[Buddha-l] (no subject)

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your most flattering suggestion.

>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 would seem impossible indeed. My idea was that when I read e.g. Buddhist or Jain dohakosas (especially Yogindu) or a text like the Avadhuta Gita, it is easy to forget the context and one is only reminded of it by its ID-terminology or terminologic DNA. For me they all trying to establish one into, point one to or to bring one into contact with the absolute. The absolute may be defined and called differently, but the path leading there (basically surrender and non differentiation) is remarkably similar. The first time I stumbled on the Samkhya karika (on the Internet) I thought I was reading a Buddhist text, until I was woken up by its terminologic ADN. 

>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. 

Yes, my altruistic motivation to search for origins and influences was to balance the information in Buddhist hagiographies and Buddhist "history" and attenuate the certainties that some more triumphalistically inclined Buddhists (I have been one myself) seem to have about the origins.  
 
>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.  

Yes! Do you know about any research about the origin of images and metaphors in Indian culture (I haven't recovered of the virus completely yet)? It strikes me when reading various materials that some metaphors are found back in various traditions. Of course some metaphors are quite obvious and therefore universal, but others are more original and far-fetched. And if those are found in different traditions, then there may be question of one influencing the other. In a more sectarian approach, people may be very scrupulous about not adopting a specific marked terminology but they are less weary of some images and metaphors and the tradition ID they may carry and adopt them as a Troyan horse.

Joy