Philosophy

In order to have an integrated understanding of the S´aivite and Tantric influences on certain mystical currents in the Islamic world, it behooves us to consider the need for a future comprehensive volume. This appendix is only a brief introduction to what may be buried or disguised in the memory of the past. The porous borders between the Indian and the Islamic worlds have always created inevitable crossinfluences, which can no longer be overlooked. In India, if the Sufis and yogic masters lived side by side, they must have intermingled and influenced one another. Certainly, various Hatha Yoga and S´aivite ideas became manifested in the practices of the Sufis in India as they absorbed non-Islamic elements.1 Chroniclers record that in thirteenth-century Sind some dervish orders would gather in certain S´iva temples.2 Shaivism as a potent spiritual order assimilated many elements from other traditions. The multifaceted nature of some of its practices and universal conceptual ideas meant...

The taboo against, and more importantly the stereotyping of, the Indian religious and spiritual-philosophical traditions in the Muslim societies have throughout the ages kept most Islamic adepts away from learning about them, and even those who did learn about them from mentioning them in their writings. Even though when some Indian fakirs traveled in the Afghano-Iranian world, interchanges of ideas and cross-influences did occur in practice between them and the Muslim mystics and philosophers, the Indian names and systems of thought remained unmentionable in Islamic writings. The origins of some of the practices, or at least their similarities to Indian spiritual practices, have only recently been mentioned in certain academic studies. It goes without saying that the presence of the Sufi Muslims in the Indian subcontinent has exercised its socio-cultural and spiritual influences. The great eleventh-century astronomer and polymath scientist Abu Rayhan al-Bıˉrunıˉ—one of the earliest sc...

The principle of nonviolence included by the Buddha among his main teachings and regarded as of incomparable merit. Introduction The word  ahiṃsā  is a feminine noun formed by adding the negative prefix  a  to the word  hiṃsā , derived from the root  hiṃs  meaning “to kill” or “to injure.” In historic India, the concept of  ahiṃsā  was used for the first time by the authors of the  Chāndogya Upaniṣad  ([ 1 ], p. 17.4) in connection with the cruelty of Vedic  yajñas . Later, it was strongly advocated by the Buddha, who included it among his main teachings, provided it a theoretical basis, and regarded it as of incomparable merit. Rationality Behind Buddhist Position Concerning Ahiṃsā Buddhism believes that living beings live in a world of mutual injury where life can only be sustained by marginalizing others. Thus, it is not possible to literally uphold the principle of  ahiṃsā  as life in some forms has to be unavoida...