[QUOTE=Surya Deva;46588]Indra Deva,
The biggest difference between Hinduism and Buddhism is the doctrines of shunyata and annata. In all other areas they agree(karma, dharma, moksha, dukkha etc) In Greek philosophy, Heraclitus and his school was only one school of Greek philosophy who believed change was absolute. It does not characteristize Greek philosophy as the doctrines of shunyata and annata characterize Buddhist philosophy. The doctrines of shunyata and annata are absolutely central to Buddhist philosophy. They barely figure in Greek philosophy. Greek philosophy is classified into two stages: presocratic and postsocratic, because of how important socratic philosophy was in defining what Greek philosophy was. There is nothing in socratic philosophy which supports Buddhist doctrines, rather you find socratic philosophy supports Hindu philosophy through and through and it is noted by many scholars.
Vitsaxis G. Vassilis, in his book Plato and the Upanishads, argues that exponents of literature, science, philosophy and religion traveled regularly between the two countries. He points to accounts by Eusebius and Aristoxenes, of the visits of Indian sages to Athens and their meetings with Greek philosophers. And reference to the visit of Indians to Athens is found in the fragment of Aristotle preserved in the writings of Diogenes Laertius who was also one of Pythagoras? biographers.
The essence of Socratic and Platonic philosophy has remained unintelligible in the West because of lack of insight into Indian thought. Plato’s view of Reality is the same as that of the Upanishads. His method of attaining knowledge of the Good is that of Vedanta. In the Phaedo, Plato describes silent meditation as withdrawal of the senses from their objects and as stilling the processes of mind.
The Greek theoria of the Pythagoreans, of Socrates and Plato, from which the world ‘theater’ comes is the vision or darshana of the Upanishads. Plato mentions that philosophic wisdom can only be communicated directly from a teacher to disciple, like lighting one lamp by another. The Timaeus indicates after the manner of the Upanishads that the receiver of philosophic truth must be a fit person - fit by character and not by reason of intellect alone. Platonic thought is so un-Greek in the sense in which Greek thought is generally taken, namely, purely rationalism, that some philosopher, such as Nietzsche, have called it " un-Hellenic."
Pythagoras was particularly influenced by Indian philosophy. Professor R. G. Rawlinson remarks that:
“almost all the theories, religious, philosophical, and mathematical, taught by the Pythagorians were known in India in the sixth century B.C.”
The thought of Plotinus is Hindu. Eusebius in his biography of Socrates, relates an incident recorded in the fourth century B.C. in which Socrates met a Brahmin in the agora or the market place. The Brahmin asked Socrates what he was doing. Socrates replied that he was questioning people in order to understand man. At this, the Brahmin laughed and asked how one could understand man without knowing God.
The Socrates conception of freedom and virtue is that of the Upanishads. Socrates defined virtue as knowledge. Virtue is character, the realization of the essence of man. Know thyself, which is exactly the same as the Upanisadic command, Atmanam biddhi. In the Gita, knowledge or wisdom is defined as character. Virtue, comes from the Vedic word vira (hero, man).
Greek philosophy began in Asia Minor and Greek writers refer to the travels of Pythagoras, and others, to the East to gain wisdom. According to his biographer Iamblichus,
“Pythagoras traveled widely, studying the esoteric teachings of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and even Brahmins.”
Professor H. G. Rawlinson writes: " It is more likely that Pythagoras was influenced by India than by Egypt. Almost all the theories, religions, philosophical and mathematical taught by the Pythagoreans, were known in India in the sixth century B.C., and the Pythagoreans, like the Jains and the Buddhists, refrained from the destruction of life and eating meat and regarded certain vegetables such as beans as taboo" "It seems that the so-called Pythagorean theorem of the quadrature of the hypotenuse was already known to the Indians in the older Vedic times, and thus before Pythagoras (ibid). (Legacy of India 1937, p. 5).[/QUOTE]
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You had better start providing sources (& I mean REPUTABLE HISTORIANS) & quit cutting & pasting w/o provided links. [/B]
http://www.hinduwisdom.info/India_and_Greece.htm
I seem to recall requesting HISTORICAL CITATIONS, not one of your crazy pro-Hindu websites. You seem to like quoting this same quack. Come up with something better.
