[Advaita-l] Ramana's method

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Namaste,

About one thousand years after Sakyamuni Buddha, there was Buddhahosha, who is considered the second Buddha by many. In fact most of the Sri Lankna think of Buddhaghosha as the only Budddha because according to them Buddha visited Sri Lanka twice and it was Buddhaghosha, who visited Sri Lanka twice, whereas the Sakyamuni Buddha never visited Sri Lanka. Buddhaghosha wrote extensively on the Hinayana Buddhism, i.e,. the early teachings of Sakyamnui Buddha. Buddhaghosha, at the end of his study of Buddhism (the Hinayana Buddhism) expressed the hope that he will have to take another birth to have Maitreya Buddha (the theosophists think of Adi Sankara as the Maitreya Buddha) as his guru in order to attain Liberation.


What I mean to say that Buddhist scholars  like Buddhaghosha probably knew that Lord Buddha's Hinayana teachings were not for the ultimate liberation but to prepare them for a later birth to attain the liberation through advanced teachings.


Regards,
Sunil KB




________________________________
 From: Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com>
To: Advaita List <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 11:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Ramana's method
 

> 
> Thanks for all the insights. It will take some time to study them carefully, but in the meantime I have a doubt related to this. This has been gnawing at me for a long time. 
> 
> In dualistic traditions, god vision is the objective, and even in Buddhism the seeker looks out for jhanas and such experiences. So my question is, Must something extraordinary happen in an advaitin's life to confirm that his advaitic realization is genuine, perhaps the advaitin equivalent of a jhana? If an advaitin has no such experience all his life (only theoretical understanding), does that mean his knowledge will not liberate him at death, and that he will have to take birth again?
> 

The jhanas that some Buddhist traditions talk about are comparable to siddhis attained by
yogis and tAntrikas through various sAdhana-s. Even the most fantastic of these siddhis that
are described in the corresponding literature is not considered moksha in advaita vedAnta. 

There is a reason why it is called prAptasya prApti in advaita. It is an experience that is not
really an experience in space and time. The only experience that needs to happen is one
where there is no more separate experiencer and there is no object that is to be experienced
either. Pretty extraordinary, wouldn't you say?!

Regards,
Vidyasankar

ps. By all means, read books on your own, but do not enter into vedAnta sAdhana without 
the guidance of a guru. Take your time accepting someone as your personal guru.                            
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