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Advaita, which my orthodox Brahmin family believes and practices, proclaims the supremacy and totality of the self. Buddhism which was dominant among the elit
by jimsimmons 3y ago
Advaita, which my orthodox Brahmin family believes and practices, proclaims the supremacy and totality of the self.
Buddhism which was dominant among the elites and aristocrats by 8th century was largely displaced out of India via scholarly debates.
This idea that east doesn’t believe in self is hokum
- sctb 3y agoSince you mention Advaita, some might find this talk by Swami Sarvapriyananda on "Vedantic Self and Buddhist Non-Self" interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAZPWu084m4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAZPWu084m4.
- atlantic 3y agoThe conventional academic opinion is that Buddhism was wiped out in India by the Muslim invasions in the 8th century, not by scholarly debate.
- jimsimmons 3y agoMuslims didn’t come till 11th century
- atlantic 3y agoInteresting. Wikipedia says Muslim invasions started in 712 AD, "with increasing frequency". I guess they got it wrong.
- jimsimmons 3y agoThey didn’t establish a kingdom. And they didn’t affect most of India.
- atlantic 3y agoIf your contention is that buddhism was wiped out of India by academic debates with Hindus, it's not borne out by the facts. Certainly, the shift in royal patronage from Buddhism to Hinduism was also a factor, not only the Muslim invasions. But philosophical debate was not the root cause - nothing is ever resolved in philosophy anyway, and if it were, that would hardly impact lay practitioners.
- rramadass 3y agoThe English word "Self" used in Advaita translations (and all Hindu philosophies and their derivatives like Buddhism) and Western Philosophy mean very different things. In Western Philosophy they are synonymous with "Self-Identity/Ego" etc. In Hindu philosophy, the basic idea of "Self" comes from the "Samkhya System" (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya) which is what is followed by/built upon by other schools of Hindu Philosophy. In this model, "Self" aka "Purusha" is immutable and untainted/undifferentiated pure Consciousness. In Advaita it is known as "Atman". It is "Prakriti", the other aspect of reality which is mutable, that gives rise to "Buddhi"(Intelligence), "Ahamkara"(Self-Identity/Ego) and "Manas"(Mind). You can see now how confusion arises when people use the same English word "Self" to describe different things in different contexts.