Sāṃkhya (original) (raw)

The Ultimate Reality and Meaning of Samkhya

It is in the nature of thinking and feeling minds to attempt to explain the totality of human experience. In the absence of a plausible explanation, humanity attempts to improve its understanding until a reasonably satisfactory explanation is found that satisfies both the human head and the heart. Sages around the world have always searched for such explanations. In India, a school of thought known as the Samkhya philosophy is an outstanding example of this universal search for global truth. Samkhya seems to understand the universe of sense perception as resulting from an unseen ultimate reality. Although this reality is totally imperceptible in itself, it is capable of being felt by the human heart and it underlies the entirety of perceptible universe. Samkhya thinking regards the perceptible as a manifestation of the imperceptible underlying reality through some process of successive discretization. It enumerates the sequentially concrete and ephemeral principles emerging from the infinitely subtle and eternal ultimate reality. These principles together culminate in the universe of sense perception.

Sāṁkhya: Dualism without substances

Joerg Tuske (ed.): Indian Epistemology and Metaphysics, 2017

Sāṁkhya philosophy (as expounded in its true classic, Īśvarakr̥ṣṇa’s Sāṁkhya-Kārikā) is the paradigmatic case of ancient Indian dualism; but this dualism is very different from the Cartesian version. Instead of the familiar body/mind dualism, we have here mind/consciousness dualism. The mind is a function of nature or matter, and the soul is not the thinking substance but consciousness only – in later Sāṁkhya (but not in the Sāṁkhya-Kārikā) even unchanging, contentless consciousness. The analysis of material entities is very detailed, although it is basically an anthropology only, focusing on information processing in both directions, inward and outward. This anthropology is frequently interpreted as a cosmogonical emanation scheme but it was not Īśvarakr̥ṣṇa’s meaning. Matter is systematically reduced to qualities, in the last analysis to the fundamental triad inertness–energy–information. This non-substantialist position is best known from Buddhism; it is suggested that the Buddha inherited his substance-reductionist ideas from proto-Sāṁkhya circles.

Modern Samkhya: Ancient Spirituality for the Contemporary Atheist

D.E. Osto Publishing, 2016

Sāṃkhya is one of the most ancient of India’s philosophical traditions and its influence has been widespread in Indian thought for centuries.The central aim of Sāṃkhya is to counteract human suffering. To do this, Sāṃkhya proposes a special type of metaphysical dualism, which asserts the absolute distinction between pure consciousness (puruṣa) on the one hand, and the phenomenal world (prakṛti) on the other. The ancient philosophy of Sāṃkhya can be applied to modern life in a number of valuable ways. Rather than becoming overly concerned with the metaphysics of the system, Sāṃkhya can be seen as a psychological tool to overcome suffering. Through rigorous philosophical and psychological analysis, a person can learn to detach or disassociate from the psychophysical entity, and realize witness consciousness. Classical Sāṃkhya postulates no God, supreme being, or creator of the universe. Thus Sāṃkhya shows us that there is not a necessary dichotomy between atheism and spirituality. Moreover, its understanding of the human condition, the self, and the universe provide us with profound psychological insights that may be utilized for better living in this world. In this book, the author investigates the foundational text of classical Sāṃkhya, the Sāṃkhyakārikā of Īśvarakrṣṇa, to uncover its important psychological insights concerning our human condition and the means to transcend it. Included in the book are special meditational exercises to internalize the teachings of Sāṃkhya, and a complete English translation of the Sanskrit Sāṃkhyakārikā. Dr D.E. Osto is a scholar of Asian philosophies and meditation teacher with over thirty years of meditation experience.

Sāṁkhya/Yoga as an Indian Religious and Cultural Science.docx

This paper is intended for a book addressing Indic theories for the study of religion. Sāṁkhya is widely understood to form much of the basic structure of Indian culture and society. Finding in it an alternative philosophical basis for interpreting Indian festivals, drama, and art, I aim for a deeper understanding of Indian thought and suggest ways to overcome the opposition between consciousness and materiality that continues to bedevil Western culture four hundred years after Descartes.

Consciousness and Cognition in Classical Sāṃkhya metaphysics

Indialogs. Spanish Journal of India Studies., 2020

This article explores the psychological dimension of classical Sāṃkhya philosophy, on the basis of its canonical treatise, Sāṃkhyakārikā of Īśvarakṛṣṇa (4th Century AD). The strong dualism defended by this ancient metaphysics establishes a division between what we will designate as the phenomenon of consciousness (puruṣa) and the cognitive phenomena (prakṛti). According to our approach, Sāṃkhya seems to offer a mechanical model of mind by means of an introspective self-research. In fact, we will argue that in this system of thought, mind is regarded as an artificial extension of consciousness. Considering the Sāṃkhya classical treatise as the report of a meditative experience, our main purpose is to examine some key points of this dualism. To this end, we also take account of certain Western theories of mind, as well as certain aspects included in another Indian philosophy greatly influenced by the Sāṃkhya system, namely, the classical Yoga of Patañjali.

NO-SELF IN SĀṂKHYA: A COMPARATIVE LOOK AT CLASSICAL SĀṂKHYA AND THERAVĀDA BUDDHISM

Philosophy East and West, 2018

Classical Sāṃkhya and Theravāda Buddhism share important features easily obscured when modern commentators reify the two systems as opposed to each other based on a facile "self/no-self" dichotomy. The present article argues that once this opposition is abandoned, one can clearly see that these two systems share very similar ontologies and methodologies for realizing ultimate release.

The hard problem of ‘pure’ consciousness: Sāṃkhya dualist ontology

Religious Studies: An International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion, 2023

This article addresses the theme of ‘death and immortality’ from the perspective of consciousness, and takes as its starting point a root text of Hindu philosophy, the Sāṃkhyakārikā by Īśvarakṛṣṇa (c. fourth century ce). The text posits a dualist ontology in which consciousness is separate and autonomous from a material reality that includes body and mind. The goal is to be ontologically situated in a ‘pure’ consciousness (non-objective), which signifies existential liberation. There are mundane ways to understand this claim, such as referring to cognitive states that produce affective dissociation, or more radical interpretations, such as a post-death state. This article explores the question of what Sāṃkhya's consciousness is like: it is said to be immortal, plural, individuated, and contentless. What is the motivation for and implication of engagement with a system that describes an existential freedom that may only be known in a dualist reality or after death? And how can Sāṃkhya's concepts be brought into conversation with contemporary investigations into mind–body questions? Sāṃkhya rationality counters the argument of eternal oblivion or of consciousness as an illusion confined to the brain. Yet there are resonances with Chalmers's notion of consciousness as fundamental. This article concludes that contemporary Anglo-American philosophy of religion can be enhanced by adding Sāṃkhya thought to its purview.

META-PHILOSOPHY PART 2 A pages 1-70

Meta-philosophical investigations of - what is metaphilosophy, philosophy, philosophizing, the discourse of philosophy, its aim, methods and transcendentals, as well as exploration of syllabus of top philosophical schools