/lit/ - Literature

>>16350675
>Shankara is right in that he tries to show that Brahman is the ultimate reality
okay
>wrong in the way he argues his point
hmmm
>Firstly, he does not try and show the reality of Brahman through reason. Instead he appeals to authority.
False, his works make extensive arguments for Brahman being the ultimate reality and cause of everything, he uses classic theologian arguments like the teleological argument and various cosmological arguments, he also points out the contradictions in opposing theories like the naturalist Vaisheshika doctrine and in the Samkhya doctrine which denies an intelligent source of creation. Shankara just didn’t try to build an autism LEGO theology from the ground up based on nothing but speculation. Shankara as a Hindu accepted the doctrine of the revealed scriptures of the Upanishads as a sufficient reason for accepting that Brahman is the Absolute, and then defended that position and attacked contrary ones using logical arguments.
>Similarly, he does not provide a good explanation for the nature of Brahman
His works are like 5000 pages explaining the nature of Brahman extensively, this is simply not true
>It is said to be inactive and unchanging. These are qualities that make it difficult to prove as real.
Why should that make it difficult to prove as real? We can detect the sun shining ever though it doesn’t take action or change from its nature of shining, when we pick up a rock and examine it, that rock doesn’t take action or change into another rock.
>Thirdly, it makes the mistake of assuming that the ultimate reality must be a substance
Shankara explicitly denies the claim that Brahman is a substance, and he explains that this is refuted by the Upanishadic passages which refer to It as pure consciousness and which also negate It’s materiality by saying “without sinews, without body” and as “soundless, touchless, formless, imperishable, tasteless, odorless”
>fourthly, he does not expand the scope of his argument to appeal to anyone but those who believe in Brahman
This is not a flaw, the intended audience of Shankara’s writings are fellow Hindus who are already conversant with Hindu metaphysics, they are not aimed at the popular masses, nor at foreigners, nor at profane armchair scholars without any skin in the game
>Finally... Shankara does not take into account other traditions which demonstrate the truth of Brahman
If this means foreign religions, Shankara was not aware of any that taught of Brahman, so he can hardly be faulted for that

It reads like it was assembled from a random collage of internet forum and quora arguments written by people who did not understand Advaita that well. Advaita Vedanta is irrefutable, there is no amount of advancement in AI technology that will ever enable an AI to successfully refute Advaita.

>>15742698
>unparalleled
*blocks your path*

>>15096217

Śaṅkarācārya continued "In trying to posit this special category of 'beyond existence and non-existence' you are unsuccessfully trying to worm your way in-between the one side of eternally existing liberation *as bliss* which would falsify the thesis that Nirvana is empty, and on the other hand the other side of complete extinction into nothingness, which you want to avoid. You have given no reasons why anyone should accept such a fanciful category of "beyond existence and non-existence" because there are no reasons for it, there are no supporting examples to be drawn from whatsoever that would suggest that it is a real category, there is no proof that it is not just a fanciful hypothesis and indeed any attempt to prove it results in inevitable contradiction; something can either exist at the level of ultimate/absolute truth or it cannot exist at that level, there is no 3rd option, you have attempted to make it up to escape the contradictory predicament you are in, just as though when a man is caught stealing from the king's treasury and is brought before the king he tries to say "your highness the guard indeed saw me escaping out the window with a bag of jewels but I am at the same time not guilty of stealing from your treasury".

Nagarjuna whined "Śaṅkarācārya, I know that it defies logic and common sense but think, if we assent to the claim that Nirvana exists then we are conceptualizing about it and falsifying the Real as a result!"

Śaṅkarācārya replied "Nagarjuna, the only thing that has been falsified is your reputation as a great philosopher"

Nagarjuna sat back in stunned silence for many minutes before silently walking away from the debate stage in humiliation and confusion.
श्रुति स्मृति पुराणानामालयं करुणालयं|
नमामि भगवत्पादशंकरं लॊकशंकरं ||

