Pure Land Buddhism as Vaishnavism
Part Seven: False-Self Hinduism, No-Self (Anatta) Buddhism , or the True Self of the Great Bhakti Tradition? 
By Bhakti Ananda Goswami

Having just visited a New-Age Advaita Vedanta web site, e-mailed to me by a very loving person, here is my response.   The site is full of sweet preaching about love, but ultimately teaches the non-existence of any personal self, either finite or supreme (God).  The logical inconsistency of this coupling of impersonalism and love is pervasive in the New Age movement, where the Christian value of love and a kind of innocent romanticism and sentimentalism are often paradoxically presented in the context of some form of corrupted Neo-Mayavadi-Hindu or Neo-Theravadin-Buddhist doctrine of the false-self or no-self.  In the authentic historical forms of Mayavada and Theravada, all 'love', like the 'self' who loves and is loved, is considered illusory.  Love, romance, attachment, sentimentalism and idealism, etc. are considered pathological states of 'dependent arising' that must be exposed as 'empty' by the penetrating insight of false-self and no-self 'wisdom'.  "Absolute nothingness", not love, (read the writings of the voidist Buddhist master Maseo Abe) is the goal of such atheistic Buddhist 'wisdom' cultivation.

(Reply Edited for This Site)

Dearest .........,

This letter refers to the sixth installment in my current series of letters and articles about  Buddhism on this site.  Since reading the [Advaita Vedantic no-personal-self] web site you sent to me for my benefit, I thought that you might be interested in this series. 

The two atheistic forms of Hinduism and Buddhism (Mayavada and Theravada) deny the existence of any self in transcendence.  They so thoroughly confuse the false ego or false 'self' of the mind and subtle body as all that there is (in illusion) , that they paradoxically reduce the transcendent reality of being and positive personalism to an illusion with no-one to be illusioned ! 

What is the historicity of these impersonal and voidist traditions ?

Historically, impersonalist Hinduism and atheistic Buddhism are not the authentic earliest forms of Hinduism and Buddhism.   The earliest forms are the authentic bhakti or devotional love traditions of transcendent personalism and divine saving grace.   The atheistic forms of Hinduism and Buddhism are late corruptions or appropriations and developments of some elements of the salvific theistic traditions.  The Hindu Mayavadi 'Advaita Vedantist' and Theravadin (atheistic) Buddhist traditions were historically associated originally with either severe gnostic-like body and world-rejecting asceticism, or conversely left-hand tantric type extreme and purposely perverse sense-indulgence.   The former sought release from the saha world of suffering through extreme denial of the value of life / incarnation.  Personhood was a disease, an affliction to be cured, or a hoax to be exposed.  In the latter, no ultimate personal reality meant no absolutes, no moral right, no wrong, no 'dharma' or duty....and this led to complete moral relativism and animalistic dog-eat-dog exploitative and predatory behavior among the left-hand tantrists.   Thus throughout the East the associations between the these illusory-self and no-self traditions and severe asceticism or perverse indulgence have persisted to the present.   However in the great salvific bhakti (devotional) traditions, the impersonal and love-less extremes of severe asceticism and unrestrained animalistic indulgence have been traditionally avoided by treading the noble middle path of pious devotion to the ideal saving personal God-Who-Is-Love and Grace. 

Opposed to these extremes of the pure illusory-self and no-self traditions, the New Age form of Christian-modified Advaita Vedanta illogically weds a hippie-like ideal of love to some version of the Hindu or Buddhist doctrines of impersonalism or voidism.  However, sometimes this wedding is with the Brahmavada form of Advaita Vedanta as espoused by the more theistic 'monist' Hindus. The site you sent reflects such a pietistic and more devotional lineage of the no-individual-self 'Brahman realization' tradition, as taught by the great Advaita Vedantist Hindu reformer Shankaracharya (usually dated by Western scholars from 788-820 A.D.).  Although Adi Shankaracharya is generally promoted as the father of the Hindu school of impersonalist atheism, some of those in his lineage preach a monist diffuse Brahman-personalism as is commonly found in both primitive 'nature mysticism' religions and the New Age movement.   The symptom of this diffuse and covered personalism is the presence of love in its practitioners.  Something does not come from nothing, and love only exists because persons exist as its givers and receivers.   So while the authentically impersonalist and voidist traditions of the East are truly loveless, the monist or “it’s all one” forms of Brahman-vada diffuse personalism are better understood as forms of Holy Spirit or all-pervasive Paramatma worship, in which there may be the development and realization of some flavors of spiritual love.  In these atman = Brahman forms of Advaita Vedanta, the one, or the all (or over-soul etc.) is imbued with the attributes of a loving and lovable person.  To merge into the monist omnipresent 'one' of this tradition is not to become an impersonal energy, but is to become part of the all-pervasive Personality-of-Godhead.  Thus this form of Advaita Vedanta is compatible with, and promotes the Christian and Vaishnava values of love, not through the focused worship of a specific form of the deity, but through the worship of 'God's' spiritual omnipresent loving and lovableness. 

