Gaudapada: Advaita Vedanta's First Philosopher - Paperback

by Richard H. Jones (Author)

The Gaudapada-karikas is the earliest extant Advaita Vedanta text. It is only explicitly Advaita text deemed worth saving from before Shankara's time. Its philosophical doctrines makes it worthy of study in its own right and sets the stage for Shankara's slightly different Advaita. The text is presented here in a plain English translation with notes. Also included are an essay on early Vedanta, who the author(s) of this text may be, and the influence of Buddhism on the text (especially Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka tradition); an account of the basic doctrines; and a philosophical critique of those doctrines. This books makes the claim intelligible that all is consciousness, one, and unchanging and thereby removes much of the shock of Gaudapada's Advaita Vedanta. But it also raises problems with the plausibility of the claim.

Author Biography

Richard H. Jones holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University in the history and philosophy of religion and an A.B. from Brown University in religious studies. He also holds a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. He lives in New York City. He is the author of numerous books, mainly in the fields of philosophy of mysticism and Buddhist philosophy. His website is richardjonesbooks.com.