<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Aristotle's Logic of Duality
It is Aristotelian logic, an intellectual reason, which killed 1 billion people in last 2000 years.
Rgds,
VR
"Aristotle's Logic of Duality vs. 'sarvam Khalu idam brahma' for Interfaith Dialogue".
ABSTRACT:
The notion (or reality) of Brahman or Paramatman of the Astika traditions is fundamentally different from that of God in western traditions of the last 2,300 years. Likewise,definitions, perceptions and practices of religions fundamentally differ in the East from those in the West. It is proposed that this East vs. West dichotomy resulted from Aristotle's logic of duality that separated body and spirit
indelibly in the West.
Aristotle kept our common God outside the universe, ushering in several centuries of man-to-man conflicts, exploitations, slaveries, wholesale murders, and tyranny. Gifted minds thus had to craft uniformity through religions or statecraft to bring in peace in the societies. Thus the Abrahamic religions and all schemes of statecraft of West based on Aristotle's logic of duality are fundamentally at variance with cherishing and preserving outer diversities, yet are steady "improvements" over the Aristotelian thought.
For the Veda-s, this duality is a sure absurdity even in the tiniest of an atom in the niverse: "aNOraNIyAn mahatO mahIyAnAtmA guhAyAm nihitO-sya jantOH" - It (spirit or Divinity) secretly exists in everything manifest, in more tinier than the tiniest atom as well as in more expansive than the most expansive. "yatO vAchO nivartantE, aprApya manasA saha" - words do not reach There; It is beyond the reach of the mind as well. And that "It" exists fully right here, verily in us and in everything: "sarvan Khalu idam brahma". For some religions, such as Christianity and Islam, all this is blasphemy, and herein lies problem of interfaith dialogue.
In many respects, this dichotomy is similar to the intellectual schism that surfaced in post-Buddha India between Bauddha-s and Vaidika-s. The Great Buddha saw everything including Atman as impermanence and advised detachment as a solution to human misery; the Vaidika-s, notably Kumarila Bhatta and Shankara, saw an ever existing, omnipresent/omniscient, and immutable Atman in everything as the very and only real Happiness.
Veda-s declare that the Indivisible, One, immutable, and primal cause exists wholely in every material entity. This thought, its practices, and variations in one form or other have spread their influence throughout East during later day Buddhism and Hinduism. Thus seeking personal and societal happiness by "seeing" That One Divinity everywhere has become the signature of most religious practices in the East. This logic of Unity embedded in the eastern psyche is the basis for social harmony and cherishing and preserving all physical diversities. Whenever ignorance and divisions set in, saintly thinkers and prophets reset the social discourse towards acceptance of all paths on the singular basis that the One Indivisible Divinity exists in each and all.
"Not detachment, but acceptance of all as the manifestations of That omnipresent One God is the way to Happiness" was India's solution to Bauddha-Vaidika schism. "Not tolerance, but acceptance of all faiths as valid paths each inspired by the very inner singular Divinity" has to be the basis for a harmonious solution to our current religious and political conflicts. There may not be any other real basis.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It is Aristotelian logic, an intellectual reason, which killed 1 billion people in last 2000 years.
Rgds,
VR
"Aristotle's Logic of Duality vs. 'sarvam Khalu idam brahma' for Interfaith Dialogue".
ABSTRACT:
The notion (or reality) of Brahman or Paramatman of the Astika traditions is fundamentally different from that of God in western traditions of the last 2,300 years. Likewise,definitions, perceptions and practices of religions fundamentally differ in the East from those in the West. It is proposed that this East vs. West dichotomy resulted from Aristotle's logic of duality that separated body and spirit
indelibly in the West.
Aristotle kept our common God outside the universe, ushering in several centuries of man-to-man conflicts, exploitations, slaveries, wholesale murders, and tyranny. Gifted minds thus had to craft uniformity through religions or statecraft to bring in peace in the societies. Thus the Abrahamic religions and all schemes of statecraft of West based on Aristotle's logic of duality are fundamentally at variance with cherishing and preserving outer diversities, yet are steady "improvements" over the Aristotelian thought.
For the Veda-s, this duality is a sure absurdity even in the tiniest of an atom in the niverse: "aNOraNIyAn mahatO mahIyAnAtmA guhAyAm nihitO-sya jantOH" - It (spirit or Divinity) secretly exists in everything manifest, in more tinier than the tiniest atom as well as in more expansive than the most expansive. "yatO vAchO nivartantE, aprApya manasA saha" - words do not reach There; It is beyond the reach of the mind as well. And that "It" exists fully right here, verily in us and in everything: "sarvan Khalu idam brahma". For some religions, such as Christianity and Islam, all this is blasphemy, and herein lies problem of interfaith dialogue.
In many respects, this dichotomy is similar to the intellectual schism that surfaced in post-Buddha India between Bauddha-s and Vaidika-s. The Great Buddha saw everything including Atman as impermanence and advised detachment as a solution to human misery; the Vaidika-s, notably Kumarila Bhatta and Shankara, saw an ever existing, omnipresent/omniscient, and immutable Atman in everything as the very and only real Happiness.
Veda-s declare that the Indivisible, One, immutable, and primal cause exists wholely in every material entity. This thought, its practices, and variations in one form or other have spread their influence throughout East during later day Buddhism and Hinduism. Thus seeking personal and societal happiness by "seeing" That One Divinity everywhere has become the signature of most religious practices in the East. This logic of Unity embedded in the eastern psyche is the basis for social harmony and cherishing and preserving all physical diversities. Whenever ignorance and divisions set in, saintly thinkers and prophets reset the social discourse towards acceptance of all paths on the singular basis that the One Indivisible Divinity exists in each and all.
"Not detachment, but acceptance of all as the manifestations of That omnipresent One God is the way to Happiness" was India's solution to Bauddha-Vaidika schism. "Not tolerance, but acceptance of all faiths as valid paths each inspired by the very inner singular Divinity" has to be the basis for a harmonious solution to our current religious and political conflicts. There may not be any other real basis.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->