The Nondual Mind: Vedānta, Kashmiri Pratyabhijñā Shaivism, and Spinoza

Abstract

This book compares Hindu nondual philosophy to that of Baruch Spinoza, demonstrating the similarity of Spinoza's ideas to Kashmiri Pratyabhijñā Shaivism. The book is well researched, but it is written in an informal style suitable for both scholars and the educated general public. There is already some scholarly literature comparing Spinoza's philosophy to Śaṅkara's Vedānta, but none of it has focused, as this book does, on philosophy of mind, and none of it has included Kashmiri Shaivism in the comparison. Among other things, the important distinction between Śaṅkara's Vedānta and Kashmiri Shaivism is brought to the fore by looking at those two philosophies through the lens of Spinoza. The primary focus of the book is the question of consciousness, but one cannot explain consciousness without also saying something about ontology, epistemology, determinism, ethics, and death. The book dispels the illusion of the subject-object divide, which is the primary source of confusion for many philosophy-of-mind scholars. And when the illusion of the subject-object divide dissolves, the mind-body problem dissolves with it, and philosophical puzzles like Mary and her black-and-white room are easily solved. The key point is that all consciousness is consciousness of one's own self. One cannot be conscious of a thing — anything — without being that thing. The reason there appears to be an outside world, when in truth one is only consciousness of one's own self, is the same reason that the reflection of a city on the flat surface of a small mirror appears to be a distant city. It is a trick of perception that makes one's consciousness of self appear to be the knowing of an external world. But even more important, consciousness of self is not different from being self, for consciousness and being are the same thing. This book will appeal to philosophy of mind scholars, and it will thrill students of South Asian nondualism. But it is worth reading just for the brief anecdote about Einstein in Princeton and what that anecdote tells us about human agency