Book Description
In this study the author has concentrated his attention on the nature of renunciation, as one of the great paths which Eastern people have taken, and the truths they have discovered. To construct his framework, he analyses renunciation in thought and practice at the individual level, and as a continuous religious phenomenon which has throughout been subjected to serious appraisal, to meet the spiritual need of mankind at the social level. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Ecumenical Studies, published by Journal of Ecumenical Studies on September 22, 1997. The length of the article is 519 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Philosophy of Religion and Advaita Vedanta: A Comparative Study in Religion and Reason. (book reviews)
Author: William C. Allen
Publication: Journal of Ecumenical Studies (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1997
Publisher: Journal of Ecumenical Studies
Volume: v34Issue: n4Page: p582(1)

Article Type: Book Review

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Product Description
comparartive study on influence of Schopenhauer, a great admirer of the Upanishads. Study of basic texts,Sankara, notions of mystical. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Journal of the American Oriental Society, published by American Oriental Society on July 1, 2003. The length of the article is 3119 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Method of Early Advaita Vedanta.(Reviews of Books)(Book Review)
Author: John A. Taber
Publication: The Journal of the American Oriental Society (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 2003
Publisher: American Oriental Society
Volume: 123Issue: 3Page: 695(5)

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Journal of the American Oriental Society, published by American Oriental Society on January 1, 2000. The length of the article is 1320 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Jivanmukti in Transformation: Embodied Liberation in Advaita and Neo-Vedanta.(Review) (book review)
Author: Patrick Olivelle
Publication: The Journal of the American Oriental Society (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2000
Publisher: American Oriental Society
Volume: 120Issue: 1Page: 135

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Journal of the American Oriental Society, published by American Oriental Society on October 1, 1997. The length of the article is 946 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Philosophy of Religion and Advaita Vedanta: A Comparative Study in Religion and Reason. (book reviews)
Author: Francis X. Clooney
Publication: The Journal of the American Oriental Society (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 1997
Publisher: American Oriental Society
Volume: v117Issue: n4Page: p693(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Customer Reviews (1)

Advaita Vedanta and Modern Science Reconciled
You may recognize the name John Dobson. He is famous for inventing the Dobsonian telescope, an affordable, easy-to-make, portable scope optimized for deep sky viewing. As a popular astronomer and cosmologist, he's been on the Johnny Carson show and he's had a documentary film made about him. But John Dobson is also a monk. And his interest in reconciling Advaita philosophy with the physics of the universe goes back a long way.

In 1955, when John Dobson was living in the Vedanta monastery in San Francisco, Swami Ashokananda assigned him the task of reconciling science and religion. John was sent back to school to finish up his education in the sciences, and by the time he was done, he was well equipped to tackle the job. He's been talking about it ever since.

"We don't have two worlds, one for the mystics and one for the scientists. There's only one of it. And if the mystics are right in their descriptions, and if the scientists are right in theirs, we need only a translator and a dictionary of both languages." John speaks both languages, and his translation is both elegant and exciting.

What John patiently explains, like putting together an intricate jigsaw puzzle, is that the physics of Einstein give all the support needed to back up the Vedantin idea that the universe is apparitional, not actual - that it is a mistake to see the universe as spread out in space and time. Although you have to look at it with new eyes, our science of today validates this ancient mystical knowledge.

Of course, these hidden treasures in the theory of relativity have not been found by most scientists, but that's because their lookers are broken. If you look at the equations freshly, the truth is there; however, if you look at the equations while first assuming the universe is actual, you'll miss the clues that suggest it is not, and this John makes very clear.

Advaita holds, and Einstein backs up: The "first cause" is apparitional. The rest of what appears comes from transformation of what appears with that first cause. But there is not a material universe which arises out of nothing; indeed, there is no material universe, and the universe we see gets "seeable" by a mistake.

In the appearance of the universe, as we see it, the Underlying Existence (Brahman) always shows through, and it shows through in the physics - in gravitation (going towards undividedness), electricity (going towards the infinite), and inertia (going towards changelessness). John suggests that as "beings" in this apparent universe, we are always trying to "return" to the Underlying Existence, and we are always frustrated in that attempt, because it is not possible for the apparitional (us) to become the real.

John makes the point that what drives us is our inner knowing that the Eternal Undividedness is all there is. He says, "...the primary motive which governs our actions is the vision of the real. It's the changeless, the infinite, the undivided (Asti, Bhati, Priya) as seen in this world of time and space that moves whatever moves. And the world itself is that Underlying Existence showing through. There is nothing else."

I won't even begin to try and lay out any of the physics. It's all there and explained in a way a lay person can understand. Just know that it's not a difficult read, and if you like the idea of Truth as it reveals itself in both science and spirituality, you're in for a real treat. ... Read more