Philosophers Under the Bodhi Tree - by Peter Oldmeadow (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A sweeping intellectual journey exploring the resonances between Buddhism and Western thought--with chapters on Romanticism, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger, deep ecology, engaged Buddhism, and postmodernism.

Buddhism didn't arrive in the West in a vacuum. From its first reception in the Romantic era, its study and practice in the West have been shaped by multiple streams of culture and thought. In turn, modern Buddhism has been influenced by its contact with the West.

Beginning with the intellectuals of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries who first brought Sanskrit and Buddhism into European consciousness and spanning to the present day with discussions of environmentalism and social justice, Peter Oldmeadow reveals the connections between Western philosophy and Buddhism, challenging our assumptions about both traditions along the way.

Philosophers Under the Bodhi Tree traces how universal ideas about suffering, identity, and transcendence evolve over time and across cultures--and how we might reexamine our own fundamental beliefs about the nature of existence.

About the Author

PETER OLDMEADOW is a retired professor of Sanskrit and Buddhist Philosophy at the University of Sydney, where he was head of the Department of Indian Sub-Continental Studies. He has traveled across Asia and Australia in his study of the theory and living traditions of Buddhism and the classical languages of India and Tibet, and he has an interest in how the wisdom traditions of the world can answer the fundamental questions of modern humanity. He is the author of Rimé Buddhism Without Prejudice.