Hi Marsha, Which translation of the Isopanishad are you reading? Mark
On Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 12:51 AM, MarshaV <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hinduism > > Advaita Vedanta > > Advaita is one of the six most-known Hindu philosophical systems, and > literally means "non-duality". Its first great consolidator was Adi > Shankaracharya, who continued the work of some of the Upanishadic teachers, > and that of his teacher's teacher Gaudapada. By analyzing the three states of > experience—waking, dreaming, and deep sleep—he established the singular > reality of Brahman, in which Brahman, the universe and Atman, the self are > one and the same. > > In the Hindu model, Brahman, the god identified with the ultimate > all-inclusive reality, plays a game of hide and seek with itself. In this > game, called Lila, Brahman plays with individual people, birds, rocks, and > other features of the world both separately and together, while forgetting > that the game is being played. At the end of each session, Brahman is said to > wake up, cease the game, applaud itself, and resume the game all over again. > The state of wakefulness and enlightenment is knowing one is simply playing a > game; one is simply acting as a human being, having an illusion of being > locked within a physical body and separated from the whole of the cosmos. > > One who sees everything as nothing but the Self, and the Self in everything > one sees, such a seer withdraws from nothing. > For the enlightened, all that exists is nothing but the Self, so how could > any suffering or delusion continue for those who know this oneness? > > — Ishopanishad: sloka 6, 7 > > The philosophy of Vedanta, "Aham Brahmasmi" (roughly translated as "I am the > Absolute Truth"), could be interpreted as solipsism in one of its primitive > senses, as the world is but an illusion in the mind of the observer. However, > Advaita Vedanta can be understood to be non-solipsistic when it is recognised > that it does not actually deny the existence of a world 'external' to the > Self or Atman. Rather, it is asserting that the consciousness and awareness > of the individual pervades all of that person's experience, to such an extent > that absolute notions of 'inside' and 'outside' are arbitrary. The universe > is the same as the self, as the universe can only be experienced through the > self and the self is submerged within the universe as an integrated part. > > However, Advaita is strongly divergent from solipsism in that the former is a > system of exploration of one's mind in order to finally understand the nature > of the self and attain complete knowledge. The unity of existence is said to > be directly experienced and understood at the end as a part of complete > knowledge. On the other hand solipsism posits the non-existence of the > external void right at the beginning, and says that no further inquiry is > possible. > > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism > > > > ___ > > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
