/lit/ - Literature

>>13498122
You can begin by reading the Ashtavakra Gita which is a very high-quality short Advaita text that doesn't require any preliminary reading

https://realization.org/p/ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita.html

After that, the best way to understand Advaita is to read through Shankara's works. It's strongly recommended to read at least one and preferably two intro books to Vedanta and/or Indian philosophy before doing this.

Good intro books:
The Advaita Tradition in Indian Philosophy by Sharma
Man and His Becoming According to the Vedanta by Guenon
Vedanta Heart of Hinduism

The Advaita Tradition is one of my favorites, the author covers Madhyamaka and Vijnanavada Buddhism along with Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism. The author takes the unconventional position that the Upanishads, Buddha, Nagarjuna, early Vijnanavada and Shankara were more or less pointing at the same truth in different ways, he has good and bad things to say about tantra. He has some very lucid writing on Shankara's ideas which explain them with great clarity. The only downside is the Advaita section is maybe only a 1/3 of the book, but within that is a very good review of his ideas (and you could just read this without reading the whole book)

https://archive.org/details/TheAdvaitaTraditionInIndianPhilosophyChandradharSharma

Man and His Becoming is a good intro to and review of some of the key concepts that reappear again and again in Shankara's works, although some of it is a little obtuse/dense with lots of footnotes. It's recommended but not needed to read Guenon's 'Intro to Hindu Doctrines' first before this. Coomaraswamy called it the best book on the Vedanta in any European language. If you haven't read Guenon's first book it's best to wait to read this until after you've already read a book on Vedanta.

https://archive.org/stream/reneguenon/1925%20-%20Man%20and%20His%20Becoming%20according%20to%20the%20Ved%C3%A2nta#mode/2up

Vedanta Heart of Hinduism is another good primer that focuses mostly on Shankara, with additional chapters on Ramanuja et al, and later 18th-19th century figures on Ramana Maharshi, Vivekananda etc. Like 'The Advaita Tradition' this book is consists of the author's explanations of their ideas and not long passages of Shankara's etc works. It's translated from German, but still good.

https://archive.org/details/VedantaHeartOfHinduismHansTorwesten/page/n7

>>13442935
Reposting from another thread, the best way to understand Advaita is to read through Shankara's works. It's strongly recommended to read at least one and preferably two intro books to Vedanta and/or Indian philosophy before doing this.

Good intro books:
The Advaita Tradition in Indian Philosophy by Sharma
Man and His Becoming According to the Vedanta by Guenon
Vedanta Heart of Hinduism

The Advaita Tradition is one of my favorites, the author covers Madhyamaka and Vijnanavada Buddhism along with Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism. The author takes the unconventional position that the Upanishads, Buddha, Nagarjuna, early Vijnanavada and Shankara were more or less pointing at the same truth in different ways, he has good and bad things to say about tantra. He has some very lucid writing on Shankara's ideas which explain them with great clarity. The only downside is the Advaita section is maybe only a 1/3 of the book, but within that is a very good review of his ideas (and you could just read this without reading the whole book)

https://archive.org/details/TheAdvaitaTraditionInIndianPhilosophyChandradharSharma

Man and His Becoming is a good intro to and review of some of the key concepts that reappear again and again in Shankara's works, although some of it is a little obtuse/dense with lots of footnotes. It's recommended but not needed to read Guenon's 'Intro to Hindu Doctrines' first before this. Coomaraswamy called it the best book on the Vedanta in any European language. If you haven't read Guenon's first book it's best to wait to read this until after you've already read a book on Vedanta.

https://archive.org/stream/reneguenon/1925%20-%20Man%20and%20His%20Becoming%20according%20to%20the%20Ved%C3%A2nta#mode/2up

Vedanta Heart of Hinduism is another good primer that focuses mostly on Shankara, with additional chapters on Ramanuja et al, and later 18th-19th century figures on Ramana Maharshi, Vivekananda etc. Like 'The Advaita Tradition' this book is consists of the author's explanations of their ideas and not long passages of Shankara's etc works. It's translated from German, but still good.

https://archive.org/details/VedantaHeartOfHinduismHansTorwesten/page/n7

>>13298001
>Is there one of those charts around?
I'm working on the /lit/ guide to Hindu philosophy, so far I've got 94 translated texts from Sanskrit and other Indian languages and various secondary literature; and there will be descriptions of the content and number of pages etc for each one. I will try to buckle down and finish it before July desu