Is the void an ontological truth?

Schematic mental interpretation
Re: Savitri, Surrender and the Void by Rod Hemsell by Rod

on Tue 22 May 2007 08:10 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link

Well, “enlightening” like “the void” can have many meanings. A comment above concerning the “location of the psychic being in the heart center” and the ‘Location of the void…” etc. is exactly the kind of schematic mental interpretation of Sri Aurobindo that obscures the truth of experience. Obviously, from a philosophical standpoint, as well as from experience, if the void is an ontological truth of existence then it is everywhere.

Buddhism tends to treat everything as epistemological truth, therefore Mind is the final reduction, and its nature is Void. Adwaita philosophy is usually referred to Shankara and his school, which Sri Aurobindo goes to great lenghts to deconstruct in The Life Divine. But yes, to your question, this mayavada philosophy dovetails nicely with and provides a foundation for understanding many schools of Buddhist philosophy. The Vedanta of Sri Aurobindo reaches back before Buddhism for its foundation, and therefore SA can imply that Buddha was in fact communicating a prior spiritual understanding that underlies several major branches of Indic spiritual thought.

What some of SA’s students seem to have grasped intellectually is the idea of the akshara purusa, the “witness self” from the Gita, which seems to be similar if not identical with the Buddhist conception of samata leading to nirvana. Sri Aurobindo, however, is very explicit about this being a partial, intermediate realisation. The real Samata and Nirvana are the nature of the supreme self, which is also the universe, seated in the heart no doubt, but also in the supermind. Science, Culture and Integral Yoga Add comment May 23rd, 2007 tusarnmohapatra