Engaged emancipation : mind, morals, and make-believe in the Moksopaya (Yogavasistha) / edited by Christopher Key Chapple and Arindam Chakrabarti ; contributors, Garth Bregman [and nine others].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Chapple, Christopher Key, 1954- editor.

Chakrabarti, Arindam, editor.

Bregman, Garth, contributor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mokṣa.

Hindu philosophy.

Mokṣopāya.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (328 p.)

Place of Publication:

Albany, New York : SUNY Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the Mokṣopāya (also known as the Yogavāsiṣṭha), an eleventh-century Sanskrit poetic text, the great Vedic philosopher Vasiṣṭha counsels his young protégé Lord Rāma about the ways of the world through sixty-four stories designed to bring Rāma from ignorance to wisdom. Much beloved, this work reflects the philosophy of Kashmir Śaivism. Precisely because all worldly pursuits are dreamlike and fiction-like, the human soul must first come to an experience of non-dualistic, mind-only metaphysics, and after attaining this wisdom, promote moral activism. Engaged Emancipation is a wide-ranging consideration of this work and the philosophical and spiritual questions it addresses by philosophers, Sanskritists, and scholars of religion, literature, and science. Contributors allow readers to walk with Rāma as his melancholy and angst transform into connectivity, peace, and spiritual equipoise.

Contents:

Contents; Introduction; Abbreviations; I. Flimsy Fixity: Reality Shifts; Chapter 1 Radical Transformation in the Yogavasi..ha; Rama's Dispassion; Concrete Lived Experience; The Transformation; The World within the Rock; The Reengagement; Conclusion; Notes; Chapter 2 Akasa and Jiva in the Story of Lila; Concordance; Notes; Chapter 3 The Concept of Abhasa in the Yogavasi..ha; Introduction; The Scholastic Advaita Concept of Abhasa in Buddhist Literature; Abhasa in the Moksopayasastra/Yogavasistha; Abhasa as Pure Consciousness; Cinmatra and Abhasa in Light of the Concept of Bhedabheda

Conclusion Notes; Chapter 4 Is This a Dream? A Critique of Moksopaya's Take on Experience, Objecthood, and the "External" World; The Ineliminable Possibility That the Current Experience Is a Dream; Nyayalalavati on the Similarity and Dissimilarity between Dream and Waking; The Alleged Unintelligibility of Objecthood; Conclusion: Disillusionment; Notes; Chapter 5 The Existence of an Endless Number of Worlds: Jagadanantya in Moksopaya and the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics; Jagadanantya in Moksopaya; The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

Where Are These Other Worlds or Universes?Mental Force and Free Will; Conclusion; Notes; Chapter 6 Vasi..ha and Borges: In Quest of Postmodern Enlightenment; Behind the Screen of Metaphors; The Labyrinth of Time and Space; The Dreamer: In Quest of the Real Self; Notes; II. Human Agency and World Creation; Chapter 7 Attitude of the Yogavasistha toward Human Endeavor; Notes; Chapter 8 A Fabulous Rationality: Poetry, Reason, and Action in the Yogavasiatha; Introduction; Atoms; Creation; Life; Consciousness; Reality; Knowledge; The Law; God; Conclusion; Notes

Chapter 9 Ethics and Psychology of the Yogavasistha in the Upasama Prakarana;a King Janaka; Pu.ya and Pavana; Bali; Prahlada; Gadhi; Uddalaka; Suraghu; Bhasa and Vilasa; Vitahavya; Conclusion; Notes; Chapter 10 Dreams, Fictions, and the Quest for Morality in the Yogavasistha; I; II; III; Step 1: The World as Story; Vasiaha's Possible Metaphysical Explanation for The Identity of World and Story; Vasisha's Possible Metaphysical Argument for The Identity of World and Story; Thus, the World Appearance is Just a Story; The Creative Origins of the World Appearance and Story

The Interdependence of Author, Reader, and Character The Relationship Between Author and Reader; The Relationship Between Author and Character; The Relationship Between Reader and Character; Step 2: Imagination and Moral Development; Shifting Perspectives; Empathetic Identification and Compassion; Step 3: Morality Justified; IV; V; Notes; Chapter 11 A Horrid Treehouse or a Charming City? Yogavasistha (Moksopaya) on Spiritual Culture of the Body; The Field and the Knower of the Field: Do I Find Myself in the World?; The Touch of the Hand and Inner Thrill in Yogavasistha

Five Layers of Embodiment in Upanisads

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438458687

1438458681

OCLC:

928387239