Pretty well-written, good introduction to the context of the Buddha's time and all the way to Ashoka's mission to Sri Lanka. Not a lot about "modern CPretty well-written, good introduction to the context of the Buddha's time and all the way to Ashoka's mission to Sri Lanka. Not a lot about "modern Colombo" here though, beyond Anagarika Dharmapala and "protestant" Buddhism, but I was really just looking for a good introduction to early Indian Buddhism and how that's related to the Pali Canon, so I'm not complaining....more
Pretty well-written and a solid approach to historiography for the most part. I'm glad that someone covered Kosambi and Sankrityayan's story in EnglisPretty well-written and a solid approach to historiography for the most part. I'm glad that someone covered Kosambi and Sankrityayan's story in English. But I still think that Ober is trying to set up a reductivistic antagonism here - his discussion of Vivekananda's "love" for the Buddha is very simplistic, and relies heavily on Jyotirmaya Sharma, whose view of Vivekananda is definitely flawed. Also, the criticism of Gandhi and the Birlas is somewhat exaggerated, at least for me. They did a lot more for modern Indian Buddhism than Ober is willing to admit - indeed, even he appears confused at times about how to make sense of JK Birla....more
I am broadly in support of Gombrich's central premise: to understand the Buddha's words in the context of Upanishadic Brahminism. Gombrich quotes extrI am broadly in support of Gombrich's central premise: to understand the Buddha's words in the context of Upanishadic Brahminism. Gombrich quotes extracts from the Pali Canon which, in fact, directly demonstrate that the Buddha was responding (with satire and irony) to passages in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. This, I think, is an amazing discovery, and clarifies that the Buddha was definitely aware of the early, large Upanishads - the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya. It is unfortunate that the later Pali commentators lost all touch with these Brahminical texts, and so could not explain the context of the Buddha's words, and importantly, how he differs from Brahminism. What we need today is a comparative study between Buddhism and Vedanta, which, following Gombrich, shows the Buddhist response to the Upanishads, and goes beyond the 20th century Hindu assimilationists who thought that the Buddha was just repeating what the Upanishads said in a "negative" way. It's about time that Indian philosophers realised that there is no concept of 'Being' in Buddhism: Nirvana is not a transcendental realisation of some otherworldly realm, like Brahman. At least, working with the assumption that the Buddha has something more to say about the world, and that all knowledge is not contained in the Vedas and Vedanta, would help. ...more
If you got the central premise of The Power of Now, there's really no point to this book. Not sure what Tolle was trying to achieve with this one - foIf you got the central premise of The Power of Now, there's really no point to this book. Not sure what Tolle was trying to achieve with this one - for all his cautioning against the ego, publishing repetitive texts because your first one became an NYT Bestseller may just be the ego perpetuating itself, now in a spiritual guise. I wanted more of the evolutionary perspective here - how does Tolle view the future of humanity towards a lessening of the ego? What after that - utopia, heaven on earth? Would have been much better if he began with that, and just assumed familiarity with The Power of Now for his readers, instead of repeating so much of the content and necessary implications of that book here....more
Surely one of the most fascinating books I've read in the past year: every few pages, I found thoughts that...singing the world back into existence...
Surely one of the most fascinating books I've read in the past year: every few pages, I found thoughts that blew my mind. This follows directly from Abram's primary strength: to find, question, and bring out the wonder and perplexity hidden within our all-too-deep and enmeshed familiarity with the things that us moderns take for granted, namely, the alphabet, science and civilisation, time, and finally, the very air we breathe. After reading about him, it makes so much sense to me that he was an associate of Ivan Illich, because both of them are some of the most original thinkers I have had the privilege to read, in the spirit of their intellectual father, Thoreau.
The written text became a kind of portable homeland for the Hebrew people.
Every chapter in this book follows a different line of thought, and so, a surface critique may argue that there is no central thesis in the book, but I think Abram recognises and responds to that criticism. The purpose of this book is not to make some argument about modernity and humanity's divide with the natural world of which we are an inseparable part and the need to re-embrace our animality as an inevitable response to the climate crisis, but to investigate ways of thinking about the modern world, and the historical developments which separated us from nature.
My life and the world's life are deeply intertwined; when I wake up one morning to find that a week-long illness has subsided and that my strength has returned, the world, when I step outside, fairly sparkles with energy and activity: swallows are swooping by in vivid flight; waves of heat rise from the newly paved road smelling strongly of tar; the old red barn across the field juts into the sky at an intense angle...
Abram, in particular, points out the Hebrew development of the alphabet and how it travelled to the Greek world, where it helped in the development of an extranatural, particularly human, vision of rationality; he then jumps to Descartes and the other rationalists as a continuation of this unnatural, man-made (or mind-made?) dualism between the rational mind and the sensual body, and turns to the phenomenologists - Husserl and Merleau-Ponty - as the rediscoverers of the body, which leads to the modern philosophical (as well as scientific) view that the mind is as much a part of the body as any other organ.
To the sensing body, no thing presents itself as utterly passive or inert. Only by affirming the animateness of perceived things do we allow our words to emerge directly from the depths of our ongoing reciprocity with the world.
In his meditations on language, Abrams discovers that the primordial, singsong language remains hidden even within the complicated communications of modern humanity - we can still hear the chirping of birds in the warm greetings of reunited friends. And the opposite is also the case: the alphabet and writing changed our species and its ways of thinking forever, yes, but the primordial origins of the alphabet lie in inspiration from the natural world, and are not human (mental) creations which have nothing to do with the world outside.
The swooping flight of birds is a kind of cursive script written on the wind.
