Sage Sankara disagrees with Buddhists who say, there is nothing - nonentity.+

Bhagavan Buddha: ~ There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: not going all the way... and not starting.

Buddhism has no answer to certain questions like the existence of Atama (Soul). 

Dalai Lama said: ~  Buddhism need not be the best religion though it is more scientific and 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 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 distinction between Sage Sri, Sankara’s Advaita, and Vijnanavadin Buddhism is that the former is mentalism i.e. mind is the real, whereas the latter is idealism, i.e. ideas are real. We follow the former.

Buddhism did not graduate its teaching to suit people of varying grades; hence its failure to affect society in Asia.

Bhagavan Buddha's teachings that all life is misery belong to the relative standpoint only. For you cannot form any idea of misery without contrasting it with its opposite, happiness. The two will always go together. Bhagavan Buddha taught the goal of cessation of misery, i.e. peace, but took care not to discuss the ultimate standpoint for then he would have had to go above the heads of the people and tell them that misery itself was only an idea, that peace even was an idea (for it contrasted with peacelessness). That the doctrine he gave out was a limited one, is evident because he inculcated compassion. Why should a Buddhist sage practice pity? There is no reason for it.

Advaita is the next step higher than Buddhism because it gives the missing reason, viz. unity, non-difference from others, and because it explains that it used the concept of removing the sufferings of others, of lifting them up to happiness, only as we use one thorn to pick out another, afterward throw both away. Similarly,  Advaita discards both concepts of misery and happiness in the ultimate standpoint of non-duality, which is indescribable. 

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 (consciousness), that exists, forming the very substratum of all things (illusion or universe).

Sage Sankara opposed the Buddhists only, who misunderstood Buddha and became atheists. According to Sage Sankara meditation always means the critical analysis of the Self to get salvation from worldly tensions. Due to the eccentric ego of the then atheists, Sage Sankara did not go beyond this since the atheists will not accept God beyond themselves. This limitation is not due to limited knowledge of Sage  Sankara but is due to the then-existing situation of the psychology of the surrounding society.

Even Bhagavan Buddha kept silent about God because the society dealt by Him consisted of Purvamimamsakas, who were strong atheists. Bhagavan Buddha told that everything including the Self is only relatively real (Sunya). This is correct because the Self is a part of the universe, which is relatively real with respect to the absolute unimaginable God. The Bhagavan Buddha stopped at this point because the atheists cannot realize the existence of the unimaginable God indicated through His silence. 

The point of Buddha is that if God is non-existent, the entire creation including Self is non-existent. Sage Sankara wanted to establish the existence of the Brahman. For this purpose, He made the Atman as Brahman. He brought out the identity of Self with the consciousness and made the Atman the Brahman. Since one will not negate the existence of his Self, he will accept the existence of the Brahman, which is the Atman or Soul the innermost Self. Both Bhagavan Buddha and Sage Sankara kept silent about the absolute unimaginable God. The same philosophy was dealt with by them from different angles in different situations.

Buddhism is the religion founded by the 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.

Jainism is the religion that gradually splintered from Vedism around the time of the Upanishads and was systemized as a doctrine by Vardhadaman (Mahavira) around 550 BCE. It believes in the body and Soul as separate, with the Soul enmeshed in the karmic matter that it must work off in order to reach Nirvana. Its five highest principles, or Vrathas, are Ahimsa (non-violence), Asathya Tyaga (relinquishing of anger, wrath, and deceit), Astheya (abstention from coveting or thievery), Aparigraha (relinquishing of anger, wrath, and deceit), Astheya (abstention from coveting or thievery), Aparigraha (relinquishment of excess, particularly in regard to property), and Brahmacharya (moderation in earthly pleasures).

Bhagavan Buddha said, “Perfectly tame your own mind. This is the Buddha’s teachings." BhagavanBuddha did not say, “Perfectly tame others' minds.” We must purify our own mind. When you purify your mind you must begin with those who surround you every day, your family, friends, etc.

Bhagavan Buddha: ~ He who experiences the unity of life, sees his own Self in all beings & all beings in his own Self, looks with an impartial eye.

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Bhagavan Buddha says: Go alone, just remember two things. Don’t carry your mistakes — that means, don’t carry your past. There is no need even to repent about the past. Your religious people go on teaching you, “Repent!” because it is through repentance that they make you feel guilty, and when you are guilty you can be exploited.

A real master always makes you feel good about yourself, not guilty; respectful towards yourself, not guilty. But the priests live on creating guilt in you. They would not like you to forget your mistakes; they want to remind you again and again. They have not even forgotten the sin that was committed by Adam and Eve; they go on reminding you about the original sin.

You have not committed it, but you are born into the chain in which the first man and woman committed it and you are carrying the load of it. You have to feel guilty even for that, what to say about your own mistakes? The priests have lived in great power for the simple reason that they have reduced you into guilty sinners.

Remember:~

Bhagavan Buddha existed in India in a period when the whole country was going through a crisis of everything irrational: the Vedas, the Upanishads, the whole mysticism. The movement against all this was very great, particularly in Bihar where Bhagavan Buddha was.

BhagavanBuddha was charismatic and hypnotic. People were impressed by him. But the interpretation of BhagavanBuddha was bound to be rational.

Bhagavan Buddha had lived at another time in history, in a part of the world that was not against mysticism, he would have been seen as a great mystic, not as an intellectual. The face that is known belongs to the history of a particular time. As I seeBhagavanBuddha, he was not primarily rational. The whole concept of nirvana is mystical.

He was even more mystical than the Upanishads, because the Upanishads, however, mystical they look, have their own rationality. They talk about the transmigration of the Soul. Bhagavan Buddha talked about transmigration without a Soul. It is more mystical.

Bhagavan Buddha said:~ The Upanishads talk about liberation, but you will be there. Otherwise, the whole thing becomes nonsense. If I cannot be in that ultimate state of existence, then the whole effort is useless and illogical. Bhagavan Buddha said the effort is to be done – and you will not be there. It will just be nothingness. The concept is more mystical. ~(OSHO):~Santthosh Kumaar