[TEMPLEUNIVERSAL] I APPRECIATE YOUR TAKING A STRO
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From: Yahoo D.
Date: Sunday, January 14, 2007, 10:50 AM
Subject: [templeuniversal] I appreciate your taking a stro
ID: 255499

My apologies Joanne. I'll have to wax on a little here just to vent some of my own positions. Ahh, democracy! I can agree with some of what you say Michael. This Vedanta business has to be the philosophical material of the world. It can't and shouldn't be the property of monasticism. Swamiji pointed out again and again that too strong an emphasis on monasticism within a powerful movement tends to denegrate and weaken the society within which it functions. The excessive expectation of monasticism imposed on the general population, rather then helping the population, makes it feel it's ill equipped and weak. In the long run it weakens the people. From whatever station, people should be able to feel strong and grow from where they stand. There's no doubt about it. And just because one is a monk, doesn't suggest that, said monk, is in a higher state of consciousness. This process if very subjective. On the other hand, and please don't take this personally, but I can't agree on how you compare Zen with the Vedanta. Zen, though powerful and very inspiring,is a distinct part of Buddhism in general, and in may ways is caught up in culture, history and personalities. What then is so special about Vedanta? Now, I'm not talking about Hindu Vedanta, or the Vedanta as it's taught in India. I'm talking about the model Swami Vivekananda gave to the world at large. As Vivekananda points out again and again, all religions are caught up in history, culture and personalities. He includes Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. How is the Vedanta taught by Vivekananda to the world different? The Vedanta is all about principles, process and practices and nothing more, nothing more. Why keep superimposing Hinduism on it, which is what everyone seems to be doing? Just keep it to what Swami Vivekananda developed in the West. As I mentioned earlier, the word is composed of two parts, "veda" and "anta." And it simply means "end knowing." What's end knowing? It's found in Zen, Christianity, Islam, etc., etc., etc. The point being, this Vedanta holds no historical agendas. It just talks about how consciousness opens up under the drive of Pure Awareness. This "opening up process" is found in all meditational, devotional, rational and active systems in our world of religions. What are the principles in the Vedanta: Awareness, Ignorance, Evolution, Dissipation of ignorange, etc. But these are principles that are not confined to any culture or peoples or personalities. They function worldwide. As to processes, the Vedanta talks of evolution, the uncovering of ignorance, the movement of consciousness, etc. These are process found in all traditions. And the practices found in the Vedanta deal with the human areas of devotion, action, reason and meditation. These are very general ideas and are again found in all religions. Now, just show me how Zen or any other religion has this enormous power of inclusion? No doubt, Zen or whatever, is awesome, but to compare it to the extensive breadth of the Vedanta is..... As for a whole new scientific approach to life, science being the new God. Please show us how this is to be done? If you say that we need a schooling of 5 to 10 years of science before we can begin to grasp your new system, isn't that yet another form of one-upmanship? Doesn't this approach degrade the man or woman on the street? Until you can show how this unfolding of consciousness through evolution is false, then how is anyone going to embrace these new ideas? Just to say this new system is true doesn't make it true. And if you say that the popular opinions on evoltuions, etc. are "subjective," well isn't yours subjective as well until it's really proven to be true by the collective? Where do we draw the lines. Brahmavid