Marek wrote: > However, the historical Buddha apparently > arrived at his awakening after (if not > necessarily because of) the pursuit and > practice of methods that were part of an > already long-existing enlightenment/moksha > tradition. > Actually, the historical Buddha seems to have rejected most of the systems prevalent in his time: asceticism, skepticism, materialism, and nihilism, and theism, as well as most of the conclusions of the Vedic rishis. He also rejected the notion of the indvidual soul monad espoused by the Upanishadic thinkers.
> The Upanishads were already written and > discussed among practitioners and seekers > when Buddha was teaching his take on what > realization was. The enlightenment tradition > didn't spring, full-blown from Buddha, but > was articulated and renewed by him. > It has not been established that the Upanishads were composed before the advent of the historical Buddha. History in India begins with the historical Buddh - everything before that is considerd to be pre-history, and is mostly pure conjecture. All I can say is that if the Upanishads had been composed before the Shakya, he would have mentioned them by name and author, but he did not, although he enumerated almost all the prevelanet systems of his time. We may safely assume however, that the yoga system was pre-Vedic, since the Vedas do not mention any yoga techniques. Where it came from is still disputed, but I suspect it came out of what is now southern India.
