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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Non-Western philosophy > Oriental & Indian philosophy
What is the Bhagavad-Gita? Is it just a religious text? When was it
composed? How relevant is it to the modern world? This book answers
these foundational questions and more. It critically examines the
Bhagavad-Gita in terms of its liberal, humanist and inclusive
appeal, bringing out its significance for both present times and
novel applications. The author elaborates the philosophy underlying
the text as well as its ethical and spiritual implications. He also
responds to criticisms that have been levelled against the text by
Ambedkar, D. D. Kosambi and, more recently, Amartya Sen. With
additional material including chapter summaries of the
Bhagavad-Gita, the second edition of the volume proposes new ways
of utilising the text in diverse fields, such as business and
management and scientific research. Eclectic and accessible, this
work will be of interest to scholars of philosophy, religion,
history, business and management studies, as well as the general
reader.
The book includes essay which are all written by philosophers of or
about forty -five years of age. They fall into two main groups:
those in which the writer devotes himself chiefly to the exposition
of the great Vedic tradition as he has apprehended it and made it
the basis of his own life's work; and those in which the writer,
while on the whole remining true to the spirit of that tradition,
has sought to give new interpretations of it, either by instituting
comparisons of it with the Western doctrines most closely allied to
it or by treating of modern problems in a way which, though
suggested by what he has learned from the West, is yet stamped with
the mark of his own racial sympathy. Western readers will naturally
find the latter group more attractive; but this volume will have
failed of its purpose if it does not give them some sense of the
truth that underlies even the essays with which, owing to the
presuppositions ion which these are founded, they find themselves
least in sympathy.
Religious and Philosophical Traditions of Korea addresses a wide
range of traditions, serving as a guide to those interested in
Buddhism, Confucianism, Shamanism, Christianity and many others. It
brings readers along a journey from the past to the present, moving
beyond the confines of the Korean peninsula. In this book Kevin N.
Cawley examines the different ideas which have shaped a vibrant and
exciting intellectual history and engages with some of the key
texts and figures from Korea's intellectual traditions. This
comprehensive and riveting text emphasises how some of these ideas
have real relevance in the world today and how they have practical
value for our lives in the twenty-first century. Students,
researchers and academics in the growing area of Korean Studies
will find this book indispensable. It will also be of interest to
undergraduates and graduate students interested in the comparative
study of Asian religions, philosophies and cultures.
This book proposes a new way of reading modern Western philosophers
in the Indian context. It questions the colonial methodology, or
the practice of importing theories of Western philosophy, and shows
how its unmediated applications are often incongruent, irrelevant,
and unproductive in local frameworks. The author shows an
alternative route to approaching philosophers from the West -
Rousseau, Derrida, Deleuze, Guattari, and Bergson - by bending and
reassembling aspects of their ideas and theories to relate with the
diversity and complexity of Indian society. He also offers insights
on the politics of non-being and negation from a neglected modern
Indian philosopher, Vaddera Chandidas, as a step forward from the
Western philosophers presented here. An intervention in
philosophical research methodology, this volume will interest
scholars and researchers of philosophy, Western philosophy, Indian
philosophy, comparative studies, postcolonial studies, literature,
cultural studies, and political philosophy.
The aim of this book is to address the relevance of Wilfrid
Sellars' philosophy to understanding topics in Buddhist philosophy.
While contemporary scholars of Buddhism often take Sellars as a
touchstone for philosophical analysis, and while many take Sellars'
corpus as their entree into current philosophical discourse, fewer
contemporary philosophers have crossed the bridge in the other
direction, using Sellarsian ideas as a way of entering into
Buddhist philosophy. The essays in this volume, written by both
philosophers and Buddhist Studies scholars, are divided into two
sections organized around two of Sellars' essays that have been
particularly influential in Buddhist Studies: "Philosophy and the
Scientific Image of Man" and "Empiricism and the Philosophy of
Mind." The chapters in Part I generally address questions
concerning the two truths, while those in Part II concern issues in
epistemology and philosophy of mind. The volume will be of interest
to Sellars scholars, to scholars interested in the contemporary
interaction of Buddhist philosophy and Western philosophy and to
scholars of Buddhist Studies.
This book represents the cutting edge of theoretical works on
Confucianism. Starting from Confucianism's comeback in modern China
and ending with the proposal of the new philosophical concept of
"multiple universality" in the face of the world culture, the
author conducts an in-depth analysis and discussion of many facets
of the relationship between Confucianism, Confucian traditions and
the modern world culture. It has a focused theme and a strong sense
of contemporaneity, and responds to the current challenges
confronting Confucianism from the perspective of modern culture.
The chapters not only elucidate the Confucian position in the face
of challenges of global ethics, dialogues on human rights, and
ecological civilization, but also provide a modern interpretation
of classical Confucian ideas on education, politics and ritual
politics as well as an analysis of the development of modern
Confucianism. All in all, this work is a comprehensive exposition
of the Confucian values and their modern implications.
