Bhagavan Buddha also holds that this world which changes from moment to moment is unreal, it is only a reflection and a thing of which it is the reflection alone is real.+

Buddhism and its relationship with Science are like that of water and wine, one cannot say there is no water in wine, but when you drink it, it would not be the water but wine... thus Einstein’s view is water in wine because modern science does not believe in the matter but in this religion, everything is the matter only"

Bhagavan Buddha also holds that this world which changes from moment to moment is no real, it is only a reflection and a thing of which it is the reflection alone is real. Bhagavan Buddha was not an atheist. He never denied reality. There is nothing in his words or teaching to show that he considered truth to be non-existent like the horns of a hare. He could not have held the foolish view that something came out of nothing. It is true; some of his disciples misunderstood and misinterpreted him. his idea was that the truth which cannot be designated by a name or described is words and of which one cannot even say whether it is existent or none extent  is like non-existent.  The idea is quite in agreement with the view of the Upanishads.

An object which cannot even be talked about, is, for all practical purposes, as good as non-extent. But it is not non-existent in the sense that the son of a barren woman is non-existent. This subtle idea, Buddha's contemporaries and even his disciple fail to catch. In one passage, Bhagavan Buddha says clearly: Srmana Gautama was an atheist. It is the annihilation of the non-existent truth that he teaches. So will people attribute to me atheism, which is not mine? So will they ascribe me to the theory of non-existence, which again is not mine? 

From these similar statements of  Bhagavan Buddha, it is clear that he was not an atheist. All philosophers old and new arrive at the same point. Orthodox Advaita (monism) is inevitable; the people of thoughtful temperament cannot find peace, and quietude until they do so. Moksha (liberation) is in the realization of oneness with God. They speak of God Goddesses, devotion, and devotee only in an accurate way only from the standpoint of dvaithi.  After realizing oneness with God, there is no distinction between God and devote, and the word "devotion" has no meaning. 
  

People, immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's mission. Because these performers of karma do not know the non-dual Truth owing to their attachment, they will never be able to cross the ocean of duality, or cycle of birth, life, and death.

Dalai Lama said:~   Buddhism need not be the best religion though it is most scientific and the religion and inquisitive. But Buddhism has no answer to certain questions like the existence of Atama [soul] and rebirth.   Dali Lama said that as an individual he believes in rebirth as he had come across a few cases of rebirth.  Modern science, Dalai Lama hoped would unearth the mystery behind the rebirth. (In DH –dec-212009-Gulbarga).

Buddhism is the religion founded by the Bhagavan Buddha, Gautama Siddhartha, in the 6th Century BCE. Like many other offshoots from philosophies spawning from Upanishadic speculation (Gautama himself was a Kshatriya, or noble, and well-versed in Vedic philosophy), it is a religion begun as a reaction to Vedism and the orthodoxy of that time.

Buddhism sees the 'self' as an aggregate of many elements called 'skandhas' which include one's physical form senses, perceptions, deeds, and conceptions. It attempts to free its adherents from the cycle of birth, death, and re-birth by the doctrine of Enlightenment and contends that salvation is only possible after the elimination of suffering, caused chiefly by attachment, striving, and seduction by the senses.

Bhagavan Buddha:~ No one saves us but ourselves.  No one can, and no one may.  We ourselves must walk the path. 

Remember:~

Bhagavan Buddha as a constructive worker committed an error in failing to give the masses a religion, something tangible they could grasp, something materialistic, if symbolic that their limited intellect could take hold of, in addition to his ethics and philosophy. Here  Sage  Sankara was wiser and gave religion; such as Bhakti, worship, etc.--to the ignorant masses, as well as wisdom to those of higher intellect.

Buddhism has not proved the truth of Non-duality.  There is no doubt Buddha pointed out the unreality of the world. He told people they were foolish to cling to it. But he stopped there. He came nearest to Advaita in speech but not to Advaita fully. 

