1924. This little volume is an attempt at a brief exposition of the philosophical and religious doctrine found in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra as explained by its successive commentaries of Vyasa, Vacaspati, Vijnana Bhikshu and others. The scope of this work is limited to a brief exposition of the intellectual foundation, or the theoretical side, of the Yoga practices, consisting of the philosophical, psychological, cosmological, ethical, religious, and other doctrines which underlie these practices.

Confucian Reflections: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times is about the early Chinese Confucian classic the "Analects" Lunyu, attributed to the founder of the Confucian tradition, Kongzi (551-479 bce) and who is more commonly referred to as "Confucius" in the West. Philip J. Ivanhoe argues that the Analects is as relevant and important today as it has proven to be over the course of its more than 2000 year history, not only for the people who live in East Asian societies but for all human beings. The fact that this text has inspired so many talented people for so long, across a range of complex, creative, rich, and fascinating cultures offers a strong prima facie reason for thinking that the insights the Analects contains are not bound by either the particular time or cultural context in which the text took shape.

Vaisesika is one of the six systems of Hindu philosophy. It represents a pluralistic realism and is usually held to be an atomistic, metaphysical theory. This book explores the basic tenets of the Vaisesika classical school of Indian philosophy from a new perspective. It argues that it reveals an epistemological formulation of its own, which was diminished due to later developments in the history of Indian philosophical tradition.

Focusing on the principles of knowable objects and the processes of knowing as propounded by the Vaisesika school of Indian Philosophy, the book offers a fuller appreciation of the theories. Providing a balanced approach by examining earliest available material in the original sources of Vaisesika and concentrating on the epistemological pattern adopted therein, it presents an authentic and comprehensive understanding of Vaisesika concepts. This is the first introductory sourcebook in English for the authentic study of Vaisesika, and is of use to students and scholars of World Religion and Philosophy.

First published in 1889. This re-issues the second, revised edition of 1926. Chuang Tzu was to Lao Tzu, the author of Tao Te Ching, as Hui-neng, the sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism, was to Bodhidharma, and in some respects St.Paul to Jesus; he expanded the original teaching into a system and was thus the founder of Tao-ism. Whereas Lao Tzu was a contemporary of Confucius in the sixth century B.C, Chuang Tzu lived over two hundred years later. He was one of the greatest minds produced by China; philosopher, metaphysician, moralist and poet. It is impossible to understand the spiritual depth of the Tao Te Ching without the aid of Chuang Tzu.

The Paramarthasara, or 'Essence of Ultimate Reality', is a work of the Kashmirian polymath Abhinavagupta (tenth-eleventh centuries). It is a brief treatise in which the author outlines the doctrine of which he is a notable exponent, namely nondualistic Saivism, which he designates in his works as the Trika, or 'Triad' of three principles: Siva, Sakti and the embodied soul (nara). The main interest of the Paramarthasara is not only that it serves as an introduction to the established doctrine of a tradition, but also advances the notion of jiv anmukti, 'liberation in this life', as its core theme. Further, it does not confine itself to an exposition of the doctrine as such but at times hints at a second sense lying beneath the evident sense, namely esoteric techniques and practices that are at the heart of the philosophical discourse. Its commentator, Yogaraja (eleventh century), excels in detecting and clarifying those various levels of meaning. An Introduction to Tantric Philosophy presents, along with a critically revised Sanskrit text, the first annotated English translation of both Abhinavagupta's Paramarthasara and Yogaraja's commentary. This book will be of interest to Indologists, as well as to specialists and students of Religion, Tantric studies and Philosophy.

This book explores the Confucian-Christian dialogue in Korea through a comparative study of the cosmologies of Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), the founder of process philosophy, and Yi Yulgok (1536-1584), the great scholar of Korean Neo-Confucianism. Although their philosophical traditions are different, Yulgok and Whitehead's perspectives on the universe were very similar. This study argues that Whitehead's theory of eternal object-actual entity has affinities with Yulgok's theory of principle-material force. Their two theories, both based on reciprocal dialectical interrelationships, view the world as a cosmos characterized by the process of becoming. Accordingly, Whitehead's panentheistic interpretation of the God-world relationship correlates with Yulgok's Neo-Confucian notion of how the Great Ultimate relates to material force. These two concepts suggest a balanced structure of God and the world and offer insights into encouraging interreligious spirituality in Korea.

The debates between various Buddhist and Hindu philosophical systems about the existence, definition and nature of self, occupy a central place in the history of Indian philosophy and religion. These debates concern various issues: what 'self' means, whether the self can be said to exist at all, arguments that can substantiate any position on this question, how the ordinary reality of individual persons can be explained, and the consequences of each position. At a time when comparable issues are at the forefront of contemporary Western philosophy, in both analytic and continental traditions (as well as in their interaction), these classical and medieval Indian debates widen and globalise such discussions. This book brings to a wider audience the sophisticated range of positions held by various systems of thought in classical India.

