[Buddha-l] (no subject)

[mc1 at aol.com]

Dear Joy,

    What a lovely response. Unless you object, I'll read it to my class ... with some
exceptions...

Every text indeed deserves its own appreciation without prejudice
or bias but I'm not sure every text is entitled to its own svabhava without regard to context.
That might not be your exact meaning but it is my motivation - what informed the Buddha's early on?
Didn't Siddhartha conquer one of Mara's onslaughts with the aid of Indra's Vedic crew? He had help and 
it helps me to structure teaching with reference to contexts.

That said, I too have learned to be indifferent to influences on a particular text or school of thought but only
as far as my personal spirituality is concerned. I know more about Samkhya and Vedanta than Buddhism,
and do not worry over being called a "pseudo-Buddhist" despite Gaudapada whirling a fire-brand just like 
a Sunyavadin. 

thanks for the 'not answer' - michael

Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:22:50 +0200
From: "Joy Vriens"<jvriens at free.fr>
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] samkhya, vedanta and buddhism
To: "buddha-l"<buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
Message-ID: <DreamMail__152250_28161222164 at smtp.free.fr>
Content-Type: text/plain;?? charset="ISO-8859-1"

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

?

Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:22:50 +0200


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