scholarly journals Introduction to the Non-dualism Approach in Hinduism and its Connection to Other Religions and Philosophies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sriram Ganapathi Subramanian ◽  
Benyamin Ghojogh
Keyword(s):  
Advaita Vedānta ◽  
Advaita Vedanta ◽  
Subtle Body ◽  
Mulla Sadra ◽  
Indian Schools ◽  
Islamic Mysticism ◽  
Hard Problems ◽  
Four Levels ◽  
Scientific Facts

In this paper, we introduce the Hinduism religion and philosophy. We start with introducing the holy books in Hinduism including Vedas and Upanishads. Then, we explain the simplistic Hinduism, Brahman, gods and their incarnations, stories of apocalypse, karma, reincarnation, heavens and hells, vegetarianism, and sanctity of cows. Then, we switch to the profound Hinduism which is the main core of Hinduism and is monotheistic. In profound Hinduism, we focus on the non-dualism or Advaita Vedanta approach in Hinduism. We discuss consciousness, causality, Brahman, psychology based on Hinduism, supportive scientific facts for Hinduism, the four levels of truth, Maya, and answers of Hinduism to the hard problems of science. The four paths of knowledge, love, karma, and meditation are explained as well as the cosmic mind, the subtle body, and Aum. The risks for every path are also explained. Then, we introduce the orthodox and heterodox Indian schools including Yoga, Nyaya, Advaita Vedanta, Vishishtadvaita, and Dvaita. Connections to some other religions including Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Islamic mysticism, and Zoroastrianism are analyzed. Finally, we explain the connection of Hindu philosophy with the Greek, western, and Islamic philosophies which include the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Spinoza, Descartes, Hegel, Avicenna, Suhrawardi, and Mulla Sadra.

Awareness in Indian thought

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen H. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Self Awareness ◽  
Advaita Vedānta ◽  
Advaita Vedanta ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Intrinsic Nature ◽  
Indian Schools ◽  
Indian Thought ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Philosophical Texts

Classical Indian schools all stake out positions on awareness, its intrinsic nature, its place in the causal processes crucial to human accomplishment, its relations to objects in the world, and the possibilities, according to certain religious or spiritual theories, of mystical transformation. In several prominent instances, stances taken on awareness may be said to constitute the most salient differentiation among schools, so central to a school’s overall outlook is its view on the topic. Classical epistemological conceptions, for example, are in large part shaped by positions on awareness, and the spiritual philosophies for which Indian thought is best known present theories of awareness to guide meditation and mystical practice. Yogic, Vedāntic and Buddhist mysticism all came to be supported by views of the true nature of awareness or its native state. In the professionalized debates that fill the immense proliferation of philosophical texts in the classical period (from approximately ad 100 to the eighteenth century and later), key issues are whether awarenesses have forms of their own or assume content only with reference to objects, and the precise nature of the relation, or relations, of awarenesses to objects in the world, including the role of awareness in human activity. Some important positions are shared across schools, and apart from the anti-theoretic polemics of Mādhyamaka Buddhists and others, a phenomenalist and idealist stance, a representationalism, and a direct or causal realism are the major theories concerning the content of awarenesses. The world-oriented philosophies of Logic (Nyāya) and Exegesis (Mīmāṃsā) engage spiritual or mystical views (principally, Buddhist Yogācāra and Advaita Vedānta) on the issue of self-awareness or awareness of awareness. The exchange between upholders of Nyāya and Advaita Vedānta (Vedāntic Monism) on this score is, in particular, an admirable philosophical achievement.

Consciousness in Advaita Vedanta

1982 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 468
Author(s):  
Albert Adams ◽  
William M. Indich
Keyword(s):  
Advaita Vedānta ◽  
Advaita Vedanta

Christ as Yogi: The Jesus of Vivekananda and Modern Hinduism

2021 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-140
Author(s):  
David J. Neumann
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Advaita Vedānta ◽  
Advaita Vedanta ◽  
The West ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Modern Hinduism ◽  
Swami Vivekananda

AbstractSwami Vivekananda was the most influential pioneer of a Yogi Christ, illustrating well over a century ago how the life and teachings of Jesus might be incorporated within a larger Hindu worldview—and then presented back to Western audiences. Appropriation of Jesus, one of the central symbols of the West, might be viewed as the ultimate act of counter-Orientalism. This article begins by providing a brief biography of Vivekananda and the modern Hinduism that nurtured him and that he propagated. He articulated an inclusivist vision of Advaita Vedanta as the most compelling vision of universal religion. Next, the article turns to Vivekananda's views of Christianity, for which he had little affection, and the Bible, which he knew extraordinarily well. The article then systematically explores Vivekananda's engagement with the New Testament, revealing a clear hermeneutical preference for the Gospels, particularly John. Following the lead of biblical scholars, Vivekananda made a distinction between the Christ of the Gospels and the Jesus of history, offering sometimes contradictory conclusions about the historicity of elements associated with Jesus's life. Finally, the article provides a detailed articulation of Vivekananda's Jesus—a figure at once familiar to Christians but, in significant ways, uniquely accommodated to Hindu metaphysics. Vivekananda demonstrated a robust understanding and discriminating use of the Christian Bible that has not been properly recognized. He deployed this knowledge to launch an important and long-lived pattern: an attractive, fleshed out depiction of Jesus of Nazareth, transformed from the Christian savior into a Yogi model of self-realization. Through his efforts, Jesus became an indisputably Indian religious figure, no longer just a Christian one. The Yogi Christ remains a prominent global religious figure familiar to Hindus, Christians, and those of other faiths alike.

