Advaita and Zen?

[Spiritualseeker]

Namaste,

From my readings of Advaita and listening to Mooji and reading of Zen and Dzogchen literature, it seems that it is all the same. Its pointing to the same thing. Different terms are used such as Self and No-Self, yet I see that it is pointing to the same Essence of who we are beyond the concept of Essence. Any thoughts or insights on these teachings pointing to the same 'thing'?

[sm78]

Namaste,

From my readings of Advaita and listening to Mooji and reading of Zen and Dzogchen literature, it seems that it is all the same. Its pointing to the same thing. Different terms are used such as Self and No-Self, yet I see that it is pointing to the same Essence of who we are beyond the concept of Essence. Any thoughts or insights on these teachings pointing to the same 'thing'?

I believe you are correct that they are same or at least similar in essence. I am not that into either advaita or zen or mahamudra type direct paths, but I think even the tantric vehicles in both religions are quite similar in essence.

But sadly, I think buddhist are aware and weary of this similarity. They do not like the idea of their grand doctrines to be sucked into the sanatana dharma, and by far much time and pages of literature has been spent on rebutting or showing lower nature of hindu realizations, but in a manner which has little convincing power for a curious open minded seeker. Only way to deny the similarity in essence of monistic hindu thought and buddhism is to be a dogmatic buddhist....and hence all these insistance on taking refuge, dogmatize your thought process before any real secrets of buddhist sadhana is shared - and it defeats the purpose of the sadhana, imho.

[Spiritualseeker]

Namaste,

I agree with you that there seems to be a lot of negative feed back from the Buddhist side about Advaita and Sanatana Dharma in general. It seeks to deny the ultimate goal. Through reading some of the works I now begin to understand Atanu's discussion with the Buddhist gentleman that was on the forum a while back. The Atanu was showing that the ultimate goal of Sanatana Dharma was the same as the Buddhist view. There was talk on No-Self vs the Self, but it all seemed to be pointing to the same thing with different words.

The wisdom of Sanatana Dharma is so deep if only more knew about it.

[sunyata07]

Namaste SS,

I've also seen some similarities in Advaita and Buddhist teachings. There are different points of view, certainly, but there are echoes of each other, there is no doubt. I think at this stage, it's a case of finding the path that you know you can commit to focusing your mind on understanding, and giving it your all from there. If all these are really the same, why worry about the others? We will all arrive at the same goal in good time.

The wisdom of Sanatana Dharma is so deep if only more knew about it.

That is the power of the truth offered in Sanatana Dharma. It is eternal. They will know of it, and eventually know it, someday. Besides, it is promising to think if many modern day peoples around the world think so highly of Buddhism, what will they have to say about its predecessor? How else to explain you're being here and appreciating the immensity of the knowledge within SD?

Om namah Shivaya

[Spiritualseeker]

Namaste,

Well said Sunyata. I was surfing through youtube videos and came across a video of 'refutation' of Advaita. This was by a very zealous hare krishna follower. He wanted to accuse Advaita of being atheistic. He sought to refute the impersonal view of God. I do think that this is arrogance to claim to refute Advaita and also Shankaracharya. What I realize is using the Upanishads you can see the essence of Advaita. It is beyond anything that you can see, touch, taste, or hear. It is beyond all of this. Even if we see many glorious images of Lord Shiva, Lord Ganesha, and other great beings, it is still not the ultimate. yes these may be grosser forms of that reality, but I feel the true Shiva can be found only beyond all this. Now contemplating this it made me feel that this again is similar to Zen. In Zen Buddhism there is a view that if a Zen master were to see Amitabha Buddha on his death bed, to reject this also as illusion. This is not a denial of Amitabha or Shiva, Ganesha, and other great beings. It is just not getting caught up in name and form. This I find very praiseworthy.

Enough rambling now, Coffee time!

Om Namah Shivaya