[Buddha-l] samkhya, vedanta and buddhism

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Michael,

>MIght any esteemed members refer me to a text or article that discusses the   
>influence of Samkhya and\or the Upanishads on early buddhism?

This will be absolutely no help to you at all and is hardly related to your question but I would be interested too in such references and in what they will have to say. On what basis they say what they say and whether there will be any truth in what they say. Just to see them wriggle. 

After years of struggle to try and find out in my rare spare time who influenced whom, I have decided to put them all in the same bag (sounds a bit derogatory, but mine is a golden embroidered bag that I treat with respect). I am learning to read those texts for what they are. I have decided it is too complicated to read e.g. a Jain text as a Buddhist. Why should I read a text *as* a Buddhist? Why would I introduce any Buddhism between me and what I read? Am I married to it? Am I its keeper? Do I want to be a nuance hunter? I am not paid to be a guardian of the Buddhism temple, carefully carved out of the rock of (Indian) cults, philosophy, religion. I haven't been charged nor do I feel called to restaure its delimitations as soon as some of them become blurred. So when I read the Samkhya Karika, Upanishads, Yogindu, the Lankavatara etc. I forget on what territory I am, skip all the "Yes but" and I enjoy what I read. From now on when I read (preferrably territory free texts)!
 , I will do so without the filter of any -isms, imagining they are all talking about the same thing. Thus I hope to enter circular logic. There is no happiness outside circular logic.

Quietistically yours,

Joy