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Selflessness in the Pattern of Salvation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Cyril G. Williams
Cyril G. Williams
Affiliation:
Professor of Religion, Carleton University
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Extract

The ‘death of self’ appears to be an essential feature of the redemptive goal on which several religious quests converge. It would seem, therefore, that here lies a convenient pragmatic criterion to determine the efficacy of the various religions in achieving their desired ends, and one which would be valid in several religious traditions, thereby overcoming the impasse of particularity in inter-faith discussion.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 1971 , pp. 153 - 167
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

page 154 note 1 Prabhavananda, Swami, The Spiritual Heritage of India (1962), p. 110: ‘This consciousness (of Brahman) is the transcendental consciousness; it is the samādhi of the yogis, the nirvāna of the Buddhists, and the kingdom of heaven of the Christians’. He also writes, p. III ‘The charge brought against Indian religions, especially Buddhism, that they inculcate passivity and inaction, is without any real basis.’Google Scholar

page 154 note 2 Nikhilananda, Swami, Man in Search of Immortality (1968), p. 38.Google Scholar

page 155 note 1 While Vivekānanda, Swami, the apostle of Advaita Vedantism to the West, emphasises the idea that māyā itself brings man to the realisation of the Reality which is beyond māyā (Complete Works ii, p. 123)Google Scholar, the cleavage between Transcendent Reality and the realm of māyā remains. Yet there is a covert hint at participation in Reality in predicating māyā as divine: ‘This my māyā is divine made up of qualities, and very difficult to cross.’ Vivekānanda's explicit position, however, is well stated by Nalini Devdas, Svāmī Vivekānanda (1968), p. 181: ‘The point that Svāmī Vivekānanda emphasises is that it is only by becoming involved in the midst of the experiences of māyā—the stern facts of life—that the sādhaka learns to see beyond māyā. The experience of the dualities of life is necessary to break the crest of ignorance. He interprets the words of Jesus, “Come unto Me”, in the same sense. Standing in the midst of this finite and transitory life, Jesus indicates to his disciples the Reality that transcends all this. He bears his devotees across the river of samsāra.’ It is clear that the Advaitin's call is still a call to ‘crossthe river of life’, and what is offered is redemption from life not of life.

page 156 note 1 Cf. Nikhilananda, , op. cit., p. 26.Google Scholar

page 156 note 2 One might similarly cite the controversy in Islam between the Mu'tazilites and the Ash'arites concerning man's responsibility in the light of the total sovereignty of God. See e.g. Watt, W. M., Free Will and Predestination in Early Islam (1948).Google Scholar

page 157 note 1 Sharma, I. C., The Ethical Philosophies of India (1965), pp. 94 f.Google Scholar

page 157 note 2 Nikhilananda, , op. cit., p. 50.Google Scholar

page 157 note 3 op. cit., p. 221Google Scholar

page 158 note 1 Blavatsky, H. P., The Voice of the Silence (1957 ed.), p. 71.Google Scholar

page 158 note 2 Nikhilananda, , op. cit., p. 26.Google Scholar

page 159 note 1 The Notebooks of Simone Weil i, trs. Willis, A. (1956), p. 147.Google Scholar

page 160 note 1 See further Conze, E., Thirty Tears of Buddhist Studies (1968), p. 10.Google Scholar

page 160 note 2 Middle Way, xliii (3) (1968), p. 126.Google Scholar

page 161 note 1 Conze, E., Buddhist Thought in India (1962), p. 133.Google Scholar

page 161 note 2 Especially pp. 38 ff.; 98 ff.

page 161 note 3 Thirty years of Buddhist Studies, pp. 12 f.Google Scholar

page 162 note 1 In the Hope of Nibbana (1964), p. 158.Google Scholar

page 162 note 2 Conze, , op. cit., p. 61.Google Scholar

page 162 note 3 Ibid., p. 164.

page 163 note 1 Callaway, T. N., ‘Selflessness in Buddhism and Christianity’ in Studies in the Christian Religion (Kirisutokyo Kenkyu), xxxiii (4) (1965), p. 19.Google Scholar

page 163 note 2 Loc. cit.

page 164 note 1 See Johnson, A. R., The One and the Many in the Israelite Conception of God, second edit. (1961).Google Scholar

page 164 note 2 Williams, Monier, Buddhism (1890), p. 558.Google Scholar

page 164 note 3 Callaway, , op. cit., p. 21.Google Scholar

page 165 note 3 Callaway, , op. cit., p. 23.Google Scholar

page 166 note 1 It is only fair to remind ourselves that within Hinduism too there was considerable dissatisfaction with the strict monism of Advaita with its corollary the abnegation of the individual self. This is especially true of the mediaeval philosophers Madhya and Rāmānuja who in some ways come close to a ‘Christian personalist view’.

page 167 note 1 Newbigin, L., The Household of God (1953), P. 124.Google Scholar