The Religions Book

102

BRAHMAN IS

MY SELF

WITHIN

THE HEART

THE ULTIMATE REALITY

T

he Upanishads are a series

of philosophical texts, the

earliest of which had been

composed by the 6th century BCE.

They record the highest level of

teachings, reserved for the finely

trained, meditative minds of

Hindu sages or gurus. Their central

concern is the nature of the self; in

effect they argue that to understand

the self is to understand everything.

Western philosophy has

traditionally taken two positions

on the nature of the self. For the

school known as dualist, the self is

nonphysical and distinct from the

body. Whether it is called the soul

or the mind, it is the thinking and

feeling aspect of what we are—the

IN CONTEXT

KEY SOURCE

The Upanishads

WHEN AND WHERE

6th century BCE, India

BEFORE

From 2000 BCE The idea of

a soul that can be separated

from the body is present in

some early Indo-European

beliefs, but describes a spirit

that carries the essence of the

individual rather than a soul at

one with an ultimate reality.

AFTER

c.400 BCE Indian philosophy

influences ancient Greek

thinkers. Plato posits a

supreme being from which

all other living beings derive.

1st century Buddhist sage

Nagasena rejects the notion

of a fixed self, following

Buddha’s teaching that all

things exist in a state of flux.