Chapter 8

Vedantism, Buddhism,
Zoroastrianism And Sufiism.
While there are many great schools, and still more
minor-schools, of Oriental religio-philosophical
thought, still our purpose may be realized by a
brief consideration of the four great schools of the thought
of the Orient which have had the greatest influence upon
modern Western thought and speculation. These schools are,
respectively, (1) Vedantism, that great philosophic school of
India, the conceptions of which transcend even the most daring
speculations of the Western philosophers; (2) Buddhism, that
great school which has now almost passed away from India, its
birthplace, but which has many millions of followers in China,
Japan, and other countries, and whose influence has had a very
marked effect upon Western thought; (3) Zoroastrianism, that
once famous school of Persia, which has now almost entirely
passed from the scene, but which has exerted a great influence
upon schools of thought of other countries and later times;
and (4) Sufiism, that strange mystical inner-teaching of the
Mohammedan religion, upon which it was grafted by some
ancient teachers in order to protect it from destruction by the
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90
new religion of Islam. Let us take a brief glance at each of these
four important schools of thought.
Vedantism
The Vedanta school of philosophy is generally held to
represent the highest flight of the Oriental philosophical
thought. It dates far back in the centuries of the past, the best
authorities generally holding that it was founded about 700 b.c.,
although even then probably founded upon older teachings. It
embraces many minor schools under its general class, being
in fact one of the most catholic of the philosophies. As Max
Muller says: The Vedanta philosophy leaves to every man a
wide sphere of real usefulness, and places him under a law as
strict and as binding as anything can be in this transitory life;
it leaves him a Deity to worship as omnipotent and majestic as
the deities of any other religion. It has room for almost every
religion; nay, it embraces them all. Other Oriental philosophies
do exist and have some following, but Vedanta has the largest.
The Vedanta philosophy is the extreme of absolute idealism.
By absolute idealism is meant the philosophical conception
that denies the existence of the phenomenal world apart from
the universal mind. Absolute idealism denies the existence of
material objects, holding that their appearances are merely
ideas of the universal mind. In the Vedanta, the highest phase of
Hindu philosophical thought, the teaching is that the Absolute,
Brahman, or the Divine Mind is an absolutely homogeneous,
pure intelligence or thought, eternal, infinite, changeless,
indivisible. This being the case, it becomes necessary for the
Vedantin to account for the appearance of the phenomenal
world, with its succession of change, and its plurality of souls.
But the Vedantin does not shrink from the responsibility, but
faces it boldly. He accounts for the world of phenomena upon
the theory of maya (illusion) arising from avidya (ignorance).
But this ignorance and illusion is held to be universal, and not
confined to individuals. The individual is bound by it until the
Vedantism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism And Sufiism.
91

scales fall from his eyes, and he sees the truth of the Oneness.
An ancient Vedanta teacher, living many centuries ago, said:
The entire complex of phenomenal existence is considered as
true so long as the Brahman and the Self has not arisen, just as
the phantoms of a dream are considered to be dreams until the
sleeper wakes. Thus the existence of the phenomenal world,
while apparently real, is but the fiction of an illusory dream. It
seemingly exists, while the state of ignorance persists, for, as
Tennyson says: Dreams are true, while they last.
Max Muller has said:
Vedanta holds a most unique position among the philosophies of
the world. After lifting the Self or the true nature of the Ego, Vedanta
unites it with the essence of Divinity, which is absolutely pure, perfect,
immortal, unchangeable, and one. No philosopher, not even Plato,
Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, or Schopenhauer has reached that height of
philosophical thought. None of our philosophers, not excepting
Heraclitus, Plato, Kant or Hegel, has ventured to erect such a spire,
never frightened by storms of lightnings. Stone follows upon stone, in
regular succession after once the first step has been made, after once
it has been seen that in the beginning there can have been but One, as
there will be but One in the end, whether we call It Atman or Brahman.
Arising from this extreme theory of absolute idealism, we may
see the various modern doctrines of idealism, from Berkeley to
the modern schools of New Thought. The basic principle is that
All is Mind, and that all the phenomenal universe must exist as
ideas, dreams, or pictures in that mind.
Edward Carpenter says:
We see that there is in man a creative thought-source continually in
operation, which is shaping and giving form not only to his body, but
largely to the world in which he lives. In fact, the houses, the gardens,
the streets among which we live, the clothes we wear, the books we
read, have been produced from this source. And there is not one
The Crucible of Modern Thought