Vinaire's Blog

Reference: Mindfulness Approach

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As explained in Wikipedia, in Hinduism, and in particular Jnana Yoga and Advaita Vedanta, neti neti (नेति नेति) is a Sanskrit expression which means “not this, not this”, or “neither this, nor that” (neti is sandhi from na iti “not so”).

Thus, neti neti is negation of “something” to get at the esoteric understanding of “nothing”. This understanding of nothing is recognized in Hinduism as “Brahman”, and in Buddhism as “emptiness”. “Something” has a beginning. So, Brahman or emptiness lies at the root of the BEGINNING.

NOTHING is “absence of manifestation.” In other words, Brahman and emptiness also represent the absence of any and all manifestations.

Science cannot go into the beginning of universe as long as it presupposes SOMETHING to exist before the beginning. This is the limitation of science.

Western religion cannot go into the beginning of universe as long as it presupposes CAUSE to exist before the beginning. This is the limitation of western religion.

Logic, Mathematics and Philosophy cannot go into the beginning of universe as long as they presuppose THOUGHT to exist before the beginning. This is the limitation of Logic, Mathematics and Philosophy.

To describe the beginning of the universe then, one may speculate upon the nature of NOTHING, BRAHMAN or EMPTINESS. But that would give us another universe. This is where mindfulness comes in.

Mindfulness is “seeing things as they are”.

At the basis of mindfulness lies the recognition of something or nothing.

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