One familiar gesture pairs the Buddhist doctrine of momentariness (kṣaṇikavāda) with Husserl’s phenomenology of internal time-consciousness; another declares the two incompatible because Husserl rejects the punctual now-point the kṣaṇa affirms. Both fail. Husserl retains the momentary phase—Hua X §39 speaks of the “primal sensation” and the “actual momentary phase” of the flow—while denying...
This paper reconstructs Daya Krishna’s four-decade “deconstructive” engagement with the advaitic concept of adhyāsa. Drawing on published writings, lectures, and live dialogues with traditional paṇḍits (saṃvād, in his terminology), it argues that Daya Krishna’s interpretation of adhyāsa as “voluntary identification” challenges traditional advaitic exegesis and proposes an alternative mode of...
This cross-cultural study undertakes a comparative analysis of Hegel's concept of Geist as Absolute Immanent Totality and Ibn 'Arabi's mystical doctrine of the Unity of Being, characterized by absolute Transcendence and Hiddenness. By establishing a con- nection with Plato's notion of "the One" as "beyond Being" (ἐπέκεινα τῆς οὐσίας), which aligns with negative theology where the One surpasses...
Though there is a vast literature on philosophy of mind, there have been few attempts to defend a Vaiṣṇava theory of consciousness. In this paper, I outline one such theory, distinguish it from Cartesian substance dualism, and defend it. I also note that though this theory differs from Cartesian substance dualism in certain respects, it faces many of the same objections. I then address two of...
Abstract: This article explores ways to reconcile paradoxes of embodiment in Śaṅkara’s doctrine of liberation-while-living ( jīvanmukti ) by exploring its parallels with lucid dreaming. I engage in lucid dreaming as a thought experiment in which a lucid dreamer could feasibly reflect on dream experience through an Advaita Vedāntic philosophical lens. If approached this way, lucid dreaming...
Abstract:Objections to cosmopsychism based on incoherence or implausibility depend on assumptions about the nature of consciousness that we need not take for granted. The nondual Pratyabhijñā philosophers encourage us to examine our own phenomenal experience to reveal the multiplicity of subjectivities within unified consciousness. Using this framework, I explore how our faculties for...
Abstract:Jīva Gosvāmin (16th–17th c.), one of the most important of the early Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava theologians, argues for a unique theory of mystical pluralism that shares critical parallels with the highly influential constructivist thesis advanced by Steven Katz, albeit separated by more than four hundred years. These parallels suggest a shared insight into the cognitive dynamics underpinning...
This paper examines two accounts of how Buddhist meditative practice has been seen as cultivating nonconceptual mental states. The first, exemplified in recent work by Evan Thompson, drawing on Dharmakīrti, views the representational contents of certain meditative states as nonconceptual. The second, found in Yogācāra texts like the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, suggests that meditation cultivates a type...
Guifeng Zongmi 圭峯宗密 (780-841) was a prominent Chinese Buddhist scholar who lived during the Tang Dynasty. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of Chinese Buddhism, particularly the Huayan (Flower Garland) and the Chan school. Within his own philosophical framework, Zongmi introduced the concept of the “True Mind of original enlightenment” (benjue...
The Contemplative Foundations of Classical Daoism (hereafter Contemplative Foundations ) is a compilation of articles and book chapters selected from Harold Roth’s almost 27 years of scholarly publications on the origins and early history of the classical Daoist tradition. The essays that constitute this collection seek to counter certain myths about Early China Studies and Daoist Studies that...
Abstract: This essay draws attention to some of the ideas and discussions in the classical Advaita Vedantic literature that have a direct bearing on contemporary debates concerning the existence of consciousness in the empirical world. Section 1 makes the case for pursuing a non-eliminativist reading of Advaita Vedanta by clarifying its position on the existence of the empirical world. The idea...
According to Iris Murdoch, one of our central moral capacities is the capacity to direct our attention in a way that is just and loving. In Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals , Murdoch explores the prospects for strengthening this capacity through engaging in Zen Buddhist practices, particularly zazen meditation as Katsuki Sekida describes it in Zen Training: Methods and Philosophy . Murdoch has...
