Mahayana Buddhism and Early Advaita Vedanta (Study)
by Asokan N. | 2018 | 48,955 words
This thesis is called: Mahayana Buddhism And Early Advaita Vedanta A Critical Study. It shows how Buddhism (especially Mahayana) was assimilated into Vedantic theorisation in due course of time. Philosophical distance between Mahayana Buddhism and Advaita-Vedanta became minimal with the advent of Gaudapada and Shankaracharya, who were both harbinge...
Chapter 4.7 - Reality in Madhyamika (f): Dharmadhatu
It is a reference to the ultimate reality, Nirvana, the ultimate nature of the conditioned and the contingent. Dharma stands for Nirvana, it is Prajnaparamita itself, which is same as Nirvana. Dhatu conveys the sense of the essential, intrinsic, fundamental and ultimate essence of the things. This is the basic of all things, inner essence of all things. The Buddha and the Sages having realized the power of wisdom through severe cultivation of moral practices and contemplation, taught the Nirvana–dharmadhatu, what they have experienced directly in the world of Samsara. It is the universal reality, the immeasurable the limitless, the most profound, most mysterious dharma, which is called dharmadhatu, there is nothing else, mysterious skill to reach the end which also means realization. All beings are ultimately identical with the dharma. It is unborn and undestroyed, the ultimate nature, the dharmadhatu itself is Prajnaparamita, which is in the supreme sense Bodhisatva and the Buddha.