The practices of the path and the destination or goals of both religions can be different. Theravada Buddhism is relatively conservative, and generally closest to early Buddhism. Later on, Mahayana and Vajrayana also developed. It appears that later schools of Buddhism has developed a variety of other ritual and devotional practices that were inspired or influenced by the existing religious cultures of India, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Tibet. Little differences can be found between later schools of Buddhism and Hinduism. There is a huge difference when comparing Hinduism to the teachings of  Bhagavan Buddha as recorded in the Pali Canon of the Theravada school of Buddhism.

Bhagavan Buddha is a Sanskrit word. Bhagavan Buddha means "awakened one." Bhagavan Buddha Buddha is someone who has realized the enlightenment that ends the cycle of birth and death and which brings liberation from suffering.

Among all the Bhagavan Buddha's teachings, those on the nature of the 'Self' are the hardest to understand, yet they are central to the religion. In fact, "fully perceiving the nature of the self" is one way to define enlightenment.

The Five Skandhas

The Buddha taught that an individual is a combination of five aggregates of existence, also called the Five Skandhas. These are:-

1. Form
2. Sensation
3. Perception
4. Mental Formations
5. Consciousness

Various schools of Buddhism interpret the skandhas in somewhat different ways. Generally, the first skandha is our physical form. The second is made up of our feelings, emotional and physical, and our senses -- seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and  smelling.

The third skandha, perception take in most of what we call thinking --conceptualization, cognition, and reasoning. This also includes the recognition that occurs when an organ comes into contact with an object. Perception can be thought of as "that which identifies." The object perceived may be a physical object or a mental one, such as an idea.

The fourth skandha, mental formations, includes habits, prejudices, and predispositions. Our volition, or willfulness, also is part of the fourth skandha, as our attention, faith, conscientiousness, pride, desire, vindictiveness, and many other mental states are both virtuous and not virtuous. The causes and effects of karma are especially important to the fourth skandha.

The fifth skandha, consciousness, is awareness of or sensitivity to an object, but without conceptualization. Once there is awareness, the third skandha might recognize the object and assign the  concept-value to it, and the fourth skandha might react with desire or revulsion or some other mental formation. The fifth skandha is explained in some schools as the base that ties the experience of life together.

What's most important to understand about the skandhas is that they are empty. They are not qualities that an individual possesses because there is no-self possessing them. This doctrine of no-self is called anatman or anatta.

Very basically, the Buddha taught that "you" are not an integral, autonomous entity. The individual self, or what we might call the ego, is more correctly thought of as a by-product of the skandhas.

On the surface, this appears to be nihilistic teaching. But the Buddha taught that if we can see through the delusion of the small, individual self, we experience that which is not subject to birth and death.

Two Views

Beyond this point, Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism differs on how anatman is understood. In fact, more than anything else it is the different understanding of self that defines and separates the two schools.

Very basically, Theravada considers anatman to mean that an individual's ego or personality is a fetter and delusion. Once freed of this delusion, the individual may enjoy the bliss of Nirvana.

Mahayana, on the other hand, considers all physical forms to be void of intrinsic self (teaching called shunyata, which means "emptiness"). The ideal in Mahayana is to enable all beings to be enlightened together, not only out of a sense of compassion but because we are not really separate, autonomous beings.

There's an apparent discrepancy between the Bhagavan Buddha's words in The Dhammapada "By oneself, indeed, is evil done; by oneself is one defiled. By oneself is evil left undone; by oneself, indeed, is one purified. Purity and impurity depend on oneself. No one purifies another." (Dhammapada, chapter 12, verse 165)

Bhagavan Buddha also holds that this world which changes from moment to moment is no real, it is only a reflection and a thing of which it is the reflection alone is real. Buddha was not an atheist. He never denied reality. There is nothing in his words or teaching to show that he considered truth to be non-existent like the horns of a hare. He could not have held the foolish view that something came out of nothing. It is true; some of his disciples misunderstood and misinterpreted him. his idea was that the truth which cannot be designated by a name or described is words and of which one cannot even say whether it is existent, or none extent, is like non-existent.  The idea is quite in agreement with the view of the Upanishads. An object which cannot even be talked about, is, for all practical purposes, as good as non-extent. But it is not non-existent in the sense that the son of a barren woman is non-existent.  This subtle idea, Buddha's contemporaries and even his disciple fail to catch. In one passage Buddha says clearly: Srmana Gautama was an atheist. It is the annihilation of the non-existent truth that he teaches. So will people attribute to me atheism, which is not mine? So will they ascribe me to the theory of non-existence, which again is not mine? 

