Advaita; Hinduism's Relations to Buddhism; Buddhism's Relations to Hinduism; Sleep; Soul; Hinduism; Philosophy; Vedanta; Prasad, H. S.
摘要
An examination of the Vedantic theory of soul based on the experience of dreamless sleep. The Vedantins see such sleep as a state of temporarily purified individual soul and therefore take it as a model experience of the soul's ultimate liberation from the body and its faculties. Buddhists reject this theory because they deny the existence of an autonomous and substantial soul whose essence is unchangingly permanent，pure consciousness, and self-illuminating knowledge. They see the soul as a product of the operation of a person's psycho-physical organism and a mere subject of such actions as knowing，thinking，and desiring. The Vedanta, particularly the Advaita Vedanta, metaphysics of soul is inadequate in many respects and is primarily based on a priori and scriptural arguments and emotive appeals. In contrast，the Buddhist denial of any type of autonomous and permanent agent of knowing，thinking，and desiring is based on a successful reduction of substantial consciousness to mere acts of knowing.
