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From: johnw@farside.eng.ready.com (John Wheeler)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Buddhism/Vedanta
Message-ID: <1991May6.224535.17397@nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 6 May 91 22:45:35 GMT
Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov
Organization: Ready Systems
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Approved: prabhu@amelia.nas.nasa.gov


I tried to post an article in response to the previous postings on Madhyamika
philosophy, etc. Apparently it got lost in transmission. In the article
I offered the opinion that in the final analysis Vedanta and Buddhism are
very similar, if not identical, philosophies. 

There are several reasons for my believing this.

1) In both philosophies the source of suffering is shown to be the
   concept of a separately existing ego or self.

2) They both show that nothing in the objectively perceivable universe
   of experience contains anything that can be called "I".

3) The practical application of the teaching involves the relinquishment
   of ego-based conceptual thinking (this has nothing to do with the
   "unfiltered" awareness mentioned in a previous posting, which is
   a common misinterpretation of Buddhist meditation).

4) The idea that the Self is the Absolute or Brahmin as postulated by
   Vedantins is not only echoed in Mahayana Buddhism, it is the
   basic tenet of the teaching. For example, in the Ch'an school of
   Buddhism, which flourished for several centuries during the T'ang
   dynasty, the cardinal teaching was "Your Mind (Heart) is the Buddha."
   It is not unreasonable to assume the following two statements are
   the same: 

   Self = Brahman  

   Mind = Buddha

   Which boils down to the idea that your true nature and the ulitmate
   reality are the same, i.e. not-two.

5) Since masters of both schools have clearly demonstrated in their lives
   a complete transcendence of the cause suffering, i.e. they have attained
   the identical state, their philosophies are most likely talking about
   the same thing. This implies that Nirvana and Self-realization are
   synonomous terms.

6) Based on my experience, that application of either of these teachings
   leads to the same meditative experience. (Anyone have any of their own
   experiences to confirm/deny this?)

6) Several enlightened sages of this century who have had aquaintance with
   these schools have supported the view that they are essentially the same.