Abstract:The Nikāyas contain several apophatic descriptions of a state of cessation that occurs during the life of an individual. Furthermore, some texts suggest that this cessation paradoxically coincides with liberating insight. This article attempts to draw out philosophical implications of these passages and to reconstruct the ideas serving as their basis. To make better sense of these...
Reviewed by: Swami Vivekananda's Vedāntic Cosmopolitanism by Swami Medhananda Anantanand Rambachan (bio) Swami Vivekananda's Vedāntic Cosmopolitanism. By Swami Medhananda. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. xv + 412. Hardcover $99.00, isbn 978-0-197624-46-3. As a young man, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), founder of the Ramakrishna Mission, addressed a direct question to the teachers...
Abstract:This essay combines insights into the nature of language from yogic mantra meditation and phenomenology. I argue that phenomenologists can gain insights into the formative experiences that shape linguistic meaning from mantra meditators. Meanwhile, phenomenology can offer an original perspective on debates in mantra research concerning the linguisticality of mantras.
Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy of Mind and Nature by Douglas Duckworth Roshni Patel (bio) Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy of Mind and Nature. By Douglas Duckworth. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. xi + 328. Hardcover $105.00, ISBN 978-0-19-088395-9. Douglas Duckworth’s Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy of Mind and Nature introduces a thematic way to understand the terrain of Buddhist philosophy...
Abstract:Dignāga's strict non-conceptualism about perception has proven difficult to defend. Not only were there facts known to epistemologists of Dignāga's school that are hard to reconcile with his bright line of separation between perception and inference; results from neuroscience also call it into question. This essay draws on resources from both Buddhist epistemology and recent philosophy...
Jonardon Ganeri has written an impressive book that is a must-read for anyone interested in cross-cultural philosophy. Attention, Not Self moves Buddhist philosophy further into the center of contemporary philosophical debates about self, personhood, agency, action, perception, attention, and the kinds of mental content. The book is focused on work attributed to a single philosopher, the...
Richard Hayes (1993, 2013) and Dan Arnold (2008, 2012) have argued that Dharmakīrti (c. 600-660 C.E.) is a mind-body dualist. The proof, they say, lies in the justification he gives for his theory of rebirth. In this paper, I put Dharmakīrti’s argument to the test against a rival argument of Nāgārjuna. It turns out Nāgārjuna completely rejects the mind-body dualism of Dharmakīrti and the...
In post-Dignāga Buddhist epistemology, non-conceptual cognition (nirvikalpajñāna) comes to be construed as a sort of pre-reflective and self-intimating feature of all states of cognition. In earlier Buddhist Ābhidharmika exegesis, however, the closest candidate for non-conceptual cognition is the notion that the five sense consciousnesses apprehend their object-supports directly, as opposed to...
Thus one should define, in a double way, name and form in all phenomena of the three realms…" --Visuddhimagga XVIII.24In this paper, we want to bring together two issues for their mutual illumination: (i) the particular use of that hoary Indian dyad, "nāma-rūpa", literally, "name-and-form by Buddhaghosa, the influential 5 th c Theravāda writer, to organize the categories of the abhidhamma, the...
Abstract:The combination of panpsychism and priority monism leads to priority cosmopsychism, the view that the consciousness of individual sentient creatures is derivative of an underlying cosmic consciousness. It has been suggested that contemporary priority cosmopsychism parallels central ideas in the Advaita Vedānta tradition. This article offers a critical evaluation of this claim. It...
Reviewed by: Rethinking the Buddha: Early Buddhist Philosophy as Meditative Perception by Eviatar Shulman David Nowakowski (bio) Rethinking the Buddha: Early Buddhist Philosophy as Meditative Perception. By Eviatar Shulman. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pp. xviii + 206. isbn 978-1-107-06239-9. Eviatar Shulman’s Rethinking the Buddha: Early Buddhist Philosophy as Meditative...
This essay explores the similarities in the thought of the Greek philosopher Parmenides (fifth century b.c.e .) and that of the Indian philosopher Śaṅkara (eighth to ninth centuries c.e .). Parmenides’ being is compared to the nonduality of Brahman and ātman , as defended by Sankara. The focus is especially on the methods used by both philosophers to help readers know nondual reality. First,...