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Jainism – What is Reality?

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    It is real as well as unreal and -          It is universal as well as particular. -          It is permanent as well as momentary. -          It is one as well as many. Reality has infinite aspects which are all relative and Reality has infinite aspects which are all relative and we can know only some of these aspects all our judgements Syadvada or Sapta Bhangi Naya is the theory of relativity of knowledge. It means dialectic of the seven steps or the theory of seven fold judgement. The word Syad, literally means probable, perhaps may be and sayadvada is sometimes translated as the theory of probability or the doctrine of may be. But it is not in the literal sense of probability that the word syad is used here. Probability, suggests scepticism and Jainism is not scepticism sometimes the word syad is translated as somehow but this too smacks of agnosticism and Jainism is not agnosticism. The word syad is used here in the sense of the relative and the correct translation of syadvad

How Human grasp knowledge?

  The demand of philosophical theory, is according to time and place and as man has nothing permanent immutable principle, there adherent nature, therefore , judge, the different perspectives of the concept to reject or regret, at particular point of time. And, therefore we find, changing perspective of the absolute. History too, supports it, by giving the brief account of rise and fall of civilisations of everywhere, and, this rise and fall of civilisations depends upon the variation of ‘principle function’ which, gives out behaviour, in a form of prevailed mentality. Now, what we want to signify with the term ‘principle function’ is that the changing character in principle of man in a way of function and in this fluctuating function, the principle occupies revulsion stage at specific point of time, is prevailing mentality. In the pre-Buddhistic India, revulsion appeared in principle function, by proclaiming of purely materialistic doctrines, it must have arise as a protest agai

Who is individual – soul or body?

  Ancient philosophies- Eastern and Western described the concept of man on the basis of metaphysics and developed their philosophies. The ancient Roman thinkers took man as a combination of soul and body. Plato made that the soul is such entity which is changeless and eternal and objects of thoughts. This soul is not a harmony of the body and hence dependent upon the body as music is upon the lyric. The soul directs and sometimes opposes the body as independent of it. The essential nature of soul is to live. While Aristotle founds that soul is an actualization of capacities provided by certain combination of the four elements in conjunction with pneum or breath akin to the ether and the carrier of life in the sperm. Soul is the first actuality of the body may be likened to that of cutting to the axe or of vision of the eye. Without the body it could not exist and just as it in its entirely dependent upon the body, so our various emotional and mental states are forms and actualizatio

Is reality a pure consciousness?

 Reality is eternal and permanent; that it is blissful because it is permanent for what is permanent is bliss and what is momentary is misery Absolute idealism (Vijnapti- matrata- Siddhi)  If reality is pure consciousness then the external objects does not exist outside of thoughts.   All the three worlds do not exist outside of thought. Mind, consciousness, knowledge are synonyms. External objects depend on thoughts like the hair seen floating in the atmosphere or life the perception of the double moon. It is declared that the phenomenal is like water in a jar, while the absolute is like the vast ocean. The intellect is transcended in the last meditation in which the meditation becomes one with the Real. The pure knowledge is called ‘Shramnaya’ as well as Brahmanya. But critics urged that is external objects do not exist then we cannot account for their spatial determination and their temporal determination. That means that the determination of the perceiving stream of conscious

Buddhism - How to know the universe

Is there such knowledge exist which can be conceived without knowing the empirical universe, material objects and without sensory data? Is it possible to know the mystery of universe without keeping faith on sensual information and without the help of intellect? And Buddhist already set up that reality do not exist out of the sphere of consciousness and in reality there is no objective or material world then how can one have a knowledge of object or of universe? Yes and Buddhist tried their best to form such knowledge not based on empirical things. They said that the mediate (Adhyavasaya) type of knowledge is that knowledge whose validity is independent of all sense expressions. It is, thus, a logical law which guides the intellect and is not dependent on the empirical sense data. They explain the inferential aspect of such knowledge through Apoha (view of meaning) and in that Buddhist evoked the principle of Adhyavasaya (mediate) knowledge. The knowledge of the particular thin

Dilemma of Buddha and Nirvana

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Kshitiz Gaur Buddha remained silence on the most fundamental questions of metaphysics and therefore it need probe into the reason of that silence. The searching of his silence gave birth to dialectic inquiry. Nagarjuna took this task to explain the silence of Buddha and came out with the theory of middle path. The Buddha announced fourteen things to be inexpressible   (1)    Whether the world is – (a) eternal, (b) or not (c) or neither. (2)    Whether the world is (a) finite (b) or not (infinite) (c) or both (d) or neither. (3)    Whether the Tathagata (reality) (a) exist after death (b) or does not (c) or both (d) or neither. (4)    Whether the soul is- (a) identical with the body (b) or different from the body. Nagarjuna tried to structure these questions and on silence of Buddha and refusing to give any categorical answer to such questions on which Buddha used to say that he neither believed in absolute affirmation nor in the absolute negation. His position was one o