When Adi Shankaracharya appeared, the jnana / gnostic intellectual tradition of Hinduism was being corrupted by pernicious Theravadin doctrines of no-self.  In a reactionary movement, Adi Shankaracharya and his disciples re-interpreted the entire theistic tradition of India from the no-individual-self, it’s-all-one Brahman perspective.   They did this in an attempt to stem the rising tide of voidist Theravadin Buddhism, coming from Sri Lanka, and influencing the caste brahmins (priests and intellectuals), at first principally in South India.  The impersonalist atheism of the most neti-neti / via-negativa disciples of Shankaracharya was still seen as preferable to the nihilism of Theravadin voidism.  At least in the Mayavadi tradition, even though there was no self in the absolute, there was an impersonal existence or beingness / ground of being that had a positive existence, if only as an energy or force.  In Theravadin Buddhism, this ground-of-being was denied any absolute existence as illusory as well !  So, compared to Buddhist voidism, Advaita Vedantist impersonal Hinduism was viewed as an improvement.

Adi Shankaracharya as a Hidden Personalist

While Adi Shankaracharya became renowned for his 'its all one' explanation of no-individual-self in the absolute,  actually in his own personal writings, "bhaja govindam" for example, he produced deeply devotional hymns to Sri Krishna, Vishnu, the feminine Shakti and other theophanies and incarnations of God!   Thus his outer mission, the one he is generally known for, is the system of monist or non-dualist no-personal-self thought as expressed on the site you sent, while his own personal faith and 'inner tradition' was of an intensely personal devotion to Sri Krishna and other manifestations of the Lord and Shakti !    His atheistic impersonalist followers today readily admit that the theistic hymns ascribed to him are authentic, but through complex word-jugglery, they try to explain away the obvious personal and devotional meaning of these hymns !   However his more theistic followers admit and embrace his devotion to God, and have been known to participate in kirtana (communal prayer and worship) with the bhakti tradition devotees of Krishna, Vishnu, Rama-Vishnu, Shiva and Shakti / Devi, etc.   

Shankaracharya built his whole system of no-personal-self thought on the foundation of a written theistic and personalistic revelation that pre-dated him by thousands of years, the Vedas and other classical Sanskrit scriptures of the great bhakti traditions of Vishnu, Shiva and Shakti / Devi.   In the same way the atheistic corruption of Buddhism built its thought-system on appropriated and mis-used (out-of-context) elements of the earlier devotional theistic form of Buddhism.  In both of the Mayavadi Hindu and Theravadin Buddhist atheistic heterodox systems, the Vedic concept of the illusory false ego or false self was developed without any parallel grasp, development or presentation of the related concept of the true self.   As Srila Prabhupada (a great Vaishnava saint) used to say, “The counterfeit only has value because the real exists.”

In the authentic traditions, deconstructing the false self was  merely a prelude to understanding and finally realizing the true self !   But the atheistic traditions never moved beyond the via-negativa of neti-neti deconstruction to the positive development of a transcendent doctrine of the self.  Thus the atheistic traditions have no developed concept of the transcendent at all.   All they admit is the existence of illusion and a possible subtle material energy field as the completely impersonal ground of being.   There is no transcendent realm or transcendent personal being in the atheistic traditions.   Contrast this with the doctrine of an extra-cosmic or extra-dimensional non-material transcendent realm (the heaven-of-heavens) in the great, revealed bhakti traditions.

