Aristotle meets Hinduism

[Cypress]

In Hinduism, Brahman connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality in the universe. In major schools of Hindu philosophy, it is the material, efficient, formal and final cause of all that exists. It is the pervasive, infinite, eternal truth, consciousness and bliss which does not change, yet is the cause of all changes.

Brahman as a metaphysical concept refers to the single binding unity behind diversity in all that exists in the universe.

Brahman is a Vedic Sanskrit word, and it is conceptualized in Hinduism, states Paul Deussen, as the "creative principle which lies realized in the whole world".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman


"Atman is Brahman"

Brahman is the universal soul and the atman of the individual soul, and in fact this individual soul is a sign of the same universal soul; in fact, Brahman and Atman are not distant, and the ultimate goal of man is to discover the universal soul in order to achieve unity. -- Ali reza Khajegir

 

[goat]

In Hinduism, Brahman connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality in the universe. In major schools of Hindu philosophy, it is the material, efficient, formal and final cause of all that exists. It is the pervasive, infinite, eternal truth, consciousness and bliss which does not change, yet is the cause of all changes.

Brahman as a metaphysical concept refers to the single binding unity behind diversity in all that exists in the universe.

Brahman is a Vedic Sanskrit word, and it is conceptualized in Hinduism, states Paul Deussen, as the "creative principle which lies realized in the whole world".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman


"Atman is Brahman"

Brahman is the universal soul and the atman of the individual soul, and in fact this individual soul is a sign of the same universal soul; in fact, Brahman and Atman are not distant, and the ultimate goal of man is to discover the universal soul in order to achieve unity. -- Ali reza Khajegir

Those without atman cannot be part of brahman.

 

[Cypress]

My atman is doing fine.

I think it is possible Plato got his concept of the immortal soul and universal first principles by obliquely hearing stories about Vedic philosophy, as indirect and diffuse knowledge of it filtered along trade routes into the eastern Mediterranean.

 

[BidenPresident]

In Hinduism, Brahman connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality in the universe. In major schools of Hindu philosophy, it is the material, efficient, formal and final cause of all that exists. It is the pervasive, infinite, eternal truth, consciousness and bliss which does not change, yet is the cause of all changes.

Brahman as a metaphysical concept refers to the single binding unity behind diversity in all that exists in the universe.

Brahman is a Vedic Sanskrit word, and it is conceptualized in Hinduism, states Paul Deussen, as the "creative principle which lies realized in the whole world".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman


"Atman is Brahman"

Brahman is the universal soul and the atman of the individual soul, and in fact this individual soul is a sign of the same universal soul; in fact, Brahman and Atman are not distant, and the ultimate goal of man is to discover the universal soul in order to achieve unity. -- Ali reza Khajegir

Those are Aristotle's 4 causes. What is the connection to Hinduism?

 

[goat]

My atman is doing fine.

I think it is possible Plato got his concept of the immortal soul and universal first principles by obliquely hearing stories about Vedic philosophy, as indirect and diffuse knowledge of it filtered along trade routes into the eastern Mediterranean.

There are plenty of articles claiming that CEOs and others at the top of society are psychopaths lacking atman. That has a negative impact on brahman or order. We see evidence of this around the globe with the internet or smartphone being 21st century trade routes. Brahman is rising up against soulless authority.

 

[Cypress]

Those are Aristotle's 4 causes. What is the connection to Hinduism?

Nothing, I was just riffing off the author's weird backhand reference to Aristotle's four causes of teleology.

 

[BidenPresident]

Nothing, I was just riffing off the author's weird backhand reference to Aristotle's four causes of teleology.

ok

 

[Cypress]

My atman is doing fine.

I think it is possible Plato got his concept of the immortal soul and universal first principles by obliquely hearing stories about Vedic philosophy, as indirect and diffuse knowledge of it filtered along trade routes into the eastern Mediterranean.

In one of Plato's dialogues, Socrates speaks of an immortal soul, reincarnation, and how all innate knowledge is just a recollection of things in the soul from prior lives.

This seems like a pretty clear echo of Vedic philosophy.

 

[BidenPresident]

In one of Plato's dialogues, Socrates speaks of an immortal soul, reincarnation, and how all innate knowledge is just a recollection of things in the soul from prior lives.

This seems like a pretty clear echo of Vedic philosophy.

Are you claiming he could not have come up with it himself?

 

[Cypress]

Are you claiming he could not have come up with it himself?

No.
I am saying there is a possibility that some echos of Vedic knowledge and Indian mathematics were indirectly known to the Greeks, and those echoes could have found their way into the work of Plato and Pythagoras.

It's not my theory. I read Michael Shugrue, and that was his hypothesis.

 

[BidenPresident]

No.
I am saying there is a possibility that some echos of Vedic knowledge and Indian mathematics were indirectly known to the Greeks, and those echoes could have found their way into the work of Plato and Pythagoras.