>>14933005
Anything that has parts and is subject to change is not immutable and hence isn't truly eternal, i.e. the manifested universe is not eternal but had to emerge from something else, but the emergence of a temporary and non-eternal thing like the universe (or X) presupposes an infinite regress which can only be ended with that X emerging from something else or from nothing, both of which upon further analysis are inherently self-contradictory and illogical. X cannot ever 'emerge from nothing', nothingness begets nothingness, add 0 an infinite number of times and you get 0. X cannot really 'emerge from something else' either as because of the regress involved this ultimately leads to some X emerging from some base X which always existed eternally and which is itself the uncaused cause of X, but to claim that some eternal X existing forever as the uncaused eternal X suddenly gives rise to a series of non-eternal emergences is really to say that the eternal becomes non-eternal, which is a contradiction in terms as the eternal can never become not-eternal because then it wasn't truly eternal to begin with. Even if one wants to say the uncaused God can still magically give rise to X without Himself being modified into that X like clay into a pot, that very act of creation constitutes an act which by having a before and after it was undertaken mark a change in God which means He is not truly immutable, i.e. such a God by failing to be completely immutable could not be unmoved mover who is the cause of everything else. Hence God does not actually create anything and nothing ever emerges from Him but He forever peacefully abides as the only thing in existence. To be conscious of anything when there is fundamentally only one thing that truly exists means that one's consciousness is identical with that one thing that exists.

ADVAITA VEDANTA

>Shankara's commentaries on 8 principal Upanishads part 1
https://archive.org/details/EightUpanishadsWithSankarabhashyamSwamiGambhiranandaVol11989
>Shankara's commentaries on 8 principal Upanishads part 2
https://archive.org/details/EightUpanishadsWithSankarabhashyamSwamiGambhiranandaVol21966
>Brihadaranyaka Upanishad commentary of Shankara
https://archive.org/stream/Brihadaranyaka.Upanishad.Shankara.Bhashya.by.Swami.Madhavananda
>Chandogya Upanishad commentary of Shankara
https://archive.org/stream/Shankara.Bhashya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English
>Brahma Sutra commentary of Adi Shankara
https://archive.org/details/BrahmaSutraSankaraBhashyaEngVMApte1960
>Bhagavad-Gita with Shankara's commentary
https://archive.org/details/Bhagavad-Gita.with.the.Commentary.of.Sri.Shankaracharya
>Atma Bodha
http://www.lovebliss.eu/Download/Atma%20Bodha.pdf
>Upadesasahasri
http://estudantedavedanta.net/Sri_Shankaracharya-Upadeshasahasri%20-%20Swami%20Jagadananda%20%281949%29%20[Sanskrit-English].pdf
>Aparokshanubhuti
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.216548
>Vivekachudamani
https://ia800108.us.archive.org/18/items/Vivekacudamani/Vivekacudamani.pdf
>Voga Vasistha
https://archive.org/details/VasisthasYoga
>Ashtavakra Gita
https://realization.org/p/ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita.html
>Ribhu Gita
https://archive.org/stream/RibhuGitaRamaMoorthyH./Ribhu%20Gita%20%20Rama%20Moorthy%20H.%20#page/n1/mode/2up
>Avadhuta Gita
https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Song-of-the-Avadhut-by-Dattatreya.pdf
>Advaita Bodha Deepika
https://selfdefinition.org/ramana/Advaita-Bodha-Deepika.pdf
>Kaivalya Navaneeta
http://ramana-maharshi.weebly.com/uploads/2/4/7/2/24723372/kaivalya_navaneeta_-_cream_of_liberation.pdf
>Drg-Drsya-Viveka
https://vivekananda.net/PDFBooks/Others/DrgDrsyaViveka1931.pdf
>Tripura Rahasya
https://www.beezone.com/Ramana/tripura%20rahasya.pdf

>>11204620
close but no cigar

>>11126929
>>11128275

2/2

Advaita clearly lays out that all is Brahman, and that there is nothing else. Any perception of a hierarchy, multiplicity or division can only be considered to be true relatively and is strictly null in respect of the absolute truth of the unity of the One. Atma, which is fundamentally the same as Brahman, permeates all of universal manifestation (Ishwara), which consists of the interplay of purusha and prakriti. Atma is the only real aspect of beings, the rest being prakriti, part of Maya, illusionary, not in any sense real other than being a secondary and accidental aspect of manifestation (the preceding concepts still contained within and part of Brahman, but not constituting Brahman itself (other than Atma); again there only being division of or multiplicity within Brahman in a relative and not in an objective or true sense). Atma is the only one that is absolutely identical with Brahman. Atma is the only real aspect of the being. All considerations of a hierarchy in and the phenomena themselves of races, ethnicity, people, cultures, anything can only be true in an illusionary and relative sense.

