Epistemological Parallels between the Nikāyas and the Upaniṣads
Issue: Vol 29 No. 1 (2012)
Journal: Buddhist Studies Review
Subject Areas: Religious Studies Buddhist Studies
Abstract:
What does it mean to ‘know’ in the Nikāyas such that simply ‘knowing’ certain things ‘as they really are’ has the power to liberate one from saṃsāra? In an effort to characterize such ‘knowing’ while minimizing the pr ojection of modern-western pr esupp ositions, the pr esent paper expl ores parallels between concepts of transformational and liberating knowledge in the Nikāyas and the early Upaniṣads in an effort to identify epistemological pr esupp ositions curr ent in ancient India. The characterization is contrasted with modern-western common sense notions of factual knowledge in order to highlight features that we may tend to miss or to overl ook. It is arg ued that for the authors of both sets of literature, ordinary opinion is deluded while genuine knowledge holds directly effective power, and that transformative knowledge is a reflexive mode of comportment towards the known, concerned as much with relations as with the entities related. This understanding help s to acc ount for the transformative power of ‘knowledge’ and may have impl ications for the ways we interpr et central doctrines.
Author: Stephen A. Evans
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