How Indian Philosophy transcends Logic and Morality
In this extract from his classic work, M.Hiriyanna explains that Indian philosophical tradition is not restricted to intellectual and moral teachings. Rather, it includes and transcends them.
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Bonding to the Land: A Pagan view of Ecology
In deep ecology, bonding to the land is the first condition for an ecologically sane society. “The first thing to do is to choose a sacred place and live in it.” So advised Pawnee tribe elder, Tahirussawichi, to writer Dolores LaChapelle. The Pagan pact with the land can be regarded as what is today called bioregionalism. Relation to a place perceived as sacred is not, however, possession of place; in fact, such relationship impedes the drive to possess. Native Americans frequently insist that they belong to the land, the land does not belong to them.
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Vedantic or Trivalued System of Logic
This paper, the second in the series of articles on different systems of logic focuses on the Vedantic tri-valued system of logic and contrasts it to the western logic system. On the contrary eastern thought is embedded in trivalued frame of thought that is True, False and Mithya. The western logic system has binary mode of operation. There is no state in between two extremes.
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Nothing is Everything: How Buddhism and Hinduism are Two Sides of the Same Coin – 3
This is an excerpt from the book "Why Buddhism is True" by Robert Wright. It talks about Buddhism's focus on 'Nothing' and Hinduism's focus on 'Everything'. In Hindu thought, specifically within a Hindu school of thought known as Advaita Vedanta, there is the idea that the individual self or soul is actually just a part of what you might call a universal soul. To put the proposition in Hindu terminology: atman (the self or soul) is Brahman (the universal soul). Now, to say that atman is anything at all – Brahman, whatever – is to say that atman exists in the first place. And the very birth of Buddhism, its distinct emergence within an otherwise Hindu milieu, is thought to lie largely in the denial that atman exists.
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Nothing is Everything: How Buddhism and Hinduism are Two Sides of the Same Coin – 2
In this brilliant excerpt from the famous book “Why Buddhism is True”, author Robert Wright explains through the aid of evolutionary biology and parasitology how the illusion of the clear boundary between the individual Self and the outside world breaks down. He then also discusses the implications and the meanings of ‘I’ and ‘Rest’ in such light, leading on to the differences in social thinking of Buddhism and Hinduism.
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The System of Vedanta
This is an excerpt from the first book, “Our Oriental Heritage” of the world famous history of Will Durant, called “The Story of Civilization” It explains the philosophy of Vedanta and its impact on the Hindu mind over the ages.
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Nothing is Everything: How Buddhism and Hinduism are Two Sides of the Same Coin – 1
This is an excerpt of the famous work “Why Buddhism is True” by Robert Wright. He analyzes the basic beliefs of Buddhism in idiom that is accessible to everyone and concludes that the basic premise of Buddhism and other eastern philosophies is that “Everything is One”.
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The Fifth Veda
This is an excerpt from the book “Veda Mimansa – Volume 1” by Shri Anirvan. The Vedanta in reality is the culmination of the Vedic philosophy. It is the exposition of the meaning of the Veda from the standpoint of ‘Knowledge’ (Vijnana). Therefore, it may be said that in order to discover the meaning of the mantras, we have to have a foundation of comprehensive knowledge of the Upanisad, an intimate acquaintance with the Trantra, the Purana and a direct experience of the methods of the Yogic and Tantrik spiritual praxis.
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Inadequacy of the Intellect – Wisdom of the Upanishads
In this brief excerpt, Will Durant explains the importance of Upanishads and how they tell us about the inadequacy of the intellect. To our own day the Upanishads have remained to India what the New Testament has been to Christendom- a noble creed occasionally practiced and generally revered. Even in Europe and America this wistful theosophy has won millions upon millions of followers, from lonely women and tired men to Schopenhauer and Emerson. Who would have thought that the great American philosopher of individualism would give perfect expression to the Hindu conviction that individuality is a delusion?
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Eternal Words of the Vedas
In this excerpt, from Veda Mimansa, Volume I, Shri Anirvan discusses the notion of the eternality of the words of the Vedas. He discusses the age old debate between the Mimansakas and the rationalists, in which the Mimansakas claim that the very words of the Vedas are eternal and not just the meaning, and the rationalists consider only the meaning is eternal. In this brief excerpt, Shri Anirvan navigates through this debate and in the process interprets the origin of language and the importance of the Vedas.
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