Nonduality: A Study in Comparative Philosophy Book

"An important book tackling one of the central patterns of Asian thinking."
-Religious Studies Review

"A valuable book on a topic that is essential to understanding the most important systems of Eastern thought."
-Buddhist Christian Studies

Many Western philosophers are poorly informed about the issues involved in nonduality, since this topic is usually associated with various kinds of absolute idealism in the West, or mystical traditions in the East. Increasingly, however, this topic is finding its way into Western philosophical debates. In this "scholarly but leisurely and very readable" (Spectrum Review) analysis of the philosophies of nondualism of (Hindu) Vedanta, Mahayana Buddhism, and Taoism, Loy extracts what he calls "a core doctrine" of nonduality of seer and seen from these three worldviews and then applies the doctrine in various ways, including a critique of Derrida's deconstructionism.

David Loy is a professor on the Faculty of International Studies at Bunkyo University, Japan. He has been a student of Zen for over twenty-five years and is a qualified Zen teacher. He is the author of Lack and Transcendence: The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism (also available from Humanity Books), as well as numerous articles.

Booknews

Addressing one of the central patterns of Asian thinking, this study analyzes the philosophies of nondualism of (Hindu) Vedanta, Mahayana Buddhism, and Taoism. Loy, a Zen practitioner (Bunkyo U., Japan) extracts what he calls a core doctrine of nonduality of seer and seen from these three worldviews and then applies the doctrine in various ways, including a critique of Derrida's deconstructionism. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.