This is a translation of the chapter on perception of Kumarilabhatta's magnum opus, the Slokavarttika, one of the central texts of the Hindu response to the criticism of the logical-epistemological school of Buddhist thought. In an extensive commentary, the author explains the course of the argument from verse to verse and alludes to other theories of classical Indian philosophy and other technical matters. Notes to the translation and commentary go further into the historical and philosophical background of Kumarila's ideas. The book provides an introduction to the history and the development of Indian epistemology, a synopsis of Kumarila's work and an analysis of its argument.

A Place to Live brings together in a single volume an introduction to Yi Chung-hwan's (1690-1756) T'aengniji (Treatise on Choosing Settlement)-one of the most widely read and influential of the Korean classics-and an annotated translation of the text, including the author's postscript. Yi composed the T'aengniji in the 1750s, a time when, despite King Yongjo's (r. 1724-1776) policy of impartiality, the scholar-gentry class continued to identifiy strongly with literati factions and to participate in the political scene as such. A prominent secretary who had his career cut short because of suspected involvement in one of the largest literati purges at court, Yi endured long periods of living in exile before finishing the T'aengniji in his early sixties. The treatise, his only substantial work, is based largely on his travels throughout the Korean peninsula and presents not only his views on the desirability of places for settlement, but also his opinions on contemporary matters and criticism of government policy. As a result, the T'aengniji circulated as an anonymous work for many years. Employing the latest research on T'aengniji manuscripts, translator Inshil Yoon maintains in her introduction that the original title of the treatise was Sadaebu kagoch'o (Livable Places for the Scholar-Gentry); she goes on to discuss in detail its reception by pre-modern and contemporary scholars and the treatise's on-going popularity as evidenced by the numerous versions and translations done in this and the previous century, its having been made into a novel, and current usage of ""T'aengniji"" as a noun meaning ""regional geography"" or ""travelogue."" The present translation is based on the Choson Kwangmunhoe edition.

In this book, Phillips gives an overview of the contribution of Nyaya--the classical Indian school that defends an externalist position about knowledge as well as an internalist position about justification. Nyaya literature extends almost two thousand years and comprises hundreds of texts, and in this book, Phillips presents a useful overview of the under-studied system of thought. For the philosopher rather than the scholar of Sanskrit, the book makes a whole range of Nyaya positions and arguments accessible to students of epistemology who are unfamiliar with classical Indian systems.

Containing over 500 new listings of frequently used religious terms and numerous etymological derivations, this new and revised edition of A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy provides a comprehensive dictionary of Indian philosophical terms in both devanagari and roman transliteration along with an English translation. It offers special meanings of words used as technical terms within particular philosophical systems and contains the meaning of terms fundamental to epistemology, metaphysics, and practical teaching of heterdox and orthodox schools of Indian philosophy.

These are questions to which oriental thinkers have given a wide range of philosophical answers that are intellectually and imaginatively stimulating. Thirty-Five Oriental Philosophers is a succinctly informative introduction to the thought of thirty-five important figures in the Chinese, Indian, Arab, Japanese and Tibetan philosophical traditions. Thinkers covered include founders such as Zoroaster, Confucius, Buddha and Muhammed, as well as influential modern figures such as Gandhi, Mao Tse-Tung, Suzuki and Nishida. The book is divided into sections, in which an introduction to the tradition it covers precedes the essays on its individual philosophers. Notes, further reading lists, and cross-references provide the student with a clear route to further study. There is a glossary of key terms at the end of the book.

In this study, Olberding proposes a new theoretical model for reading the Analects. Her thesis is that the moral sensibility of the text derives from an effort to conceptually capture and articulate the features seen in exemplars, exemplars that are identified and admired pre-theoretically and thus prior to any conceptual criteria for virtue. Put simply, Olberding proposes an "origins myth" in which Confucius, already and prior to his philosophizing knows whom he judges to be virtuous. The work we see him and the Analects' authors pursuing is their effort to explain in an organized, generalized, and abstract way why pre-theoretically identified exemplars are virtuous. Moral reasoning here begins with people and with inchoate experiences of admiration for them. The conceptual work of the text reflects the attempt to analyze such people and parse such experiences in order to distill abstract qualities that account for virtue and can guide emulation.