For several years Mouni Sadhu steeped himself in the teachings of
the foremost Hindu ascetic, Sri Ramana Maharshi. This book, first
published in 1957, is the best attempt by a European to describe
without technicalities what such teachings entail, what meditation
is about, and why Indians worship their gurus. Mouni Sadhu's rare
facility for describing his own mental and spiritual states enables
him to pass on to the reader his knowledge and enthusiasm. It is an
authentic account of life with an inspired Hindu yogi and spiritual
teacher.
The talks presented in this volume, first published in 1977, were
originally delivered during a retreat in New York, in which
speakers from a variety of spiritual traditions were represented.
It aims to show the value of yoga in everyday life, and its
relation to many other religions and philosophies.
This book, first published in 1922, examines the science of Raja
Yoga. All the orthodox systems of Indian philosophy point to one
goal, the liberation of the soul through perfection - and the
method to attain this is through Yoga. This book presents lectures
on Yoga, delivered to a western audience view to explaining Indian
philosophy; the lectures are accompanied by the Sutras (aphorisms)
of Patanjali, along with an explanatory commentary.
This book, first published in 1980, comprises separate sections on
Taoist and Buddhist contemplative yogas, each divided into a theory
part (summarising their fundamental principles and outlook) and a
practice part (detailing their various practices).
The book includes essay which are all written by philosophers of or
about forty -five years of age. They fall into two main groups:
those in which the writer devotes himself chiefly to the exposition
of the great Vedic tradition as he has apprehended it and made it
the basis of his own life's work; and those in which the writer,
while on the whole remining true to the spirit of that tradition,
has sought to give new interpretations of it, either by instituting
comparisons of it with the Western doctrines most closely allied to
it or by treating of modern problems in a way which, though
suggested by what he has learned from the West, is yet stamped with
the mark of his own racial sympathy. Western readers will naturally
find the latter group more attractive; but this volume will have
failed of its purpose if it does not give them some sense of the
truth that underlies even the essays with which, owing to the
presuppositions ion which these are founded, they find themselves
least in sympathy.
The volume introduces the central themes in and the main figures
of Japanese Buddhist philosophy. It will have two sections, one
that discusses general topics relevant to Japanese Buddhist
philosophy and one that reads the work of the main Japanese
Buddhist philosophers in the context of comparative philosophy. It
combines basic information with cutting edge scholarship
considering recent publications in Japanese, Chinese, English, and
other European languages. As such, it will be an invaluable tool
for professors teaching courses in Asian and global philosophy,
undergraduate and graduate students, as well as the people
generally interested in philosophy and/or Buddhism.
Questions about difference are at the heart of many debates within
contemporary feminism in the United States. In Transcultural
Feminist Philosophy: Rethinking Difference and Solidarity Through
Chinese-American Encounters, Yuanfang Dai critically assesses
various approaches to the feminist difference critique, arguing
that the fact that women experience gender oppression in different
forms due to different social and cultural locations does not lead
to the conclusion that it is impossible to generalize women's
experiences. She thus proposes that we can construct a category of
women that captures and respects differences among women and the
possibility and the dynamics of what women can be in the future. To
challenge the troubling ideology of multiculturalism and its
institutionalization, Dai advances the claims of multicultural
feminism and the postcolonial feminist critique by arguing that we
need to reconceptualize not only culture, but also need to rethink
multiculturalism as a framework. Examining Chinese feminist
scholarship in transcultural settings, she then proposes a shift to
transculturalism and argues that a transcultural approach is
mediates assumed tensions between cultural diversity and gender
equality. The transcultural approach promises to be a very useful
framework by which feminists can explore the conditions of women's
collective struggles.
This book offers a new interpretation of the relationship between
'insight practice' (satipatthana) and the attainment of the four
jhanas (i.e., right samadhi), a key problem in the study of
Buddhist meditation. The author challenges the traditional Buddhist
understanding of the four jhanas as states of absorption, and shows
how these states are the actualization and embodiment of insight
(vipassana). It proposes that the four jhanas and what we call
'vipassana' are integral dimensions of a single process that leads
to awakening. Current literature on the phenomenology of the four
jhanas and their relationship with the 'practice of insight' has
mostly repeated traditional Theravada interpretations. No one to
date has offered a comprehensive analysis of the fourfold jhana
model independently from traditional interpretations. This book
offers such an analysis. It presents a model which speaks in the
Nikayas' distinct voice. It demonstrates that the distinction
between the 'practice of serenity' (samatha-bhavana) and the
'practice of insight' (vipassana-bhavana) - a fundamental
distinction in Buddhist meditation theory - is not applicable to
early Buddhist understanding of the meditative path. It seeks to
show that the common interpretation of the jhanas as 'altered
states of consciousness', absorptions that do not reveal anything
about the nature of phenomena, is incompatible with the teachings
of the Pali Nikayas. By carefully analyzing the descriptions of the
four jhanas in the early Buddhist texts in Pali, their contexts,
associations and meanings within the conceptual framework of early
Buddhism, the relationship between this central element in the
Buddhist path and 'insight meditation' becomes revealed in all its
power. Early Buddhist Meditation will be of interest to scholars of
Buddhist studies, Asian philosophies and religions, as well as
Buddhist practitioners with a serious interest in the process of
insight meditation.
Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) popularised Vedanta in the West and
reformed Hinduism in India. He also inspired the mass movement that
made India a modern nation. In showcasing his life and work, this
Reader balances the two main aspects of his life: the religious and
the secular, the spiritual and the practical, the devotional and
the rational. Included here are the most significant and
representative texts from every major genre and phase - selections
from his speeches, essays, letters, poems, translations,
conversations, and interviews - arranged for easy reading and
reference. With a scholarly Introduction highlighting his
contemporary relevance, separate section introductions and a
detailed biographical Chronology, this volume provides a rare
insight into one of India's greatest minds. This volume will
interest scholars and students of modern Indian history, religion,
literature, and philosophy as well as general readers.
This book compiles some of the finest writings of Sri Aurobindo
(1872-1950) - the nationalist, visionary, poet-philosopher. It
reflects the range, depth and outreach of the moral, intellectual
and spiritual vision of this versatile and multifaceted genius. It
aims at providing, at one place, access to the key concepts,
tenets, and the spirit of the extraordinary range of texts authored
by him. Although concretely grounded in contemporary times - with
its location in a specific socio-cultural matrix - this work
projects a body of writings that is certain to have lasting value.
In particular, the compilation brings forth Sri Aurobindo's social
vision and his role as a cultural critic: his views on ethnicity,
his exposition of the key role language plays in the formation of
communitarian identities, his crucial understanding of
self-determination which has incidentally become an important
aspect of human rights discourse today. Situating the writings in a
specific intellectual, spiritual and historical context, this
collection will enable readers to appreciate the overall vision of
Sri Aurobindo, in what can be conceived as a caravan of history of
ideas in terms of a common heritage of humankind, and recent
developments in theory and disciplinary practice, especially those
pertaining to consciousness and future studies.
Confucius is a key figure not only in Eastern thought and philosophy but in world history as well. The Analects, the sayings attributed to him, is a classic of world literature. Nonetheless there is a great dispute about how to approach and understand both him and his work. This is the first anthology of critical writings on this crucial and influential work. The contributors come to the Analects from a variety of perspectives - including philosophical, philological, and religious - and address a host of key topics. Rigorous yet highly accessible, the volume will also include a general introduction and an exhaustive bibliography on English-language works on Confucius.
Although the French philosopher, Hellenist and sinologist Francois
Jullien has published more than thirty books, half of which have
been translated into English, he remains much less known in the
English-language universe than many of his fellow "French
philosophers", which may be due to his work being perceived as
within the limits of sinology. This book attempts to rectify this,
highlighting Jullien's work at the intersection of Chinese and
Western thought and drawing out the "unthought-of" in both
traditions of thinking. This 'unthought-of' can be seen as the
culture that conditions our thought, lessening our capacity for new
ways of thinking and understanding. This notion of 'unthought-of'
is at the core of Jullien's methodology, operating in what he calls
the 'divergence of the in-between'. Written in an engaging style,
Arne de Boever offers an accessible introduction to Francois
Jullien's work, in the process emphatically challenging some of the
core assumptions of Western reasoning.
Jarrod L. Whitaker examines the ritualized poetic construction of
male identity in the Rgveda, India's oldest Sanskrit text, arguing
that an important aspect of early Vedic life was the sustained
promotion and embodiment of what it means to be a true man. The
Rgveda contains over a thousand hymns, addressed primarily to three
gods: the deified ritual Fire, Agni; the war god, Indra; and Soma,
who is none other than the personification of the sacred beverage
soma. The hymns were sung in day-long fire rituals in which
poet-priests prepared the sacred drink to empower Indra. The
dominant image of Indra is that of a highly glamorized, violent,
and powerful Aryan male; the three gods represent the ideals of
manhood.
Whitaker finds that the Rgvedic poet-priests employed a fascinating
range of poetic and performative strategies--some explicit, others
very subtle--to construct their masculine ideology, while
justifying it as the most valid way for men to live. Poet-priests
naturalized this ideology by encoding it within a man's sense of
his body and physical self. Rgvedic ritual rhetoric and practices
thus encode specific male roles, especially the role of man as
warrior, while embedding these roles in a complex network of
social, economic, and political relationships.
Strong Arms and Drinking Strength is the first book in English to
examine the relationship between Rgvedic gods, ritual practices,
and the identities and expectations placed on men in ancient
India."
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