scholarly journals The nature and origins of political polarization over science

2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252198919
Author(s):  
Roderik Rekker
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Interdisciplinary Framework ◽  
Four Levels ◽  
Scientific Facts ◽  
Ideological Identity

People have a tendency to disregard information that contradicts their partisan or ideological identity. This inclination can become especially striking when citizens reject notions that scientists would consider “facts” in the light of overwhelming scientific evidence and consensus. The resulting polarization over science has reached alarming levels in recent years. This theoretical review conceptualizes political polarization over science and argues that it is driven by two interrelated processes. Through psychological science rejection, people can implicitly disregard scientific facts that are inconsistent with their political identity. Alternatively, citizens can engage in ideological science rejection by adhering to a political ideology that explicitly contests science. This contestation can in turn be subdivided into four levels of generalization: An ideology can dispute either specific scientific claims, distinct research fields, science in general, or the entire political system and elite. By proposing this interdisciplinary framework, this article aims to integrate insights from various disciplines.

scholarly journals Nothing but Gold: Complexities in terms of Non-difference and Identity. Part 2. Contrasting Equivalence, Equality, Identity, and Non-difference

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Anrò
Keyword(s):  
Formal Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Main Issue ◽  
Advaita Vedānta ◽  
Advaita Vedanta

AbstractThe present paper is a continuation of a previous one by the same title, the content of which faced the issue concerning the relations of coreference and qualification in compliance with the Navya-Nyāya theoretical framework, although prompted by the Advaita-Vedānta enquiry regarding non-difference. In a complementary manner, by means of a formal analysis of equivalence, equality, and identity, this section closes the loop by assessing the extent to which non-difference, the main issue here, cannot be reduced to any of the former. The following sections of this study will focus on the assessment of the eventual possibility of causation and transformation in non-difference.

Revisiting Brehier – Differences between Plotinus’ Enneads and Advaita Vedānta

Philotheos ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-25
Author(s):  
Deepa Majumdar ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Advaita Vedānta ◽  
Advaita Vedanta ◽  
Numinous Experience ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Concrete Concepts

Bréhier revives the possibility of Indian Upaniṣadic influence on Plotinus, specifically in the area of mysticism – asking what in Plotinus’ philosophy is foreign with respect to the Greek philosophical tradition. After Bréhier there are vigorous defenses of Plotinus’ Greek origins – not all of which respond directly to the key issues he raises, or address Plotinus’ mysticism specifically. My purpose in this paper is not to answer Bréhier, but to revisit him, for the purpose of delineating paradigmatic differences between Plotinus’ metaphysics and that in Advaita Vedānta. Starting with differences in their respective texts and conceptions of the Divine, I explore concrete concepts (Māyā, tolma, the forms, gun․as, etc.), so unique to each tradition that they comprise the heart and essence of their differences. I assert as well that their metaphysical distinctions imply dissimilarities in their modes of mysticism. In this effort I uphold numinous experience above historical influences. This paper therefore has four parts: (1) Revisiting Bréhier, Armstrong, and Others; (2) Defining Terms: Texts, Methods, and Conceptions of the Divine (Striking Similarities); (3) Contrasting Advaita Vedānta and the Enneads (Paradigmatic Differences); and (4) Conclusion.

Methods of Knowledge According to Advaita Vedanta

1968 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Hinck ◽  
Swami Satprakashananda
Keyword(s):  
Advaita Vedānta ◽  
Advaita Vedanta

Not with a Ten-Foot Pole?

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-66
Author(s):  
Marc A. Pugliese ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighth Century ◽  
Alfred North Whitehead ◽  
Advaita Vedānta ◽  
Advaita Vedanta ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine

This article brings together Alfred North Whitehead and Śaṅkara, the eminent eighth-century teacher of Advaita Vedanta, in a dialogue on causation. After arguing that comparative philosophical encounter is possible, the article investigates how Whitehead might benefit Śaṅkara in his critique of the Buddhist doctrine of momentariness and how Śaṅkara may assist Whitehead in responding to criticisms of his own doctrine of causation and his critique of Hume.

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