[Advaita-l] Fwd: {भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्} Aum in Buddhism

[V Subrahmanian]

Thank you very much Venkat ji for these references.  Regarding the
'similarities' that are quite natural across various systems/philosophies,
I recall late MM Polagam Rama Sastry listing some 40 + similarities across
Advaita, Vishistadvaita.....

regards
subbu

On Wed, Apr 29, 2020 at 1:39 PM Venkatraghavan S <agnimile at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Subbuji,
>
> The quote below from a message posted 2 years ago in BVP. Some of the
> commentary around the quote may not be pertinent to the current discussion,
> but is being included here for the sake of completeness.
>
> #quote#
> An interesting counterpoint can be found in the work mAdhyamakahridaya by
> Bhavya, a sixth century mAdhyamaka buddhist. Prof VV Gokhale in a paper
> titled "The Vedanta-Philosophy described by Bhavya in his Madhyamakahrdaya"
> (Indo-Iranian Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, 1958) presents a description of
> Vedanta (pre-Sankaran) that was available during Bhavya's time. He also
> refers to a situation where the mahAyAna school is criticised as being
> similar to vedAnta. In reply, Bhavya generously says that whatever is good
> in the upaniShads has also been taught by the Buddha.
>
> In one of the chapters of the Madhyamakahridaya dealing with the hInayAna
> objections to mahAyAna, the hInayAna-buddhist criticises the mahAyAna
> buddhist saying;
> न बुद्धोक्तिर्महायानं सूत्रान्तादावसंग्रहात् |
> मार्गान्तरोपदेषात् वा यथा वेदान्तदर्शनम् ||
> The mAhAyAna teaching was not spoken of by the Buddha, either because it
> is not included in the sUtrAntas, or because like the vedAnta darshana, it
> teaches heretic paths to salvation.
>
> To this attack, the mahAyAnist replies
> वेदान्ते च हि यत् सूक्तम् तत् सर्वं बुद्धभाषितम् |
> दृष्टान्तन्यूनता तस्मात् संदिग्धं वा परीक्ष्यताम् ||
> Whatever is well said in the vedAnta (upaniShads) has been taught by the
> Buddha. The various examples cited by the hInayAna are faulty and what is
> doubtful must be examined.
>
> Here is an example of pre-Sankaran Buddhist work where the opponent
> criticises the mahAyAna school as being similar to vedAnta! The reply of
> the mahAyAna buddhist is even more remarkable - there is a concession that
> the best elements of the upaniShads have been taught by the Buddha himself.
>
> To argue that advaita borrowed from Buddhism, or Buddhism borrowed from
> advaita is missing the larger point - the two schools are similar in many
> respects, but different too. Similarity does not imply that one created and
> the other borrowed, nor does difference imply the absolute absence of
> common ground.
> #end of quote#
>
> Regards,
> Venkatraghavan
>
> On Wed, 29 Apr 2020, 08:59 V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l, <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, Apr 29, 2020 at 1:02 PM Jaldhar H. Vyas via Advaita-l <
>> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>>
>> > On Mon, 27 Apr 2020, V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l wrote:
>> >
>> > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------
>> > > From: Krishna Kashyap <kkashyap2011 at gmail.com>
>> > >
>> > > My Buddhist friend Dhammaputta wrote to me regarding this:
>> > > Prof. Deshpande is right.
>> > > There is no reference to  "Om"  in  Pali  Buddhism.
>> > >
>> > > Mahayana  Sutras  &  Vajrayana  Tantras,  yes  indeed
>> > > Theravada  says  Mahayana  is  Hinduism  in  the  guise  of  Buddhism
>> > > The irony is  that  non-Advaita  Hindus  say  Advaita  is  Mahayana
>> > > Buddhism  in  the  guise  of  Hinduism
>> > >
>> >
>> > Some time back on this list we discussed the Buddhist scholar Bhavya,
>> who
>> > is one of the earliest writers of any school to mention Vedanta.  While
>> > the bulk of his works refute "heretic" (from his point of view)
>> darshanas,
>> > one part defends his brand of Mahayana from other Buddhists.  One of
>> their
>> > criticisms he says is that Mahayana is "prachanna Vedanta"!
>> >
>>
>> This is interesting Jaldhar ji, if you could give the reference for such a
>> saying by him.
>>
>> regards
>>
>>
>> >
>> > --
>> > Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
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