• Table of Contents
  • Resort to Silence by Swami Veda Bharati
  • Meditation as “Indwelling” by Wolfgang Bischoff
  • My Friend the Mantra by Randall Krause
  • Bali Comes to SRSG by Joanne Sullivan (Divya)
  • Yoga for Inner Peace and Outer Strength by Rajah Indran
  • Homage to the Masters! by Suruchi Maitra
  • Dear Yoga Mentor, My Question Is…
  • On a Festival Called Savitri… by Dr. Shirin Venkat
  • Speak to Me of Silence by Nandini Grace Bishop
  • Self and Non-Self, Permanence and Impermanence
  • Sing like the Birds Sing by Ilyaz Nasrullah
  • SRSG Ashram News by Lalita Arya
  • Thunderstorm at SRSG
  • The Tunnel Inside by Daniel Hertz
  • 2013 Events and Beyond
  • Full Moon Meditation Dates
  • Location of the SRSG ashram
• AHYMSIN Newsletter Archive

Self and Non-Self

Permanence and Impermanence

In Kashmir in October, Swami Veda participated in a dialogue sponsored by the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW).  This is the GPIW report on this event.

In 2011, GPIW had organized a Sufi-Yogi Dialogue in Srinagar in partnership with the Institute of Kashmir Studies and made deep connections with the local community of Sufis, visiting old Sufi shrines and some of the elders of the tradition.

This year we organized a dialogue between Buddhists and Hindus on the theme of "Self and Non-Self; Permanence and Impermanence." The dialogue consisted of a circle reflection with some of the great practitioners from these two traditions.

The intention was not to be an academic exercise but rather to have a sharing of personal experience, the result of years of meditation practice. The question posed was whether there is any great difference in the final goal sought by the Yogis in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions.

Swami Veda Bharati, founder of the Association of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Societies International, opened the session by saying that we were limited by words and concepts, and that what Is, is beyond any concept. The mind cannot grasp the Ultimate, but it can be experienced. What do we mean by Self and what do we mean by Non-Self?

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, founder of the Dongyu Gatsal Ling nunnery, responded by saying that the Buddha rejected the limited notion of the self, but not the un-separated Self as described in the Upanishads. It is the sense of separateness that is rejected as not being the Ultimate Reality. She acknowledged the primordial consciousness, which in the Yogic tradition is known as the One and only Reality.

“The discussion was a profound exploration of the deeper truths in these religious traditions.

“Local Sufis participated as observers for the first few sessions and then provided input from their traditions. There emerged at the end a consensus that these traditions were essentially in agreement.

“We found the discussion to be of such importance that we will be creating a book from the contributions, and will explore further dialogues on this topic.”

Editor's Note

"There is no option for the world but to search out the unifying streams"-Swami Veda Bharati

Further reading (click on titles below):

• The GPIW newsletter with the above report
• GPIW Summary Report – Sufi Yogi Dialogue, Coming to the One through the Many (held in Rishikesh, partly at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama)
• Meet three of Swami Veda’s new Friends from the Sufi-Yogi Dialogue
• A Sufi-Yogi Dialog (held in New Delhi, India)