--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Richard J. Williams" <richard@...> wrote: > > > > emptybill: > > It gives an accurate account of Shankara's central > > teaching points and demonstrates the divergence > > between Shankara's original advaita and the yogic > > advaita that appeared after the fourteenth century. > > > Advaita Vedanta is just a restatement of Vajrayana > Buddhism, the 'Consciousness Only' school. Almost > all the Upaanishads were composed after the Shakya's > passing.
Where I am coming from, where I just spend the last 3 month, buses have sign-boards saying: Nagarjuna, there is a popular cement brand called Nagarjuna as well, I used to have philosophical discussions with my friend, walking on the street, when a bus, having a huge sign 'Nagarjuna' was just passing by. I think people there don't know much about him, as there are hardly any Buddhists in the population, but about 400 kms north there is this place 'Nagarjunakonda' where Nagarjuna spent most of his life in the forests. > According to the consciousness only school, 'chit' > is thought, 'citta' is conciousness - 'citta > vriti' means the turning of thought in the mind. > > ''Nirodha' is cessation - the turnings have stopped, > ceased, come to a halt, stilled, blown out, made > peaceful, 'nirvana'. > > According to Patanjali, Yoga is concerned with > *isolation*, 'kaivalya', from the prakriti; the > cessation of the fluctuations of the mindstuff; the > attainment of freedom. > > The problem is, you can't have freewill and be under > the power of another; that would be a contradiction > in terms, would it not? We are either free or we > are not; if free, then there is no need for yoga > practice. > > If we are not free, then by what means are we to > free ourselves? It's that simple - there is either > other-power or self-power. > > The other power is termed 'maya' and the Transcendent > Power is termed 'Self-power'. > > The power of this world is maya, that is, the > illusion that we are separate from the Purusha. It's > like a veil, that when pulled, reveals the real. > All the Vedanta sampradayas accept maya in one form > or another. > > It's a state of mind, where the individual 'wakes up' > to reality - comes alive to his own inner bodhi > nature. However, there is a trick: maya is not real, > yet not unreal, nor both nor neither! > > According Chaitanya, the exact way that maya produces > the world, yet at the same time, remains one in the > Purusha, 'adwaita', is really indescribable. > > Patanjali says: > > Otherwise you identify with the turning of thoughts - > "vritti sarupyam itaratra" (YS I.1.4). > > Otherwise, you identify with the thoughts, get > overwhelmed by them, and before you know it, you are > thinking, 'this is my body, this is my self', and > forgetting that you are in reality the Transcendental > Person - the Purusha looking over your self. >
