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CHAPTER 5 THE CONCEPT OF THE UNITY OF ALL THINGS

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Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples
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CHAPTER 5 THE CONCEPT OF THE UNITY OF ALL THINGS As a result of their inclination to emphasize Universal Being, to which all individuals and particulars are subordinated, most Hindus concentrate on the idea of the unity of all things. They look down upon the changing manifestations of the phenomenal world as illusory. According to those Indian philosophers who were more or less Vedantic, only Universal Being behind these manifestations is the ultimate source of reality. And the more anything is individualized, the less it shares in the essence of reality. In-dividuals are nothing else than limited manifestations of Universal Being. From very ancient times, the Vedantists had a strong tendency to think of the multifarious phenomena of the world as self-realizations of the one Ab-solute Being. The main current of Advaita Vedantic metaphysics has been a thoroughgoing monism imposed on pluralistic but illusory phenomena. Although there were other branches of Vedanta, such as that of Madhva who adhered to a purely realistic and pluralistic standpoint, the main em-phasis was on monism. The monistic Vedanta has dominated the classical scholarship of India, which has left its impress on Indian philosophy in gen-eral. This tendency has penetrated into more popular philosophy. Even the dualistic Samkhya and the Vaisesika schools also finally came to make a compromise with monism. A primitive form of this monistic view was expressed in the Rg-Veda in the hymns of the creation of the universe, and it took a more clearly de-fined form in the Upanisads. The Upanisads express Absolute Being in many different ways. They follow the Vedas, assigning the role of the pri-mal principle to things in nature, such as Wind, Water, or Ether. Adding to those survivals of the old Vedic ideas, the Upanisads took again the primacy of Absolute Being over the principles and functions of individual being such as the Spirit, the Understanding (vijnana), or the Soul (pwrMsa). And before they named it the Brahman or the Atman, they at-tempted to express Absolute Being by various notions like "the existent," "the non-existent," "that which is neither existent nor not existent," "the undeveloped," "the controller within," or "the imperishable." Though the Upanisads express the Absolute by such multiple names, we can point out
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CHAPTER 5 THE CONCEPT OF THE UNITY OF ALL THINGS As a result of their inclination to emphasize Universal Being, to which all individuals and particulars are subordinated, most Hindus concentrate on the idea of the unity of all things. They look down upon the changing manifestations of the phenomenal world as illusory. According to those Indian philosophers who were more or less Vedantic, only Universal Being behind these manifestations is the ultimate source of reality. And the more anything is individualized, the less it shares in the essence of reality. In-dividuals are nothing else than limited manifestations of Universal Being. From very ancient times, the Vedantists had a strong tendency to think of the multifarious phenomena of the world as self-realizations of the one Ab-solute Being. The main current of Advaita Vedantic metaphysics has been a thoroughgoing monism imposed on pluralistic but illusory phenomena. Although there were other branches of Vedanta, such as that of Madhva who adhered to a purely realistic and pluralistic