Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s7.t15.35

v1.c7.s7.t15.35

During the process of creating the theory by Shankara, some ideas of Buddhism have been absorbed. A long time ago, Mahayana was very popular in India. When discussing Advaita, Shankara more or less absorbed some theories of Buddhism, such as “Emptiness”, “True meaning” and “Samvrti-satya”, the method to control the reality of things by Buddhism. Shankara has also been called “Pracchanna Buddha” in India’s history because he absorbed some Buddhism components in his theory. But it is obvious that the attitude to Buddhism by Shankara is different from that of Gaudapada. In the degree of absorbing Buddhism theory, Gaudapada had more achievements than Shankara. Furthermore, when assimilating Buddhism theory, some ideas of Buddhism was also criticised by Shankara. This is different from Gaudapada. In addition, the foundation for Advaita formation of Shankara and Gaudapada was the doctrine of Ancient India canon in Brahmanism, especially the idea of Upanishad and “*Brahma-sutra*” instead of the theory of Buddhism. Moreover, some doctrines, which were usually viewed as independent theories of Buddhism, were absorbed by Buddhism from references of ancient Brahmanism in fact, such as Veda Upanishad; or founded on the base of Brahmanism. Viewed from this aspect, Advaita of Shankara mainly resulted from the transformation and improvement on the development of Brahmanism. Its theoretic source is still the canon of ancient Brahmanism.