[Buddha-l] On positive Nirvana here and now (LVP)

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Richard,

I know La Vallee Poussin's views on nirvana very well. But how are
> they relevant to the discussion of Nietzsche? Or was LVP brought up in
> that context? I see LVP's views as having no bearing at all on
> Nietzsche or, for that matter, the Unconditioned. But that's fine. If
> you see a connection and find the connection useful in some way, I'm
> content.
>
>
It has been written in this discussion that Schopenhauer and Nietzsche had a
wrong understanding of Buddhism, based on the works of the Indianists of
their days. I mentioned Roger-Pol Droit's The Cult of Nothingness in my
answer to Herman. This has been the Western bias ever since the first books
on Buddhism had been published. Things had got better but didn't seem that
much different at LVP's time, who had to struggle against the view that
early Buddhism had a negative interpretation of Nirvana, AKA the deathless
or the Unconditioned. It has also been written on this list that SB seems (I
haven't read his last book that's under discussion) to have done away with
"the notion of the 'Unconditioned' as a possible escape from conditioned
existence". I am surprised you don't see the connection?

Based on what I have read here, it seems to me that the cult of nothingness
somehow continues, because there is still a cult (Buddhism) but with not
much left except (pleasant) existentialism. French universities are full of
it (actually Heidegger rather than existentialism). Again, I haven't read
SB's last book and now I will have to... :-)

Joy