SMU Friday Faculty Lunch Presentation

Approaching the Richness of Asian Philosophy

• Overview of the philosophy of Asia, particularly the nondual schools of India and Tibet

• (12:35) Mindfulness Meditation Interlude

• Note the ways Asian and Western thought are changing each other

• Note where Asian philosophy is slow to be recognized

• Identify reasons Asian thought remains difficult for westerners to approach

• Q&A

Asian Philosophy? I didn’t know there was philosophy in Asia.

Orient Occident

“Religion” East and West

Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Shintoism • Religion • Philosophy • Psychology

• Religion • The Church • Judeo-Christian • Faith • Theology

• Philosophy • The Academy • Greek • Reason • Science

Western Wisdom Traditions

Asian Wisdom Traditions

• Arts • Literature • Sciences: Mathematics,

Astronomy, Physical Sciences, Health Sciences,

Deconstructing the “Religion Only” Myth of the Asian Wisdom Traditions

Overcoming the Modernist Aversion to Religion, Spirituality, & Faith

2b-Philosophical Landscape of India

Six Hindu Philosophical Schools

1. Nyaya, School of Logic

» Vaiseshika, Atomist School

2. Samkhya, Enumeration School

» Yoga, School of Patanjali

3. Vedanta, Vedic Ritual School

» Mimamsa, Vedic School

• Advaita Vedanta

• Kashmir Shaivism

Buddhist Philosophical Schools • 1-Hinayana, Abhidharma, Nikaya

• 18 Schools • Sarvastivada • Theravada • Mahasanghika

• Mahayana • 2-Madhyamaka • 3-Yogachara • Chinese Buddhist Schools

• Chan-Zen • Japanese-Korean Schools • Kyoto School • Vajrayana • Tibetan Schools

• Mongolian Buddhism

Non-Orthodox Schools • Jainism: nonviolence, self-

control • Cārvākas: skepticism, aetheism,

materialism

< < < < < The Vedas and the Upanishads > > > > >

Causality Time Becoming and Destruction Conditions Soul Motion The Senses Mental Categories Elements Conditioned Agent and Action Initial and Final Limits Suffering Compounded Phenomena Errors Dependent Origination Views

Logic Ethics Metaphysics Syllogism Argument and Debate

Topics of Indian Philosophy

2c-Indian Philosophy: Nondual Schools

Nondual = A-dva = A-dual = A-dvaita-vada = “Nondual Path”

• The Middle Way—escape from the prison of duality… from • Philosophical-conceptual extremes: reification/nihilism,

affirmation/negation, idealism/realism, absolute/relative, • Mental grasping, indications or definitions, language games

• Three-in-One: Religion, Philosophy, Psychology • Academy & Church

Buddhist Nondual Schools • Madhyamika • Yogachara Hindu Nondual Schools • Advaita Vedanta • Kashmir Shaivism

2c-Philosophers of Nonduality

Nagarjuna Time: 2nd Century Founded: Madhyamaka (Mahayana Buddhism), Madhyamika dialectic Major Work: Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way

Shankara, Adi Shankara, Shankaracharya Time: 8-9th Century

Founded: Advaita Vedanta, Hinduism Major Works: numerous commentaries (bhasyas) and

treatises (prakaranas)

Central Concerns • Critique of the mind • Cessation of separateness • Ultimate truth, freedom,

realization, awakening, enlightenment, • Moksha, Samadhi, Kensho

2c-Central Features of Advaita Philosophy

Essential Features of Advaita Systems

• Both transcendent and immanent… • As transcendent… • As immanent… • Reality-paramartha and

Appearance-samvirti • Avidya, transcendental illusion or

ignorance Central Features of Buddhist Nondualism • Emptiness • Dependent Arising • Two Truths Doctrine

• Conventional Truth-Reality • Ultimate Truth-Reality

Central Debate: Self –v No-self To be or not to be is not the question in Advaita

Buddhist Wheel of Life • Wheel of Dependent Arising • Wheel of Becoming • Wheel of Cyclic Existence • Wheel of Rebirth • Wheel of Samsara • Bhavachakra

3

Quantum Physics & Consciousness

Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, Mind/Brain

Psychology & Psychotherapy

4-Asian Thought Changing Western Thought

“Study Shows Compassion Meditation Changes the Brain”

• Western Scholarship: focus on philological and historical completeness

• Western Science: grounding experience in neuroscience, biology, culture, language

• Feminism, in the ordination of Buddhist nuns, female teachers

• Green/Ecology movement, in eco-Buddhism, ordination of trees in Thailand to protect from cutting

• Social Service, in socially-engaged, service-oriented Buddhism of Thich Nhat Hanh

• Humanism, Dalai Lama and human rights in Tibet/China

• Intersubjective Critique: Culture, Language, History

4-Western Thought Changing Asian Thought

5-Where Asian Thought is Slow to Be Recognized

Asian Studies, Religious Studies Departments Examples: • Oxford University Press brochure • Pointing at the Moon introduction on the narrowness

of the APA and the growing globalization of academic philosophy

6-Barriers to Approaching Asian Thought

• Richness of the West: being occupied with our own debates, narratives, and learning

• Enlightenment Pride: western superiority & ethnocentrism – Science Orthodoxy: based in the success of materialist-reductionist

empirical science

– Aversion to Metaphysics: modernist suspicion of non-rational forms of thought and experience

• Erroneous Charges: circulation of misunderstandings, beliefs about, and dismissals of Asian thought

• Inaccessibility: distance due to (the historical) lack of translations and the complexity of Asian traditions

• Otherness Anxiety: various forms of apprehension, uneasiness, and discomfort when encountering cultural otherness

Q&A

Three Root Afflictions/Poisons • Ignorance (confusion, delusion) • Attachment (desire, greed, lust) • Aversion (hatred, aggression, anger)

Mara/Yama: God of Impermanence, Lord of Death

"Mara" comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *mer meaning to die; • Hindi “maranē kē li'ē”, • Latin “mori”, Spanish “morir”, • English “morbid”, “ mortal”

…ignorance is equivalent to the identification of a self as being separate

from everything else

Nataraja: The Cosmic Dance of Shiva