This book provides a much-needed introduction to the Kyoto School of Japanese philosophy. Robert E. Carter focuses on four influential Japanese philosophers: the three most important members of the Kyoto School (Nishida Kitar, Tanabe Hajime, and Nishitani Keiji), and a fourth (Watsuji Tetsur ), who was, at most, an associate member of the school. Each of these thinkers wrestled systematically with the Eastern idea of nothingness, albeit from very different perspectives.
Many Western scholars, students, and serious general readers are intrigued by this school of thought, which reflects Japan s engagement with the West. A number of works by various thinkers associated with the Kyoto School are now available in English, but these works are often difficult to grasp for those not already well-versed in the philosophical and historical context. Carter s book provides an accessible yet substantive introduction to the school and offers an East-West dialogue that enriches our understanding of Japanese thought while also shedding light on our own assumptions, habits of thought, and prejudices."

The Sung Neo-Confucian synthesis is one of the two great formative periods in the history of Confucianism. Shao Yung (1011-77) was a key contributor to this synthesis, and this study attempts to make understandable the complex and highly theoretical thought of a philosopher who has been, for the most part, misunderstood for a thousand years. It is the first full-length study in any language of Shao Yung's philosophy.
Using an explicit metaphilosophical approach, the author examines the implicit and assumed aspects of Shao Yung's thought and shows how it makes sense to view his philosophy as an explanatory theory. Shao Yung explained all kinds of change and activity in the universe with six fundamental concepts that he applied to three realms of reality: subsensorial "matter," the phenomenal world of human experience, and the theoretical realm of symbols.
The author also analyzes the place of the sage in Shao's philosophy. Not only would the sage restore political and moral unity in society, but through his special kind of knowing he also would restore cosmological unity. Shao's recognition that the perceiver had a critical role in making and shaping reality led to his ideal of the sage as the perfect knower. Utilizing Shao's own device of a moving observational viewpoint, the study concludes with an examination of the divergent interpretations of Shao's philosophy from the eleventh to the twentieth century.
Because Shao took very seriously numerological aspects of Chinese thought that are often greatly misunderstood in the West (e.g., the I Ching), the study is also a very good introduction to the epistemological implications of an important strand of all traditional Chinese philosophical thought.

Chu Hsi (1130-1200), the renowned Chinese philosopher, lived during what is sometimes referred to as a 'renaissance' in Chinese history-a time of commercial expansion and intellectual innovation. Available for the first time in English, Chu Hsi's Sequel to Reflections on Things at Hand (Su chin-ssu-lu) is a collection of his sayings and writings, including personal letters, complete with commentaries and biographical notes. Wittenborn's Introduction provides a historical context for Chu Hsi's work and Neo-Confucianism. Contents: Introduction; The Background of Chu Hsi's Philosophy; The Metaphysical Dimension of Chu Hsi's Philosophy; The Psychological Dimension of Chu Hsi's Philosophy; The Su chin-ssu-lu.

'A torrent's course does not depend on the water; it is latent in the mountain's topography. What controls a man's destiny?' 'There is no virtue without vice, just as there is no gold without impurity. Therefore, when one acquires a virtue, does one not also acquire a vice too?' Such are the musings and reflections in The Landscape of a Mind. In this profoundly introspective collection of thoughts, gathered in journal entries and correspondence with friends, Tohon questions the essence of human nature, the obscure workings of the human mind and the heart, and mulls over the meaning of good and evil, the implications of the self and ego, and the concepts of free will and choice, destiny and fate. A considerable amount of ground to cover, but Tohon's personalised and conversational tone, as well as his use of an approach that is very much rooted in the Eastern philosophies, makes this piece an enjoyable exchange of thoughts, ideas and beliefs between humanists and philosophers on a very much global level.

First published in 1938. Previous translations of the Analects of Confucius are based upon a medieval interpretation which reflects the philosophy of the 12th century A.D rather than of the 5th century B.C., when Confucius lived. This book detaches the Analects from the Scholastic interpretation and lets these famous sayings speak for themselves.

First published in 1934.
Unlike previous translations, this translation of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching is based not on the medieval commentaries but on a close study of the whole of early Chinese literature.

This comprehensive introduction explores the life and teachings of Confucius, and development of Confucian thought, from ancient times to the present today.

Demonstrates the wisdom and enduring relevance of Confucius's teachings - drawing parallels between our 21st century society and that of China 2,500 years ago, where government corruption, along with social, economic, and technical changes, led thinkers to examine human nature and societyDraws on the latest research and incorporates interpretations of Confucius and his works by Chinese and Western scholars throughout the centuriesExplores how Confucius's followers expanded and reinterpreted his ideas after his death, and how this process has continued throughout Chinese historySeamlessly links Confucius with our modern age, revealing how his teachings have become the basis of East Asian culture and influenced the West