The Parātriśikā Vivaraṇa by the great Kashmiri philosopher and mystic Abhinavagupta is an extensive commentary on the Parātriśikā Tantra, and it is one of the most profound texts, not only of non-dualist Kashmir Śaivism, but of Indian philosophy and mysticism in general. The present work attempts to make this difficult text accessible, by culling out the important themes and offering an interpretation. The main focus is on the understanding of the Absolute (Anuttara) and the ways t...

About the AuthorRaffaele Torella is Professor of Sanskrit at University of Rome “Sapienza”, where he has also taught for long Indian Philosophy and Religion, and Indology. Dr. Bettina Bäumer, Indologist from Austria and Professor of Religious Studies (Visiting Professor at several universities), living and working in Varanasi since 1967, is the author and editor of a number of books and over 50 research articles. Her main fields of research are non-dualistic Kashmir...

Swami Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux OSB) was a French Benedictine monk who went to India in 1948 and devoted his life to becoming a bridge between East and West, between Hinduism and Christianity. To mark the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of this great pioneer of interreligious dialogue, Monastic Interreligious Dialogue sponsored a symposium in January 2010 at Shantivanam, the ashram he and Abbé Jules Monchanin founded in 1950. This book charts the influence that Abhishiktananda had...

The author of Buddhism Without Beliefs bridges the gap between Western and Eastern philosophy with this humanist approach to Buddhism.This uniquely contemporary guide to understanding the timeless message of Buddhism, and in particular its relevance in actual human relations, was inspired by Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way Of Life, which the author translated into English, the oral instructions of living Buddhist masters, Heidegger's c...

The Buddhist saint Nāgārjuna, who lived in South India in approximately the second century CE, is undoubtedly the most important, influential, and widely studied Mahāyāna Buddhist philosopher. His many works include texts addressed to lay audiences, letters of advice to kings, and a set of penetrating metaphysical and epistemological treatises. His greatest philosophical work, the Mūlamadhyamikakārikā--read and studied by philosophers in all major Buddhist schools of Tibet, China,...

For nearly two thousand years Buddhism has mystified and captivated both lay people and scholars alike. Seen alternately as a path to spiritual enlightenment, an system of ethical and moral rubrics, a cultural tradition, or simply a graceful philosophy of life, Buddhism has produced impassioned followers the world over. The Buddhist saint Nagarjuna, who lived in South India in approximately the first century CE, is undoubtedly the most important, influential, and widely studied Mahayana Bu...

In "The Garland of Letters" the english orientalist Sir. John Woodroffe ( Arthur Avalon ) explaines a particular way inside the tantric tradition: the way of tantra sastra, the bija, the chakra an the related mantra.Contents:Author's PrefaceTHE GARLAND OF LETTERS (VARṆ AMĀLĀ)I. Vāk or the WordII. Artha, Pratyaya and ŚabdaIII. Aśabda and ParaśabdaIV. Paraśabda, Causal ŚabdaV. Śakti as StressVI. Eternality of ŚabdaVII. Śa...

A richly complex study of the Yogacara tradition of Buddhism, divided into five parts: the first on Buddhism and phenomenology, the second on the four basic models of Indian Buddhist thought, the third on karma, meditation and epistemology, the fourth on the Trimsika and its translations, and finally the fifth on the Ch'eng Wei-shih Lun and Yogacara in China.

Jan Westerhoff unfolds the story of one of the richest episodes in the history of Indian thought, the development of Buddhist philosophy in the first millennium CE. He starts from the composition of the Abhidharma works before the beginning of the common era and continues up to the time of Dharmakirti in the sixth century. This period was characterized by the development of a variety of philosophical schools and approaches that have shaped Buddhist thought up to the present day: the schola...

"We must think with clarity. Clarity is honesty born into thinking." --Massimo ScaligeroHere is a classic of contemporary spirituality. Scaligero was a student of Zen, yoga, and the spiritual science of Rudolf Steiner--but he came to completely independent conclusions based on his direct spiritual experience.Scaligero's masterpiece is a continuous, unfolding meditation, and an immediate expression of his travels in higher realms. ...

T H E GARLAND OF LETTERS (VARṆAMĀLĀ)STUDIES IN THE MANTRA-ŚĀSTRA BY SIR JOHN WOODROFFETHIS book is an attempt, now made for the first time, toexplain to an English-knowing reader an undoubtedlydifficult subject. I am therefore forcibly reminded of thesaying, “Veda fears the man of little knowledge, sinceinjury may be received from him” ( Bibhetyalpaśrutād-Vedo mām-ayaṃ praharisyate) . It is natural, given this difficulty and the mystery ...

This book focuses on the analysis of pure consciousness as found in Advaita Vedanta, one of the main schools of Indian philosophy. According to this tradition, reality is identified as Brahman, the world is considered illusory, and the individual self is identified with the absolute reality. Advaitins have various approaches to defend this argument, the central one being the doctrine of 'awareness only' (cinmatra). Following this stream of argument, what consciousness grasps immediately is...