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man without qualities (nirguna) and with qualities (saguna) as a guide to the proper differentiated reading of the upanisads, and 2. the intentionally puzzling and paradoxical upanisadic "great sayings" (mahavakya), which express nonduality and thereby make readers reread the entirety of the various upanisadic contexts and review their own Textually determined reality. |
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1. Denying to Brahman its Qualities (nirgunatva) |
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Although the upanisads frequently characterize Brahmanand the correlate Self, Man, etc.as possessed of various qualities, on occasion they also instruct us to deny these qualities, portraying Brahman as ineffable, devoid of qualities, properly understood through the negation of qualities, etc. Both kinds of statements command respect, and both need to be read carefully; it is true that Brahman is devoid of qualities, and it is also true that Brahman has qualities. The final truth of Brahmanthat it has no qualitiesis communicated in the shift back and forth from declarations of the presence of qualities to declarations of the absence of qualities, shifts which bring about a specific kind of attention in the student who takes all the texts seriously. The tension between the two kinds of statements creates an unstable and creative environment for reading, in which the reader is repeatedly repositioned in relation to the texts used in meditation and study. |
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The value of the tension is witnessed by the fact that Sankara preserves it, resisting formulations about Brahman which reduce the two kinds of statementBrahman lacks all qualities, Brahman is qualified in various waysto a single plane of understanding in which the first permanently excludes the second. He insists that the upanisads are to be used in both of these ways, for different purposes; a variety of readers are to be engaged according to their intentions, (usually) using first those texts which positively describe Brahman in various ways and (then, later) at other times those texts which declare the absence of qualities. The texts are not contradictory, since they are not about the same thing at the same time; nor are they usable in |
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