EXCLUSIVELY be Brahman.  The only way to permanently ensure this 
mistake is not made is sannyasa --  withdrawal from the objects of the world.

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