Ishwa helper Reged: 03/03/02 Posts: 553

Re: Achievement [Re: willie] #16997 - 06/02/02 07:08 AM Edit Reply Quote

The explanation of the diversity of you, Willie, is wrong. That is applying a modern situation to an old one. This is the danger when you don't understand the past, through texts, (oral and living) traditions and archeology. The diversity of Hinduism or any movement is due to human social behaviour: Every family and every person has its own understanding and therefore practice of that. Every generation every region, every principality, every nation will develop varieties, even without a huge increase of population. I haven't even mentioned different schools of thought then. That comes when different and diverging ideas are already there to balance them or throw some ideas away. Not only people are changing, also their understanding of the ideas due to the language that has changed.The remodelling has also a root in the change in language and semantics or even when words become obsolete. Another feature of human nature is that they like diversity as a distraction. In a time when radio and tv weren't there, oral elaborations and theatre were the popular means to transmit culture. This gave the necessary variations within and between regions. Though the package or shape changed, the intrinsical meaning and character remained over the ages and countries. Another misconception is that Buddhism tried to move Hinduism into other thought patterns, as is obvious that he was only reiterating the Hindu Vedanta philosophy of his time: Upanishadic philosophy. It is a outdated misconception that Buddhism is different. Anyone specialized with Buddhism will underline this. Of course the variations became larger, especially outside India, where it fused with the local traditions, but still was and remained Upanishadic with the monks! Within India it absorbed different Hindu philosophical traditions to become also diverse and have offshoots abroad.