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/lit/ - Literature

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[ERROR] No.19094913 [Reply] [Original]

So I was just scrolling through the wikipedia page for Schopenhauer, I don't even remember why I was on it in the first place, but something caught my attention.

From his wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer was immediately impressed by the Upanishads (he called them "the production of the highest human wisdom", and believed that they contained superhuman concepts) and the Buddha,[87] and put them on a par with Plato and Kant.[89][90] He continued his studies by reading the Bhagavad Gita, an amateurish German journal Asiatisches Magazin and Asiatick Researches by the Asiatic Society.[91][90] Schopenhauer held a profound respect for Indian philosophy;[92] although he loved Hindu texts, he was more interested in Buddhism,[93] which he came to regard as the best religion.[90]

"In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death.[96]"

Regarded the Upanishads as "the most profitable and elevating reading which [...] is possible in the world. It has been the solace of my life, and will be the solace of my death."[236]

"If the reader has also received the benefit of the Vedas, the access to which by means of the Upanishads is in my eyes the greatest privilege which this still young century (1818) may claim before all previous centuries, if then the reader, I say, has received his initiation in primeval Indian wisdom, and received it with an open heart, he will be prepared in the very best way for hearing what I have to tell him. It will not sound to him strange, as to many others, much less disagreeable; for I might, if it did not sound conceited, contend that every one of the detached statements which constitute the Upanishads, may be deduced as a necessary result from the fundamental thoughts which I have to enunciate, though those deductions themselves are by no means to be found there.[258]"

The book Oupnekhat (Upanishad) always lay open on his table, and he invariably studied it before going to bed. He called the opening up of Sanskrit literature "the greatest gift of our century", and predicted that the philosophy and knowledge of the Upanishads would become the cherished faith of the West.[239] Most noticeable, in the case of Schopenhauer's work, was the significance of the Chandogya Upanishad, whose Mahāvākya, Tat Tvam Asi, is mentioned throughout The World as Will and Representation.[240]
---

So if he had such high praises for the Hindu texts, then why did he end up regarding Buddhism as the "best religion"? If he had so much endless praise for the Upanishads, then why did he end up regarding Buddhist philosophy as superior? I don't understand. Can anyone explain this to me?

>> No.19094976

If you want to know so bad read what he fucking wrote down.

>> No.19095008

Hinduism--essentialist/dualist
Buddhism--non-essentialist/non-dualist
Advaita Vedanta--non-essentialist/non-dualist
Dvaita Vedanta--non-essentialist/dualist???
Can someone explain pls

>> No.19095183

>>19094913
Did he have access to any Buddhist texts? Maybe that’s why he studied the Upanishads even though he preferred Buddhism to Hinduism; it was the closest he could get to Buddhist literature.

>> No.19095194

Please don't post wikipedia text on /lit/ - Literature, and admit you don't read. This place is flatlining as it is.

>> No.19095380

Bump

>> No.19095395

Bump for a good thread

>> No.19095482
File: 107 KB, 986x1024, 1632247960933.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
[ERROR]

>>19095194
>>19094976
Yes. Cry about it

>> No.19095492
File: 197 KB, 593x584, 1632248184886.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
[ERROR]

Sneed cope Kek lel Kekistan top Kek poggers pogchamp sadge peepo Pepe Wojak basedjak Kek my sides are literally keking in orbit Wee woo kek based poggers btfo the cringe with the force of a thousand suns dangerously based

>> No.19095516

>>19094913
>So if he had such high praises for the Hindu texts, then why did he end up regarding Buddhism as the "best religion"? If he had so much endless praise for the Upanishads, then why did he end up regarding Buddhist philosophy as superior? I don't understand. Can anyone explain this to me?
Probably because he thought buddhism's promotion of self-denial squared with his own philosophical conclusions about the renunciation of the will as the key to liberation. Hinduism grasps the same concepts--after all buddhism is a sort of heretical offshoot of hinduism. Except hinduism does not offer a solution; it merely promotes an eternal continuation of the same cycle. Buddhism instead suggests an end to the possibility of suffering. I believe that buddhism was therefore essential for Schopenhauer to factor in some grain of optimism to counterbalance his system and to resolve the existential conundrums of the world as will.

>> No.19096035

>>19094913
More like Schopendour

>> No.19097562

>>19095516
>Except hinduism does not offer a solution; it merely promotes an eternal continuation of the same cycle.
This board is getting more and more gutter as the days pass

>> No.19097568

You know what? FUCK Schopenhauer.

>> No.19097627

>>19094913
Can someone tell me what
>translation
of the Upanishads I should get?

>> No.19097661

>>19097627
Fuck you faggot go on amazon and get the first one you see, get the most popular one you cant go wrong

>> No.19097663

>>19095516
>Except hinduism does not offer a solution; it merely promotes an eternal continuation of the same cycle
>what is moksha

>> No.19097786

>>19095008
Advaita attributes an eternal essence or an essential reality to Brahman but considers nothing else to have an eternal essence.

>>19097627
Olivelle’s if you want a standard translation from the (profane) point of view of western academia
Easwaran’s if you want a simplified and abridged Upanishad translation (this one is perhaps the most accessible to newbs)
Radhakrishnan’s if you want a translation with longer commentary that is a mix of the Hindu religious perspective and academic perspective
Nikhilananda’s translation if you want a commentary from a religious perspective which is basically a simplified and abridged version of Shankara’s interpretation/commentary.
Gambhirananda’s translation of Shankara’s commentaries if you want to read the Upanishads along with a commentary from the perspective of traditional Advaita Vedanta
Anantha Rangacharya‘s translation of Ranga Ramanuja Muni’s commentaries if you want to read the Upanishads along with a commentary from the perspective a traditional Vishishtadvaita

>> No.19097839

>>19095008
To add: Advaita and Dvaita are both schools of Hinduism, it doesn’t make much sense to list them as a different option. Advaita and Dvaita are both essentialist, as are most schools of Hinduism. I have never heard of any anti-essentialist schools of Hinduism, there may be none.