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Comparative Philosophy and Inner Science

46:27 recording · EN · 6 speakers

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Brief overview

Comparative philosophy is inner science: Advaita and Madhyamaka point at the same no-thing beyond concepts.

  1. Study these traditions to overcome suffering, not as curiositySwamiji names the project as overcoming suffering and attaining fulfillment; Thurman calls these texts core curriculum material, not an exotic frill.
  2. Know the differences clearly before synthesisingJay Garfield told Swamiji to keep his Advaita outside the door of the Madhyamaka class, and both panellists call arguing about interpretations scientific, not divisive.
  3. Brahman and shunyata both mean no-thing, not nothingSwamiji's straight answer is yes, the same thing: Brahman misread as something and shunyata misread as nothingness are the twin errors.
Executive Summary AI
  • Moderating a panel with Swamiji and Professor Robert Thurman, the host relays Greg Good's question: why should a layperson study Advaita Vedanta, Tibetan Buddhism or Madhyamaka, and what impact does it have on daily life?0:40
  • Swamiji answers with the prayojana, the purpose: the project is overcoming suffering and the attainment of fulfillment, and he later cites Dara Shukoh, who had the Upanishads translated into Persian and found in them a flood of light illuminating dark areas of his own faith.1:35
  • Thurman answers personally, that he dropped out of Harvard at 20 or 21 and went to India for four or five years to find a teacher and become a yogi, then became a professor to keep at it, because Sanskrit and Tibetan grammar and Indian logic showed him a culture doing inner science rather than exotic curiosity.4:12
  • Both insist the differences matter before any synthesis: Swamiji quotes the old English saying what does he know of England who knows only England, and recalls Jay Garfield telling him to keep his Advaita outside the door of a Madhyamaka class, while Thurman attacks simplistic labelling such as Madhva equating Shunyavada with Lokayata, and the materialist reading of shunyata as nothingness.15:33
  • Asked whether Brahman and shunyata name the same thing, Swamiji gives a straight yes, warning that Brahman is misunderstood as something and shunyata as nothing when both mean no-thing, while Thurman retells the Pali Kevada Sutta in which Brahma admits he did not create the world and is not omnipotent, and argues the Buddhists are not atheists.34:57
Key Quote
“The project is overcoming suffering.”
— Swamiji1:35
Key Quote
“But anyway, I dropped out of Harvard and went to India to find a teacher to become a yogi because I was tired of being told that I couldn't understand the world.”
— Robert Thurman4:28
Key Quote
“and I read Vedanta and I read Ghalib and there's a point when I can't see one from the other.”
— Subhanu11:57