AWAKEN FROM WHAT?

The Buddha was asked if he was a God, to which he replied, no, he was not.  He was then asked if he was a man, to which he replied, no, he was not.  What then was he, he was asked.  His answer was that he was one who had awakened.

But now from what had the Buddha awakened?  He had awakened from the sleep of avidya, ignorance, and from the sleep of maya, illusion.  Avidya is individual ignorance, and maya is universal ignorance.

In Buddhism, avidya refers to a person believing that he is separate from everything else.  He thinks “I am one and unique.  Up to here is ‘me,’ the rest is ‘they.’”  This, before long, though, creates confusion, frustration, and suffering in him.

In Vedanta, avidya is a person believing he is separate from God, Brahman, when, in fact, he is one and the same.  A person’s true self, who he is in fact, is the Atman, and the Atman is Brahman.  When a person sees himself as separate from God, it also, before long, creates confusion, frustration, and suffering in him.

Maya, in Buddhism, is likened to the illusion produced by a magician.  A magician causes us to misperceive and draw false conclusion about what we are seeing.  The real problem with maya, in the view of Vedanta, is that it keeps us from God.

There is in Vedanta the awakening of the Atman, too.  This is the Atman coming to see that it is not the person it is residing in, the person it is identifying as, what is called the sheaths, but is instead Brahman. Atman is God immanent; Brahman is God transcendent.