Nature of Consciousness

[Parisi & Watson]

-----Original Message-----
From: Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <ramakris at EROLS.COM>
To: ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG
<ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
Date: Saturday, July 24, 1999 11:31 AM
Subject: Re: Nature of Consciousness

>> Or it could be that, like any human enterprise, Vedanta includes
>some
>
>VedAnta is not "human enterprise" but inteprtetation of unauthored
>texts. No author = no flaw in the texts. The flaw can lie only in
>interpretation.


And you know this how?

>> profound truth without necessarily encompassing all of it, and
>perhaps some
>> areas that are fuzzy or slightly questionable. I call it a human
>enterprise
>> because I can't imagine any adequate justification for viewing it as
>
>Sorry for being blunt again, but then it is best to forsake advaita
>vedAnta.


I think you are right.

>> "unauthored," any more than I believe the Angel Gabriel dictated the
>Koran
>> to Muhammad, or that God personally wrote the Gospels. To believe
>these
>> things is your choice, but you might have more in common with some
>religious
>> teachers in the US than you realize.
>
>Not to sound rude, but why would I care whether my views have some
>commonality with some religious teachers in the US? Vedantins are not
>interested in examining partial commonalties with other schools. I am
>sure many religious teachers in the US also breathe air and eat food,
>that doesn't bother me :-).


The point was that there are similarities in terms of claiming a monopoly on
truth. I'm sure you've heard Christians make flat, unqualified statements to
the effect that no one can possibly find God except through Jesus, that
Christianity is not a religion because religions are founded by men and
Christianity was founded by God, that God personally wrote every word of the
Bible through human agents, and so on? I think it's all rather sad, and I
don't believe I want to associate myself with any of it.

Robert.