Philosophy East and West
December 1, 2025
Ali Asghar Khosravi, Ahmad Rajabi
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...
Philosophy East and West
December 1, 2025
Akshay Gupta
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...
Philosophy East and West
October 1, 2025
Neil Dalal
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...
Philosophy East and West
February 1, 2025
John Spackman
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...
Philosophy East and West
August 1, 2023
Mark Fortney
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...
Philosophy East and West
2021
Roshni Patel
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...
Philosophy East and West
2019
Sonam Thakchöe
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...
Philosophy East and West
2018
Robert H. Sharf
12 citations
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...
Philosophy East and West
2017
Robert H. Sharf
8 citations
And I find myself knowing the things that I knew Which is all that you can know on this side of the blue
Philosophy East and West
2016
Chiara Robbiano
3 citations
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,...
Philosophy East and West
2016
Devasia M. Antony
1 citation
The attempt here is to meditate philosophically on the nature, meaning, and significance of the conceptions of play, theater, and nondualism and to articulate further the metaphysical interweaving and symphony of these concepts with particular reference to the domain of social ethics. After a brief analysis of the philosophical notion of nondualism and its description of reality as...
Philosophy East and West
April 1, 2011
Johannes Bronkhorst
62 citations
A Note on Nirvikalpaka and Savikalpaka Perception Johannes Bronkhorst Some ten years ago an interesting discussion took place in the pages of this journal. It began with an article by Arindam Chakrabarti (2000) whose title betrays its intention: "Against Immaculate Perception: Seven Reasons for Eliminating Nirvikalpaka Perception from Nyāya." There followed a response by Stephen H. Phillips...
Philosophy East and West
2011
Jay L. Garfield
13 citations
Hey, Buddha! Don’t Think! Just Act!—A Response to Bronwyn Finnigan Jay L. Garfield The Problem: How a Buddhist can Conceptualize a Buddha’s Enlightened Action In the course of a careful and astute discussion of the difficulties facing a Buddhist account of the moral agency of a buddha, Bronwyn Finnigan develops a challenging critique of a proposal I made in a recent article (Garfield 2006)....
Philosophy East and West
April 1, 2010
Stuart Ray Sarbacker
Reviewed by: Yoga: India's Philosophy of Meditation Stuart Ray Sarbacker Yoga: India's Philosophy of Meditation. Edited by Gerald James Larson and Ram Shankar Bhattacharya. Volume 12 of Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophy, Series Editor Karl Potter. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2008. Pp. 784. Yoga: India's Philosophy of Meditation is the most recent volume in the highly acclaimed...
Philosophy East and West
April 1, 2007
Stephen Kaplan
The Advaita Vedānta notion of ātman/Brahman presents serious philosophical challenge to this school—namely, it demands that they explain how all (reality) can be undivided, unchanging, and pure consciousness, yet appear to be everything but nondual, unchanging, and pure consciousness. The Advaita answer is avidyā, ajñāna (ignorance). This answer tells us that Brahman does not really change; it...
Philosophy East and West
April 1, 2006
Jay L. Garfield
30 citations
rJe Tsong khapa argues that consciousness is not intrinsically reflexive even conventionally, and reads Candrakīrti and Śāntideva as endorsing this view. 'Ju Mipham Rinpoche (1846-1912) criticizes Tsong khapa's argument and his reading of Candrakīrti, arguing that while ultimately consciousness is not intrinsically reflexive, conventionally it is. This article defends Tsong khapa's philosophy...
Philosophy East and West
July 1, 2005
Rui Zhu
Scholars have underestimated and misunderstood the distinction between Sōtō and Rinzai, the two major branches of Zen Buddhism, because they have either parroted the sectarian polemics of the schools themselves or, as in the case of prominent scholars Carl Bielefeldt and T. P. Kasulis, dismissed these polemics as deriving from institutional politics rather than substantive doctrinal or...
Philosophy East and West
2005
Jin Y. Park
Zen philosophy of language is discussed by exploring the concepts of live anddeadwords,involvement with meaningand involvement with words, and the three mysterious gates as they are employed in Pojo Chinul's huatou meditation. A comparison is made betweenthe Zenuse of language and Merleau-Ponty's philosophy of visibility, Julia Kristeva's idea of the semiotic and the symbolic, and Kierkegaard's...
Philosophy East and West
2001
James E. Miller
Reviewed by: Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi James Miller Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi. Edited by Roger T. Ames. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. Pp. viii + 239. "Good grief!" exclaimed the reviewer as he greedily tore open the package from Philosophy East and West. "Not another book on Zhuangzi!" As it turns out, Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi, edited by Roger T....
Philosophy East and West
October 1, 1993
Daniel Barbiero, Robert K. C. Forman
188 citations
This is a paperback reprint of a collection of contributed essays about mysticism and philosophy. It challenges the widely accepted interpretaion of mystical experience that received its fullest expression in two volumes edited by Steven T. Katz: Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis (OUP 1987) and Mysticism and Religious Traditions (OUP 1983). According to Katz and his colleagues, mystical...
Philosophy East and West
1993
Andrey Smirnov
20 citations
The common basis underlying a philosophical exploration of Nicholas of Cusa and Ibn 'ArabT could perhaps be presented in the form of two closely linked assertions: first, the thesis that God is indefinable, and, second, a formula which states that the world is not God but is not anything other than God. These assertions were certainly not unknown to medieval thinkers, but it was the mystical...
Philosophy East and West
1989
Lou Nordstrom, Roderick S. Bucknell, Martin Stuart–Fox
15 citations
Meditation and symbolism the twilight language in historical context concentration insight meditation the three knowledges the five symbolic groups the mandala and cakras doctrinal and historical implications.
Philosophy East and West
October 1, 1982
Harold Coward, Winston L. King
17 citations
This is a major section analyses the meditational method of Buddhaghosa, showing the interaction between Upanishadic Yogic Jhanas mode of concentration, and Buddhist vipassana insight meditation.
Philosophy East and West
1952
E. A. Burtt, S. K. Saksena
13 citations
The study of Hindu Philosophy has so far been dominated by a purely historical interest, and not infrequently, it is more a time-honoured specific system than a philosophical problem in general which has attracted the scholar. The study of Hindu metaphysics, viewed from this standpoint alone is inadequate, since it fails to reveal all the consequences and possibilities which once appreciated,...