standpoint, the main em-phasis was on monism. The monistic Vedanta has dominated the classical scholarship of India, which has left its impress on Indian philosophy in gen-eral. This tendency has penetrated into more popular philosophy. Even the dualistic Samkhya and the Vaisesika schools also finally came to make a compromise with monism. A primitive form of this monistic view was expressed in the Rg-Veda in the hymns of the creation of the universe, and it took a more clearly de-fined form in the Upanisads. The Upanisads express Absolute Being in many different ways. They follow the Vedas, assigning the role of the pri-mal principle to things in nature, such as Wind, Water, or Ether. Adding to those survivals of the old Vedic ideas, the Upanisads took again the primacy of Absolute Being over the principles and functions of individual being such as the Spirit, the Understanding (vijnana), or the Soul (pwrMsa). And before they named it the Brahman or the Atman, they at-tempted to express Absolute Being by various notions like "the existent," "the non-existent," "that which is neither existent nor not existent," "the undeveloped," "the controller within," or "the imperishable." Though the Upanisads express the Absolute by such multiple names, we can point out
© University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. FOREWORD V
  3. EDITOR'S PREFACE XI
  4. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XIII
  5. CONTENTS XVII
  6. INTRODUCTION 1
  7. PART I: INDIA
  8. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 41
  9. CHAPTER 2 STRESS ON THE UNIVERSAL 44
  10. CHAPTER 3 PREFERENCE FOR THE NEGATIVE 52
  11. CHAPTER 4 MINIMIZING INDIVIDUALITY AND SPECIFIC PARTICULARS 60
  12. CHAPTER 5 THE CONCEPT OF THE UNITY OF ALL THINGS 67
  13. CHAPTER 6 THE STATIC QUALITY OF UNIVERSALITY 73
  14. CHAPTER 7 SUBJECTIVE COMPREHENSION OF PERSONALITY 87
  15. CHAPTER 8 SUPREMACY OF THE UNIVERSAL SELF OVER THE INDIVIDUAL SELF 93
  16. CHAPTER 9 SUBSERVIENCE TO UNIVERSALS 107
  17. CHAPTER 10 ALIENATION FROM THE OBJECTIVE NATURAL WORLD 130
  18. CHAPTER 11 THE INTROSPECTIVE CHARACTER OF INDIAN THOUGHT 152
  19. CHAPTER 12 THE METAPHYSICAL CHARACTER OF INDIAN THOUGHT 157
  20. CHAPTER 13 THE SPIRIT OF TOLERANCE AND CONCILIATION 168
  21. PART II: CHINA
  22. CHAPTER 14 INTRODUCTION 175
  23. CHAPTER 15 EMPHASIS ON THE PERCEPTION OF THE CONCRETE 177
  24. CHAPTER 16 NON-DEVELOPMENT OF ABSTRACT THOUGHT 185
  25. CHAPTER 17 EMPHASIS ON THE PARTICULAR 196
  26. CHAPTER 18 CONSERVATISM EXPRESSED IN EXALTATION OF ANTIQUITY 204
  27. CHAPTER 19 FONDNESS FOR COMPLEX MULTIPLICITY EXPRESSED IN CONCRETE FORM 217
  28. CHAPTER 20 FORMAL CONFORMITY 226
  29. CHAPTER 21 THE TENDENCY TOWARDS PRACTICALITY 233
  30. CHAPTER 22 INDIVIDUALISM 247
  31. CHAPTER 23 ESTEEM FOR HIERARCHY 259
  32. CHAPTER 24 ESTEEM FOR NATURE 277
  33. CHAPTER 25 RECONCILING AND HARMONIZING TENDENCIES 284
  34. PART III: TIBET
  35. CHAPTER 26 INTRODUCTION 297
  36. CHAPTER 27 CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE INDIVIDUAL 301
  37. CHAPTER 28 DISCOVERY OF THE ABSOLUTE IN MAN 309
  38. CHAPTER 29 ABSOLUTE SUBMISSION TO A RELIGIOUSLY CHARISMATIC INDIVIDUAL 316
  39. CHAPTER 30 ABSOLUTE ADHERENCE TO THE LAMAIST SOCIAL ORDER 327
  40. CHAPTER 31 SHAMANISTIC TENDENCIES 333
  41. CHAPTER 32 LOGICAL TENDENCIES 337
  42. PART IV: JAPAN
  43. CHAPTER 33 INTRODUCTION 345
  44. CHAPTER 34 THE ACCEPTANCE OF PHENOMENALISM 350
  45. CHAPTER 35 THE TENDENCY TO EMPHASIZE A LIMITED SOCIAL NEXUS 407
  46. CHAPTER 36 NON-RATIONALISTIC TENDENCIES 531
  47. CHAPTER 37 PROBLEM OF SHAMANISM 577
  48. NOTES 588
  49. INDEX 691
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