[Advaita-l] Fwd: [advaitin] The Concept of Atman and Anatman in Hinduism

[V Subrahmanian]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Venkatraghavan S <agnimile at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Oct 6, 2021 at 1:44 PM
Subject: Re: [advaitin] The Concept of Atman and Anatman in Hinduism
To: Advaitin <advaitin at googlegroups.com>


Indeed. There are two sub categories in Mahayana Buddhism - vijnAnavAda and
mAdhyamika.

vijnAnavAda holds that the Atma takes on the form of every external object
outside - ie there is no object corresponding to its cognition. Further,
they hold that it is the cognition itself is the self. That is, the self
being self-effulgent, appears as the object and cognises itself as an
external object. As cognition is momentary, they hold the self to be
momentary, hence kshaNika vijnAnavAda / sAkAravAda.

mAdhyamika buddhism does not accord even a momentary existence to anything.
Rather they hold that everything - whether the subject Atma or the object
anAtma - is shUnya, which is a technical term, not meaning zero / nothing -
rather it means that which cannot be classified as existing, non-existing,
both or neither. When faced with the objection that as everything boils
down to shUnya according to them, shUnya must exist, they counter -
everything, including shUnya itself is shUnya.

advaita on the other hand, holds that all that exists, is the self - which
is permanent, unchanging, self-effulgent, all pervading and beyond the
limitations of time, space and objects. The world with its multifarious
objects is an appearance, an adhyAsa, on the self, so that the properties
of the anAtma appear in the Atma and vice versa. Consequently, the self,
whose nature is existence, appears to be present in the anAtma - leading to
a misguided notion that the world exists. And the finitude of the anAtma
incorrectly appears in the self, leading to one's notion of one's own
limitation and the concomitant fear, sorrow and delusion that follow.
Freedom from this illusory bondage is through the clear discrimination
between the self and the non self, the resolution of the non self as an
illusory appearance and the attendant resolution of any limitation of the
anAtma falsely attributed to the Atma.

Regards,
Venkatraghavan

On Wed, 6 Oct 2021, 07:45 V Subrahmanian, <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Wed, Oct 6, 2021 at 9:40 AM 'SREENATH N' via advaitin <
> advaitin at googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>> I read through the above posts.
>> Can any one summarize what's the core difference between Advaita and
>> Mahayana Buddhism.
>>
>
> A couple of years ago, there was a seminar on Buddhism, organised jointly
> by the Maha Bodhi Society and the Karnataka Sanskrit University, at the
> Institute of World Culture, B.P. Wadia Road, Basavanagudi, Bangalore.
> Speaking at the seminar, senior Madhva scholar  Dr. D. Prahladachar (who is
> now the head of the Vyasraja Matha) observed: "Both Buddhists and Advaitins
> admit the mithyatva of the world. The Advaitins say the substraturm of the
> world, which is but a superimposition, is Brahman as propounded by Vedanta.
> Buddhists do not admit any eternal substratum."
>
> Here is a file containing an essay by Sri SSS on the comparative study of
> Advaita and Buddhism.  Gaudapadacharya's Karika and Nagarjuna's work are
> the texts.  This is in English:
>
> https://adbhutam.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/advaita-and-buddhism-sss.pdf
>
>>
>> Regards
>>
> subbu
>
>>
>>
>>
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