This why the idea of an 'Aryan soul' makes no sense at all. The only real aspect of beings (Atma, which is their 'self' or 'soul') is absolutely the same everywhere in all beings, remaining forever stainless, spotless, at peace, unchanged and unconditioned. The Atma in Indo-Europeans, Africans, frogs and microbiota is everywhere and always the exact same. Any perception of difference is only relative and due to the false perceptions stemming from ignorance of the supreme reality. The only things separating Aryans from non-Aryans is strictly nothing in relation to the supreme truth of non-duality.

Evola (and those who repeat his nonsense like you) seem to imagine that there is something concrete or absolute to the idea of differing races having fundamentally different souls, when in fact all of existence is one indivisible unchanging soul and awareness. Different races certainly have differing tendencies, attitudes, modes of thought and behavior, differing genes and biology with all the attendant consequences; but these are all strictly illusionary and secondary in respect of the absolute truth. That is why one should not talk seriously about the concept of an 'Aryan soul'. It implies that at the deepest core of the being that there is a difference between people of various races; which is the absolute opposite of the sum of the Vedic knowledge and all traditional metaphysics. Even though Evola claimed to have read all of Guenon's books and despite that at one point he wanted to write a foreward to Guenon's book on Vedanta he demonstrates at times a profound ignorance of it's central teachings, this is often how people get misled when reading him.

>>11099488

Adi Shankara's Prasthanatrayi commentaries (his most important works)

>Commentary on 8 of the Muhkya Upanishads part 1
https://archive.org/details/EightUpanishadsWithSankarabhashyamSwamiGambhiranandaVol11989

>Commentary on 8 of the Muhkya Upanishads part 2
https://archive.org/details/EightUpanishadsWithSankarabhashyamSwamiGambhiranandaVol21966

>Brahma Sutra Bhasya (commentary) of Shankaracharya
https://archive.org/details/BrahmaSutraSankaraBhashyaEngVMApte1960

>The Bhagavad-Gita with commentary of Shankaracharya
https://archive.org/details/Bhagavad-Gita.with.the.Commentary.of.Sri.Shankaracharya


Adi Shankaras non-commentary Prakarana Granthas (philosophical treatises)

>Atma Bodha (Self-knowledge)
http://www.lovebliss.eu/Download/Atma%20Bodha.pdf

>Upadesasahasri (A Thousand Teachings)
http://estudantedavedanta.net/Sri_Shankaracharya-Upadeshasahasri%20-%20Swami%20Jagadananda%20%281949%29%20[Sanskrit-English].pdf

>Aparokshanubhuti (Direct experience)
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.216548

>Vivekachudamani (Crest Jewel of Discrimination)
https://ia800108.us.archive.org/18/items/Vivekacudamani/Vivekacudamani.pdf


Non-Adi Shankara Advaita texts

>Voga Vasistha
https://archive.org/details/VasisthasYoga

>The Ashtavakra Gita
https://realization.org/p/ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita.html

>The Ribhu Gita
https://archive.org/stream/RibhuGitaRamaMoorthyH./Ribhu%20Gita%20%20Rama%20Moorthy%20H.%20#page/n1/mode/2up

>Avadhuta Gita
https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Song-of-the-Avadhut-by-Dattatreya.pdf

>Advaita Bodha Deepika (The lamp of non-deal knowledge)
https://selfdefinition.org/ramana/Advaita-Bodha-Deepika.pdf

>Drg-Drsya-Viveka (An inquiry into the Nature of the 'Seer' and the 'Seen')
https://vivekananda.net/PDFBooks/Others/DrgDrsyaViveka1931.pdf

>The Tripura Rahasya (Mystery Beyond the Trinity)
https://www.beezone.com/Ramana/tripura%20rahasya.pdf


Ashtavakra Gita for the TLDR, Adi Shankara's commentaries + Yoga Vasistha can be considered core texts, Shankara's non-commentary works and the other non-Shankara texts complement the core ones

>>11044622
>>11045641

https://realization.org/p/ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita.html

