Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Yogic practices such as meditation, devotional practices, ascetic austerities, and ethical development serve as indirect means to liberation.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.For Śaṅkara, liberation (mokṣa) is the recognition of already-existing identity with Brahman, not something produced by practice.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Any practice that functions as a 'means' to liberation falsely presupposes that liberation is an effect to be causally produced.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Classifying yogic practices as 'indirect means' still embeds them in an avidyā-driven teleological framework incompatible with Advaita's own metaphysics.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Rāmānuja argues that devotional practice (bhakti) is not merely preparatory but constitutes the direct and sufficient path to liberation in its own right.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.If bhakti and ethical cultivation are direct means within Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śaṅkara's demotion of them to 'indirect means' reflects a sectarian metaphysical commitment, not a neutral phenomenology of practice.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Demoting devotional and ethical practices to indirect status systematically privileges jñāna in a way that marginalizes traditions for whom devotion is epistemically and soteriologically primary.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Śaṅkara accepts the secondary importance of yogic practices involving meditation, devotion, asceticism, moral psychology, and ethical virtue.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Practices that are not direct means to liberation may still function as indirect means.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.