Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c5.s5.3

v1.c5.s5.3

The Upanisads and the Buddhist texts, in fact, are at one about the highest reality with this vital difference that according to the Upanisads the highest reality is ātman, the self par excellence, the soul of the universe, and it is manomaya while according to the Buddhists, excepting the Vijñānavādins, the highest reality is anātman, indescribable, and is absolutely without any attributes (suññatā) and it is not even manomaya and also not vijñaptimātra as the Vijñānavādins would have us accept. The Chā. Up. (vi. 7) is emphatic in its assertion that there is a very subtle substance (sa ya eṣo’ṇimā) which becomes apparent to us as diverse objects which therefore exist only in appearance not in reality. With the help of several similes the underlying oneness of all objects has been explained to Śvetaketu by his father.