A particularly interesting chapter consists of Abram wondering about time, and he engages Heidegger skillfully on the subject of "past" and "future":
My family and my old friends all seemed so oblivious to the sensuous presence of the world. The present, for them, seemed nothing more than a point, an infinitesimal now separating "the past" from "the future". And indeed, the more I entered into conversation with my family and friends, the more readily I, too, felt my consciousness cut off, as though by a sheet of reflective, glass, from the life of the land...
The final few chapters also contain a discussion on air pollution - as a resident of New Delhi, which envelops itself in a toxic horror of smoke for a few months every winter, these sections were particularly hard to digest. Abram confirms an inclination I had about pollution earlier: that our industrial smoke which we release into the air is a re-enactment of an archetypal sacrifice, a yajna, as we swaha away our toxic smoke into the all-accepting air:
Lacking all sacredness, stripped of all spiritual significance, the air is today little more than a conveniently forgotten dump site for a host of gaseous effluents and industrial pollutants. Our fascination is elsewhere, carried by all these other media - these newspapers, radio broadcasts, television networks, computer bulletin boards - all these fields or channels of strictly human communication...
Despite being primarily concerned with the ecological crisis of today, Abram succeeds in writing an original work of philosophy, which has something to say about the core nature of our phenomenological experience:
The differentiation of my senses, as well as their spontaneous convergence in the world at large, ensures that I am a being destined for relationship: it is primarily through my engagement with what is not me that I effect the integration of my senses, and thereby experience my own unity and coherence...Vision itself, in other words, is already a kind of synaesthesia, a collaboration of different sensory channels or organs....more
Prof. Bryant really knows how to bring together academic scholarship and spiritual advice in his writings - I say this while reading his commentary ofProf. Bryant really knows how to bring together academic scholarship and spiritual advice in his writings - I say this while reading his commentary of the Yoga Sutras, which is very helpful. In this volume, though, he combines an extremely detailed description of bhakti practices, borrowing largely from the writings of the Goswamis of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, and then translates some practice-oriented tales from the Bhagavatam. This would be a good book to have as a reference whenever you want to go over some of the best tales of the Bhagavatam, in my opinion. As someone who has read most of the Bhagavatam in Hindi translation (and slowly, all too slowly making his way through the tenth canto), I think you have a very good, extremely abridged, practice-oriented translation of the text here. ...more
Reading Tolle helps one take in the importance of dissolving oneself in Being - to observe stillness beyond the mind, and how this stillness is the grReading Tolle helps one take in the importance of dissolving oneself in Being - to observe stillness beyond the mind, and how this stillness is the ground of all true joy and love. He has a very peculiar writing style, which is almost too simplistic - I take it to be the opposite of Sri Aurobindo's writing style. But I appreciate both styles in their own way. The NYT Bestseller tag is precisely what has kept me from taking him seriously for a long, long time. It's funny, for some reason I've known about Tolle and The Power of Now since I was maybe 13, and an atheist, trying to find a "scientific" approach to meditation and other spiritual practices, so that I wouldn't have to reject the entire heritage of India in my living. I even read the first few chapters of that book but discarded it as feel-good hogwash back then. Now I have been doing a deeper reading, and there is definitely a kernel of true insight in this book. Yes, some of it does have the typical NYT Bestseller content which sent Tolle to Oprah's show, but I have gained a new respect for him - he speaks out of nothing but experience, which is difficult to admit for all contemporary spiritual teachers. ...more
I think this is a great historical introduction to Western philosophy for people familiar with Indian philosophy. Wouldn't necessarily recommend this I think this is a great historical introduction to Western philosophy for people familiar with Indian philosophy. Wouldn't necessarily recommend this to anyone without a background in Indian thought. Cons are its lack of discussion of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, German idealists other than Kant and Hegel, Kierkegaard, or really anyone from the 20th century onwards. Also, a bit absurd to spend 80 pages discussing Bradley, who is interesting, yes, but not very well-known today, and so not worth devoting that much discussion in length from a historical perspective. ...more
I definitely prefer this to Chatterjee/Dutta's more popular introductory textbook, but this may seem a bit more intimidating to beginners, I suppose. I definitely prefer this to Chatterjee/Dutta's more popular introductory textbook, but this may seem a bit more intimidating to beginners, I suppose. Chatterjee/Dutta's obsession with Nyaya and Shankara is here replaced with an obsession with the "dialectic" between Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta (read: an Upanishadic interpretation of Mahayana Buddhism, which most practitioners of that tradition of Buddhism would not accept). But at least he covers Buddhism quite extensively, unlike Chatterjee/Dutta. I also appreciate his (all too brief) discussion of the Bhakti Schools of Vedanta beyond Ramanuja, and even a five-pager on Sri Aurobindo. Not the best introduction because he goes into a lot of detail on post-Shankara Advaitins, that whole chapter is not for an introductory text....more
A fairly straightforward Indian Philosophy 101 book. Slightly outdated, yes, but still holds its own I think. The authors' research interests really sA fairly straightforward Indian Philosophy 101 book. Slightly outdated, yes, but still holds its own I think. The authors' research interests really shine through to the detriment of the whole project, however: the chapters on Nyaya and Shankara are unnecessarily long. Charvaka and Buddhism are, in comparison, not treated all that well. It also does not discuss any other Vedantins beyond Shankara and Ramanuja. It's about time that Indian Philosophy 101 books discussed not just Madhva and Chaitanya, but also Vivekananda and Aurobindo. Reading this book alone, one would get the impression that there hasn't been any development in Indian philosophy in the last ~800 years, which is just plain wrong....more
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