From these similar statements of the Buddha, it is clear that he was not an atheist. All the philosopher old and new arrivals at the same point. Orthodox Advaita (monism) is inevitable; the people of thoughtful temperament cannot find peace, and quietude until they do so. Moksha(liberation) is in the realization of oneness with God. They speak of God Goddesses, devotion, and devotee only in an inaccurate way only from the standpoint of dvaithi.  After realizing oneness with God, there is no distinction between God and devote, and the word "devotion" has no meaning.   

Buddhists and Jains did not believe in the Vedic positions and did not accept the scriptures. Hence, Sage Sankara had to meet their objections also.  Biographical anecdotes about his persecution of Jains and Buddhists or of his challenges to self-immolation for the loser of a debate are all foolish tales fabricated after his lifetime either by his own followers who took him to be a religious propagator but not as a  philosopher or by the dualistic cult. 

 Bhagavan Buddha, Sage Sankara, and Sage Goudpada have declared non-dual truth centuries back, but one has to reach the destination with a scientific (rational) investigation, not through punditry and intellectuality. One has to mentally reach the final conclusion, then only the conviction becomes firm. Without a firm conviction, the wisdom will not dawn. Therefore, there is a need to know consciousness is real all else is a myth, which Sage Sankara declared as the world  isa  myth and  Brahman alone is real.

Sage Sankara disagrees with Buddhists who say, there is nothing - a nonentity. Sage  Sankara believes there is some reality, even though things are not what they appear to be. If one knows the truth, he will know what to do to find inspiration for action. The seeker of truth‘s subject is to know what is it that is Real.

Buddhism says: all things are illusory and nothing exists.  However, Advaita avers that it is not so.  It says that the universe, of course, is illusory, but there is Brahman, that exists forming the very substratum of all things. 

Sage Sankara says Atman is Brahman and everything is Brahman is a scientific declaration not religious or yogic. Sage Sankara and Sage Goudpada are more scientific than anyone else in the world. Since the real Advaitic essence is hidden it cannot be got without the inner (mental) journey.

Sage  Goudpada says: ~ The merciful Veda teaches that  the karma and Upasana to people of lower and middling intellect while Gnana is taught to those of higher intellect. Gnana here is knowledge uncontradictable truth or scientific truth. Thus, their scientific truth of the whole, not the part is declared by Sage Sankara 1400 years back and thought only to those of higher intellect. Thus karma and Upasana, yoga, and orthodoxy have to be bifurcated to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman.  

Sage Sankara was criticized for his views on Maya (illusion) without understanding him. He said that (1) Brahman (Atman) is real (2) the universe is unreal, and (3) Brahman is the universe. He did not stop at the second because the third explains the other two. It signifies that the universe is real if perceived as the ‘Self’ and unreal if perceived as apart from the Self. Hence, Maya or illusion and reality are one and the same. 

The dualists criticize the concept of illusion without understanding it. Sage  Sankara said:~

(1) Consciousness (Atman) is real

(2) The universe ( mind) is unreal, and

(3) Consciousness is the universe(mind because the universe or mind is merely an illusion created out of Atman (consciousness).  

 One need not stop at the second because the third explains the other two. It signifies that the universe is real if perceived as the Self and unreal if perceived as apart from the Self (consciousness). Hence, illusion and reality are one and the same because both are one in essence. Realizing the essence, which is consciousness as the innermost Self, is Self-Realization or truth- Realization of God-Realization. Sage  Sankara‘s declaration is a rational truth, scientific truth, and also the ultimate truth. 

The Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is for those who are capable of inquiring into their own existence to know and realize the ultimate truth or Brahman.:~Santthosh Kumaar