It's not my theory. I read Michael Shugrue, and that was his hypothesis.

ok

 

[goat]

In one of Plato's dialogues, Socrates speaks of an immortal soul, reincarnation, and how all innate knowledge is just a recollection of things in the soul from prior lives.

This seems like a pretty clear echo of Vedic philosophy.

I'm pointing out the difference between Plato's fiction and real-world knowledge. Sacred Sanskrit immediately throws a corrupt soul into hell to be tortured, with the hope its rebirth will be a better soul. The problem is the king or ruler gets to decide which souls are corrupt. That results in only the poor and illiterate being tortured and killed.

Socrates was sentenced to death for making fun of Athenian law makers.

 

[goat]

No one wants to talk sacred Sanskrit with me. Is global uprising a universal soul?

 

[Cypress]

No one wants to talk sacred Sanskrit with me. Is global uprising a universal soul?

There are about eight people in North America who have read the Vedas in their totality, and I am only interested in what trained religious scholars have to say

"Scholars of religion sometimes talk about the “Protestant bias,” that is, looking at other faiths through the lens of the Christian Reformation: assuming that scriptures are at the heart of a religion, that the oldest texts represent its purest form, and that those documents can best be understood through textual criticism, historical analysis, and translation. This approach may give us a somewhat skewed view of Hinduism."

- Grant Hardy, PhD, professor of religious studies

 

[goat]

There are about eight people in North America who have read the Vedas in their totality, and I am only interested in what trained religious scholars have to say

Part of knowledge is being able to tell when scholars get it wrong. Politics and personal beliefs play a part in translation. Scripture constantly contradicts itself yet demands blind faith. There's no such thing as brahman and therefore no such thing as unity or order. You are one of the few people on JPP capable of intellectual debate. Don't let board politics change that.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

In Hinduism, Brahman connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality in the universe. In major schools of Hindu philosophy, it is the material, efficient, formal and final cause of all that exists. It is the pervasive, infinite, eternal truth, consciousness and bliss which does not change, yet is the cause of all changes.

Brahman as a metaphysical concept refers to the single binding unity behind diversity in all that exists in the universe.

Brahman is a Vedic Sanskrit word, and it is conceptualized in Hinduism, states Paul Deussen, as the "creative principle which lies realized in the whole world".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman


"Atman is Brahman"

Brahman is the universal soul and the atman of the individual soul, and in fact this individual soul is a sign of the same universal soul; in fact, Brahman and Atman are not distant, and the ultimate goal of man is to discover the universal soul in order to achieve unity. -- Ali reza Khajegir

Agreed.

IMO, most people fear losing their individuality. They think they'll be absorbed and disappear. They are not seeing it as becoming part of something greater.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

No.
I am saying there is a possibility that some echos of Vedic knowledge and Indian mathematics were indirectly known to the Greeks, and those echoes could have found their way into the work of Plato and Pythagoras.

It's not my theory. I read Michael Shugrue, and that was his hypothesis.

The Silk Road was the primary conduit for knowledge between East and West; the same road China's Four Great Inventions came from East to West.

China held the world's leading position in many fields in the study of nature, from the 1st century before Christ to the 15th century, with the four great inventions having the greatest global significance.

Papermaking, printing, gunpowder and the compass - the four great inventions of ancient China-are significant contributions of the Chinese nation to world civilization.

 

[Cypress]

Agreed.

IMO, most people fear losing their individuality. They think they'll be absorbed and disappear. They are not seeing it as becoming part of something greater.

There is something intuitively and superficially appealing about Brahman, at least to me.

 

[Cypress]

Part of knowledge is being able to tell when scholars get it wrong. Politics and personal beliefs play a part in translation. Scripture constantly contradicts itself yet demands blind faith. There's no such thing as brahman and therefore no such thing as unity or order. You are one of the few people on JPP capable of intellectual debate. Don't let board politics change that.

I am agnostic about Brahman, and as far as experts are concerned, I am never going to have the time or inclination to study the Vedas and the rest of the Hindu canon.

To the extent I am going to be aware of it, the best I can do is listen to a variety of experts with different insights, and try to extract the essential essence of Hinduism as a consequence.

 

[Cypress]

The Silk Road was the primary conduit for knowledge between East and West; the same road China's Four Great Inventions came from East to West.

China held the world's leading position in many fields in the study of nature, from the 1st century before Christ to the 15th century, with the four great inventions having the greatest global significance.

Papermaking, printing, gunpowder and the compass - the four great inventions of ancient China-are significant contributions of the Chinese nation to world civilization.

Well done

The fact that the Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit languages all belong to the same linguistic group indicates that the people of northern India and the Mediterranean had a common origin. Supposedly on the southern Russian steppe in the late neolithic.

And that might manifest itself as faint commonalities between Platonic philosophy and Vedic knowledge, echoing across distance and time.