Religion W4620. Nonduality in Indian and Tibetan
Thought
Columbia University, Fall 2002
Tuesday, September 10
Indian Brahmanic Starting Points
Assigned Reading
- S. Hamilton, Indian Philosophy, Chapter 2.
- P. Olivelle, Upanisads: (or if necessary use one of the
other translations listed below)
- pp. xxiii-lvi (Introduction)
- [pp. 195-199 (Aitareya Upanisad): optional]
- pp. 7-51 (Brhadaranyaka Upanisad 1-3)
- pp. 148-176 (Chandogya Upanisad 6-8)
- pp. 289-290 (Mandukya Upanisad)
- Other Translations of the Upanisads:
(available in paperback and worth consulting)
- Robert Ernest Hume, The Thirteen Principal
Upanishads: previously the standard scholarly translation
in English, by a professor of comparative religion here at Union
Theological Seminary, with a useful introduction on the
philosophy of the Upanishads, a bibliography listing earlier
translations, and a list of recurrences and parallels.
- S. Radhakrishnan, The Principal Upanisads, by a
noted modern Indian philosopher and statesman, together with the
Sanskrit text in transliteration.
Related Material:
- Klostermaier, A Survey of Hinduism, Chapters 1-4 (as
background material for those new to the study of Indian religion).
Western Relevance
- Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy: a
penetrating look at the implications of modern discoveries of
relativity and wave-particle non-duality on modern dualistic
metaphysics in the scientific West.
Links of interest
(For information only; no endorsement implied)
- On the study of India in general:
Several websites attempt to maintain lists of useful links related
to a wide range of topics touching on Indian studies. Here are two
of the better ones, each with links to other such collections:
- Our colleague here at Columbia, Professor Frances Pritchett,
has magnificent collections of links connected with all aspects
of South Asia on her webpages.
- The "General" link section in Dominik Wujastyk's Indology
page points to many useful sites.
- Here at Columbia our own David Magier has put together the
SARAI
("South Asia Resources Access on the Internet") page, where you
will find a profusion of sources under the "South Asian
Religion" part of the "In-Process Backlog" section.
- On the Upanisads in particular:
- The number of websites dealing with the Upanisads is huge,
and there are many lists on the internet of related links. Of
the many interpretations of the Upanisads that developed in
India, we will be concentrating especially on the Vedanta branch
of Indian philosophy, and especially on the Advaita or
"Nondualist" form of Vedanta. There is a page on the Upanishads
in a section of the Advaita Home Page which has further links.
- But even within Vedanta not all interpretations of the
Upanisadic teachings are nondualist; for example, the Dvaita
("Dualist") school founded by the theistic Vedanta master Madhva
is frankly dualist, as you can see by perusing the Dvaita Home Page,
"The Web Resource for Shri Madhvacharya's Doctrine."
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