Question 27
The Advaitists believe in a Self or Brahman (hence "Self-realization) but the Buddhists deny any Absolute, but both believe in Enlightenment. Are they different Enlightenments or just different paths at reaching the same goal? Is there any real difference between the two?
Answer
Any belief, whether it is a Buddhist belief or an Advaita belief is not the truth, for the truth is beyond belief.
There is only one awakened state. It does not matter whether you call it enlightenment, self-realization or anything else. In the fullness of NOW, there is only Silence. There is only Pure Consciousness, which exists as an all-embracing, ever present, eternal Silence, transcendent of, but also inclusive of, all form and content. The silent Presence and Pure Consciousness I speak of is not separate from existence but is at the very heart of existence. It is at the very heart of all that is.
At the deepest level of Presence and Consciousness, the truth is revealed. But it is revealed in Silence. When we emerge from the silence and the Presence, enough to use words of description, then the mind is back and how the mind defines and describes the experience will, to some degree, depend on the unique culture and language of our times and our past experience and spiritual conditioning.
If you and I are fully awake in the Eternal moment of NOW, our experience will be the same, just as it was the same for Buddha, Jesus, Lao Tzu, and Ramana Maharshi. They might have spoken about it differently. They might have shared what they had experienced using different language and methodology. But the experience was the same. How could it be otherwise? How can the experience of Silence and nothingness differ from individual to individual. It is impossible. The very nature of silence and nothingness determines that there can be no variation. In silence and Presence we enter into Oneness, Love and Truth.
The less the mind is involved in the expression of truth, the more you will find that same truth is being expressed in the same way. The ultimate form of communion occurs in Silence or in words spoken from Silence.
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