Comparison With Western Non-dualism
Baruch Spinoza, the 17th century Dutch rationalist philosopher, in his magnum work Ethics establishes the nature of God. Spinoza's pantheism (i.e. God revealed as orderly nature) is comparable to Brahman (having the individual selves' and Universe as its body)
Spinoza makes the following propositions on the nature of God in his work "Ethics". These positions closely reflect the VishistAdvaitic position on the nature of Brahman:
- PROPOSITION XI. God, or substance consisting of infinite attributes, of which each expresses eternal and infinite essentiality, necessarily exists.
- PROPOSITION XV. Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.
- PROPOSITION XVII. God acts solely by the laws of his own nature and is not constrained by anyone.
- PROPOSITION XVIII. God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things.
- PROPOSITION XIX. God and all the attributes of God are eternal.
- PROPOSITION XXX. Intellect, in function finite, or in function infinite, must comprehend the attributes of God and the modifications of God, and nothing else.
Read more about this topic: Vishishtadvaita
Famous quotes containing the words comparison with, comparison and/or western:
“Intolerance respecting other people’s religion is toleration itself in comparison with intolerance respecting other people’s art.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The comparison between Coleridge and Johnson is obvious in so far as each held sway chiefly by the power of his tongue. The difference between their methods is so marked that it is tempting, but also unnecessary, to judge one to be inferior to the other. Johnson was robust, combative, and concrete; Coleridge was the opposite. The contrast was perhaps in his mind when he said of Johnson: “his bow-wow manner must have had a good deal to do with the effect produced.””
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“Signal smokes, war drums, feathered bonnets against the western sky. New messiahs, young leaders are ready to hurl the finest light cavalry in the world against Fort Stark. In the Kiowa village, the beat of drums echoes in the pulsebeat of the young braves. Fighters under a common banner, old quarrels forgotten, Comanche rides with Arapaho, Apache with Cheyenne. All chant of war. War to drive the white man forever from the red man’s hunting ground.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)