>Meditate on yourself as motionless awareness, free from any dualism, giving up the mistaken idea that you are just a derivative consciousness or anything external or internal. 1.13
>You have long been trapped in the snare of identification with the body. Sever it with the knife of knowledge that “I am awareness,” and be happy, my son. 1.14
>You are really unbound and actionless, self-illuminating and spotless already. The cause of your bondage is that you are still resorting to stilling the mind. 1.15
>Knowledge, what is to be known, and the knower — these three do not exist in reality. I am the spotless reality in which they appear because of ignorance. 2.15
>Truly dualism is the root of suffering. There is no other remedy for it than the realisation that all this that we see is unreal, and that I am the one stainless reality, consisting of consciousness. 2.16
>I am pure awareness though through ignorance I have imagined myself to have additional attributes. By continually reflecting like this, my dwelling place is in the Unimagined. 2.17

Adi Shankara's Prasthanatrayi commentaries (his most important works)

>Commentary on 8 of the Muhkya Upanishads part 1
https://archive.org/details/EightUpanishadsWithSankarabhashyamSwamiGambhiranandaVol11989

>Commentary on 8 of the Muhkya Upanishads part 2
https://archive.org/details/EightUpanishadsWithSankarabhashyamSwamiGambhiranandaVol21966

>Brahma Sutra Bhasya (commentary) of Shankaracharya
https://archive.org/details/BrahmaSutraSankaraBhashyaEngVMApte1960

>The Bhagavad-Gita with commentary of Shankaracharya
https://archive.org/details/Bhagavad-Gita.with.the.Commentary.of.Sri.Shankaracharya


Adi Shankaras non-commentary Prakarana Granthas (philosophical treatises)

>Atma Bodha (Self-knowledge)
http://www.lovebliss.eu/Download/Atma%20Bodha.pdf

>Upadesasahasri (A Thousand Teachings)
http://estudantedavedanta.net/Sri_Shankaracharya-Upadeshasahasri%20-%20Swami%20Jagadananda%20%281949%29%20[Sanskrit-English].pdf

>Aparokshanubhuti (Direct experience)
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.216548

>Vivekachudamani (Crest Jewel of Discrimination)
https://ia800108.us.archive.org/18/items/Vivekacudamani/Vivekacudamani.pdf


Non-Adi Shankara Advaita texts

>The Ashtavakra Gita
https://realization.org/p/ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita.html

>Voga Vasistha
https://archive.org/details/VasisthasYoga

>Advaita Bodha Deepika (The lamp of non-deal knowledge)
https://selfdefinition.org/ramana/Advaita-Bodha-Deepika.pdf

>Dŗg-Dŗśya-Viveka (An inquiry into the Nature of the 'Seer' and the 'Seen')
https://vivekananda.net/PDFBooks/Others/DrgDrsyaViveka1931.pdf

>The Ribhu Gita
https://archive.org/stream/RibhuGitaRamaMoorthyH./Ribhu%20Gita%20%20Rama%20Moorthy%20H.%20#page/n1/mode/2up

Deleted and reposted because of some fucked up spacing

Advaita Vedanta reading list with links:

Adi Shankara's Prasthanatrayi commentaries (his most important works)

>Commentary on 8 of the Muhkya Upanishads part 1
https://archive.org/details/EightUpanishadsWithSankarabhashyamSwamiGambhiranandaVol11989

>Commentary on 8 of the Muhkya Upanishads part 2
https://archive.org/details/EightUpanishadsWithSankarabhashyamSwamiGambhiranandaVol21966

>Brahma Sutra Bhasya (commentary) of Shankaracharya
https://archive.org/details/BrahmaSutraSankaraBhashyaEngVMApte1960

>The Bhagavad-Gita with commentary of Shankaracharya
https://archive.org/details/Bhagavad-Gita.with.the.Commentary.of.Sri.Shankaracharya


Adi Shankaras non-commentary Prakanaran Granthas (philosophical treatises)

>Atma Bodha (Self-knowledge)
http://www.lovebliss.eu/Download/Atma%20Bodha.pdf

>Upadesasahasri (A Thousand Teachings)
http://estudantedavedanta.net/Sri_Shankaracharya-Upadeshasahasri%20-%20Swami%20Jagadananda%20%281949%29%20[Sanskrit-English].pdf

>Aparokshanubhuti (Direct experience)
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.216548

>Vivekachudamani (Crest Jewel of Discrimination)
https://ia800108.us.archive.org/18/items/Vivekacudamani/Vivekacudamani.pdf


Non-Shankaracarya Advaita texts

>The Ashtavakra Gita
https://realization.org/p/ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita.html

