The mistakes we make about ourselves result in our deepest sufferings. Philosophy, meant to be a medicine for our souls' affliction, claims to offer both a diagnosis and a cure. This book looks to ancient India, where Buddhists and Hindus alike grapple with the fundamental human quest for peace of mind. For Indian thinkers, a philosophical treatise about the self is meant not only to lay out the truth, but also to embed itself in a process of study and contemplation that will lead eventually to self-transformation. The survey includes the Upaniṣads, the Buddha's discourses, the epic Mahābhārat ... More

The mistakes we make about ourselves result in our deepest sufferings. Philosophy, meant to be a medicine for our souls' affliction, claims to offer both a diagnosis and a cure. This book looks to ancient India, where Buddhists and Hindus alike grapple with the fundamental human quest for peace of mind. For Indian thinkers, a philosophical treatise about the self is meant not only to lay out the truth, but also to embed itself in a process of study and contemplation that will lead eventually to self-transformation. The survey includes the Upaniṣads, the Buddha's discourses, the epic Mahābhārata, and the philosopher Candrakīrti, whose work was later to become foundational in Tibetan Buddhism. The book shows that many contemporary theories of selfhood and personal identity are not only anticipated but developed to an extraordinary degree of sophistication in these works, and that there are other ideas about the self found here which modern philosophers have not yet begun to explore. In the Appendices, the book begins to disclose some of the paths along which Indian ideas about the self have migrated throughout history to the West.