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III.3.39: A statement from one meditation can be introduced into another, even if that meditation is of a mixed nature, i.e., if some parts of it pertaining to Brahman with qualities (saguna), others to Brahman without qualities (nirguna). Even if a few parts do not fit the new context, which may be exclusively about Brahman without qualities or with qualities, one can borrow the parts which fit and omit the others. |
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Good readers are able to read a text, determine its major points and use it appropriately, and downplay the parts which are there only for some secondary, supporting reason. |
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UMS III.3.58: According to the purvapaksin, either all the qualities linked to Brahman should apply to it everywhere-in effect, there should be one large meditationor none matters, since Brahman is really one and is unrelated to all the mentioned qualities. The siddhantin argues differently: ''Even though the object of meditation is the same, still the meditations of this class ought to be different. Why? Because there are differences in their terminology, etc. "Though the Lord who is to be meditated on is the same, nevertheless different qualities are taught in different contexts." [UMS III.3.58] One of Brahman's qualities is to be meditated upon in one place, and another in another place. Brahman is open to a variety of specifications and is not linked with one to the exclusion of others. |
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Thus developed, the practice of coordination does not lead the Advaitins to conclude that Brahman can be thought about in general, under a composite form constructed by the harmonization of all upanisadic texts. Rather, the practice is designed to safeguard the ongoing act of reading, remembering and combining texts selectively in acts of meditation, so that the extratextual and full nature of Brahman will modify how we read texts while yet not undermining that reading entirely. What is required is not a full understanding of Brahman, but the intelligent reader's insight, the skill to be able to recognize when to combine and when not to combine what is said in different texts. |
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The practice and its explanation legitimately mark the subject matter of UMS III.3. Yet, it should be clear, knowing that |
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