>Voga Vasistha
https://archive.org/details/VasisthasYoga

>Advaita Bodha Deepika (The lamp of non-deal knowledge)
https://selfdefinition.org/ramana/Advaita-Bodha-Deepika.pdf

>Dŗg-Dŗśya-Viveka (An inquiry into the Nature of the 'Seer' and the 'Seen')
https://vivekananda.net/PDFBooks/Others/DrgDrsyaViveka1931.pdf

>The Ribhu Gita
https://archive.org/stream/RibhuGitaRamaMoorthyH./Ribhu%20Gita%20%20Rama%20Moorthy%20H.%20#page/n1/mode/2up

Adi Shankara's Prasthanatrayi commentaries (his most important works):

>Commentary on 8 of the Muhkya Upanishads part 1
https://archive.org/details/EightUpanishadsWithSankarabhashyamSwamiGambhiranandaVol11989

>Commentary on 8 of the Muhkya Upanishads part 2
https://archive.org/details/EightUpanishadsWithSankarabhashyamSwamiGambhiranandaVol21966

>Brahma Sutra Bhasya (commentary) of Shankaracharya
https://archive.org/details/BrahmaSutraSankaraBhashyaEngVMApte1960

>The Bhagavad-Gita with commentary of Shankaracharya
https://archive.org/details/Bhagavad-Gita.with.the.Commentary.of.Sri.Shankaracharya
Adi Shankara's non-commentary Prakarana Granthas (philosophical treatises)

>Atma Bodha (Self-knowledge)
http://www.lovebliss.eu/Download/Atma%20Bodha.pdf

>Upadesasahasri (A Thousand Teachings)
http://estudantedavedanta.net/Sri_Shankaracharya-Upadeshasahasri%20-%20Swami%20Jagadananda%20%281949%29%20[Sanskrit-English].pdf

>Aparokshanubhuti (Direct experience)
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.216548

>Vivekachudamani (Crest Jewel of Discrimination)
https://ia800108.us.archive.org/18/items/Vivekacudamani/Vivekacudamani.pdf
Non-Adi Shankara Advaita texts

>The Ashtavakra Gita
https://realization.org/p/ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita.html

>Voga Vasistha
https://archive.org/details/VasisthasYoga

>Advaita Bodha Deepika (The lamp of non-deal knowledge)
https://selfdefinition.org/ramana/Advaita-Bodha-Deepika.pdf

>Dŗg-Dŗśya-Viveka
(An inquiry into the Nature of the 'Seer' and the 'Seen')
https://vivekananda.net/PDFBooks/Others/DrgDrsyaViveka1931.pdf

>The Ribhu Gita
https://archive.org/stream/RibhuGitaRamaMoorthyH./Ribhu%20Gita%20%20Rama%20Moorthy%20H.%20#page/n1/mode/2up

>>11022555

>Your real nature is as the one perfect, free, and actionless consciousness, the all-pervading witness — unattached to anything, desireless and at peace. It is from illusion that you seem to be involved in samsara. 1.12

>You are unconditioned and changeless, formless and immovable, unfathomable awareness, unperturbable: so hold to nothing but consciousness. 1.17

>Recognise that the apparent is unreal, while the unmanifest is abiding. Through this initiation into truth you will escape falling into unreality again. 1.18

>Just as a mirror exists everywhere both within and apart from its reflected images, so the Supreme Lord exists everywhere within and apart from this body. 1.19

>Just as one and the same all-pervading space exists within and without a jar, so the eternal, everlasting God exists in the totality of things. 1.20

https://realization.org/p/ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita.html

>>10925871

Because the Traditional doctrines are complete in themselves. Metaphysics is eternal and unchanging, the only thing changing being the outward form it's clothed in under various traditions. There is no need to try to dissect and analyze the eastern traditions from a modern, rationalist and scientific viewpoint, doing so can only distort them. Jung's works largely ignore the possibility of a transcendent metaphysical teaching underlying the eastern traditions and instead focuses on 'psychologizing' various parts of eastern teachings, attempting to explain in a scientific and rational way as pertaining to modern concepts like a collective unconsciousness or inner psychological phenomena.

Jung had some valuable insights and observations but if you get too deep into studying him and letting him influence your thinking you will get much further from understanding the essence of the eastern traditions than you would by just studying the eastern texts themselves. Jung is interesting and some of his ideas are valuable and interesting; but it's retarded to take him as any sort of authority of eastern traditions.

>>10705958

On the contrary, it leads to Moksha