06-12-2005, 04:34 PM
carl says: <!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->To reiterate: When Sankara spoke, he spoke against the Buddhist sunyavadis. He was trying to establish that our true Self is not the Mind (as the sunyavadis postulated), but rather that we are transcendental to body, mind and intellect. We are spirit-soul.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well, the ancient vedic sage Kapila's Samkhya system is the one that for the first time separated witnes Self (purusha) from mind, intellect and ego(mana-buddhi-ahamkara). Hindus and Budhists both accepted Sankhya's basics. In comparison Descartes with "I think therefore I am" would be considered even pre-Kapila in philosophical subtlety of analysis about the nature of Self.
Shunyavadis are actually much more subtle than that. Nagarjuna's analysis led to a philosophy that could tear apart any idea of absolute 'reality' for any categories. Shunyavadis not only could show that Mind is ultimately unreal, they didn't even stop at Atma. Atma or self is unreal too following their analysis. Nagarjuna's madhyamaka-shastam in Sanskrita as recovered from Tibetan texts has been published by Motilal Banarssidass. A concize intro to shunyavada has been published as a set of lectures by Bodhidharma (who went to China and started the Dhyana or Cha'an school of meditation which in Japan became Zen),translated from chinese as "The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma" by Red Pine.
Well, the ancient vedic sage Kapila's Samkhya system is the one that for the first time separated witnes Self (purusha) from mind, intellect and ego(mana-buddhi-ahamkara). Hindus and Budhists both accepted Sankhya's basics. In comparison Descartes with "I think therefore I am" would be considered even pre-Kapila in philosophical subtlety of analysis about the nature of Self.
Shunyavadis are actually much more subtle than that. Nagarjuna's analysis led to a philosophy that could tear apart any idea of absolute 'reality' for any categories. Shunyavadis not only could show that Mind is ultimately unreal, they didn't even stop at Atma. Atma or self is unreal too following their analysis. Nagarjuna's madhyamaka-shastam in Sanskrita as recovered from Tibetan texts has been published by Motilal Banarssidass. A concize intro to shunyavada has been published as a set of lectures by Bodhidharma (who went to China and started the Dhyana or Cha'an school of meditation which in Japan became Zen),translated from chinese as "The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma" by Red Pine.