The true self is not an illusion conjured up by the false self....an illusion with no-one to be illusioned !  The false self is a confusion of the true self with the vehicle of the self in matter...the 'dependent arising' mind and body.   The atheistic traditions are essentially wholly mundane / materialistic and entirely concerned with deconstructing the false self of identification with the mind and body (gross or subtle).   On the other hand, the theistic revelatory traditions affirm that the true self does exist, that in fact the self, infinite and finite, abides as the indestructible source of all existence.   This transcendent self is sat-chit-ananda, or true-eternal, full of consciousness, knowledge and bliss !   Because the essence of this true self is giving-and-receiving love, "God is Love" as the Bible says !   The purpose of the theistic revelatory traditions in history is thus to assert the reality of our true transcendent self-hood and source in God Ess, the origin of being, and thus to affirm the inherent sacredness / value, loving and lovableness of our true person-hood both in matter (incarnate) and in transcendence. 

The concept of the false ego is highly developed in the Sanskrit body of Hindu and Buddhist scriptures.  The original Buddhist scriptures are in Sanskrit, just like the 'Vedic' bhakti Hindu scriptures. However in these extremely ancient source-works, the true finite and supreme self is affirmed and described in great detail as opposed to the false self.  The Pure Land Buddhist doctrine of other-power grace and the atoning intercession of the bodhisattvas is found in these Sanskrit sources.  The atheistic Advaita Vedantin Hindu and Theravadin Buddhist traditions however teach only the false self and anatta / no-self.   These two atheistic traditions address the problem of suffering by denying the existence of any real being who suffers.   They deny the reality of both the saha world of suffering, and any transcendent or ideal 'spiritual'  world of being.  Because both these atheistic traditions assert that the self is illusory, they can both be called 'maya vada' or paths of the doctrine of illusion / maya.   In addition, the Theravadin Buddhists have corrupted the names of Vishnu "shunyah" and "nirvana" (found in the thousand names of Vishnu ! ), misusing them to explain the absolute as empty and extinguished or void.  When all the vast interdisciplinary evidence is taken together, it is readily apparent that the atheistic forms of Hinduism and Buddhism are late corruptions of the earlier theistic devotional traditions. 

Summary....Love is a Symptom of the Soul

When the symptom of love is present, as in the site you sent, the thought-system may be called brahma-vada, which is a form of Advaita Vedanta imbued with a diffused 'holy spirit' personalism, as in much of primitive 'nature mysticism' like that found in indigenous / tribal religions.  In pure impersonalism (maya vada), as in pure atheistic Hinduism and Theravadin Buddhism, there is no love, and thus no compassion at all.  This is why the elite / caste brahmins and priests of these traditions have been charged with great *sins of both commission and omission by the societal victims of their impersonalism in the East.  The symptom of love and related compassion is inseparable from personalism, whether the loving and lovable person(s) is / are localized / incarnate or diffuse as in the omni-present Brahman or 'Holy Spirit' / Param-atman.  True no-self belief means no love or compassion.   Self means someone to love and to be loved, giving and receiving love. 

Traditions of bridal mysticism always affirm the personal existence of God Ess who is giving-and-receiving love in all spiritual and 'material' worlds.  Thus the Judeo-Catholic tradition of Eli-Yahu and Shekinah, Greek Heli-Os and Hekate, Egyptian Heri-Asu and Sekhet, the Vaishnava tradition of Hari and Shakti, Shaivite Hara and Shakti, and the original Buddhist tradition of HRIH and Shakti (also known as Yab-Yum in Tibetan Buddhism and Yang-Yin in Taoism) are all traditions of the positive personalism of divine love.   When the Brahman 'ground-of-being' is understood as imbued with the personal quality and impetus of self-giving effusive creative love, then at-oneness with it is compatible with loving and being loved.  However if the Brahman is considered a purely impersonal energy or no more than a subtle material force devoid of any personality or loving impetus, then merging into it would be a form of spiritual suicide. In Vaishnavism Brahman is an attribute of Sri Baladeva, the second person of the Godhead, manifest as the effulgence of the Godhead. The doctrine of the all-pervasive Brahman, or brahma-jyoti is always connected to the doctrine of the all-pervasive 'Lord of the Heart' as Paramatman (the holy spirit).  Thus atman = Brahman. The great revealed theistic traditions affirm the existence of the finite jivatma (the individual self) and the infinite Paramatman (God), and they promote other-centered love and true self-discovery or 'self realization', instead of the self-denial of impersonalism and voidism found in the illusory false-self and no-self traditions.

Wishing you the true 'self-realization' of Holy Love !

David (Bhakti Ananda Goswami)