Ancient Reality Teachings: The Single Transcendental Truth Taught by the Great Sages of Buddhism and Advaitism. as Revealed by the Avataric Great Sage, Adi Da Samraj (Perfect Knowledge Series)

In the tradition of masters across time, Adi Da Samaraj would often take a traditional text and give a free rendering and/or an in-depth explanation of it, sifting the spiritual truth of the text from the silt of time and translation, misunderstanding and doctrinal discord. He has done so here, elucidating most clearly that Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta are talking about the same fundamental Reality; their differences just being a different approach. To not read Adi Da Samraj is to refuse a fine banquet cooked by a master chef of the highest order.

In this book, author Adi Da Samraj examines the highest teachings of Buddhism and Advaitic Hinduism to reveal a single, transcendental truth that these two spiritual traditions express in somewhat different language. The author closely considers certain key texts from each of these "camps". From Buddhism, he looks at teachings from the historical Buddha (Gotama Sakyamuni, c. 563 BCE–c. 483 BCE) and Nagarjuna (c. 150–250 BCE) who is considered by many scholars to be the most important Buddhist philosopher after the Buddha himself. From Advaitism, the author considers teachings from Shankara (788 CE–820 CE) whose doctrines influenced virtually all Hindu thought from his time forward, and from the authors of the Devikalottara (an upagama or supplemental text associated with tradition of South Indian Saivism from the first millennium of the current era), as well as the Ribhu Gita, which comprises part six of the Siva Rahasya (date uncertain; probably after the eighth century of the current era). This is a lot of intellectual territory to cover. Each of these authors or texts could easily become the subject of very large books of religious philosophy—and have been. However, to his great credit and my great gratitude as a reader, author Adi Da Samraj is judiciously brief in his quotations, concise in his explanations, and straightforward in his language, managing to cover a wealth of fascinating matters in 11 chapters totaling 189 pages. The entire book, including the introduction and appendix, glossary and other back matter, comes in at a tidy 278 pages. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

From this Teacher, always only Reality