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Practical Spirituality and Human Development pp 63–80Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Practices of Nontheistic Spirituality

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Abstract

For many people, spiritual practice is associated with one or another theistic religion. But this association is not inevitable. Both in the ancient and the modern worlds, teachers of certain wisdom-traditions offered techniques of spiritual development that did not require belief in God or gods. In this chapter, I discuss the practices of 11 such traditions: 5 from India (Advaita Vedanta, Samkhya, Yoga, Jainism, and Buddhism), 2 from China (Confucianism and Daoism), and 4 from Greece (Cynicism, Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Scepticism). These traditions differ from one another in many respects, but all (1) are grounded in philosophies or worldviews in which the gods are absent or subordinate, (2) advocate nondevotional spiritual practices, and (3) offer a conception of the wise man or Sage. In contrast with practitioners of theistic religions, who often engage in sectarian conflict and violence, practitioners of nontheistic traditions tend to be concerned with individual development and thus avoid sectarian violence.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian (London: Allen Lane, 2005), p. 23.

  2. 2.

    Markandey Katju, “What is India?” (speech delivered at Jawaharlal Nehru University, November 2011). http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Markandey-Katju-What-is-India/articleshow/10994212, accessed on 6 June 2014.

  3. 3.

    Rig Veda X.129.7. Trans. in Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, trans. The Rig Veda (Penguin Books: New Delhi), pp. 25–26.

  4. 4.

    Mandukya Upanishad 2. Trans. in Valerie J. Roebuck, trans., The Upanishads (Penguin Books: New Delhi, 2003), p. 347.

  5. 5.

    “The self is brahman” (ayam atma brahma) is one of the Great Utterances (mahavakyas) that are of central importance in Advaitic teaching and practice.

  6. 6.

    Brahma Sutra Bhashya on I.2.14. Trans. (condensed) in Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, trans., The Brahma Sutra: The Philosophy of Spiritual Life (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1960), 276–277.

  7. 7.

    Samkhya Karika 2; Samkhya Sutra I.82, 84. The Bhagavad Gita, which contains elements of Samkhya and Yoga, criticizes Vedic practices at II.46, 52–53; VI.44, and other places.

  8. 8.

    For suffering (duhkha), see Yoga Sutra II.15–16; Samkhya Karika 1; Samkhya Sutra I.1; for liberation (kaivalya) see Yoga Sutra III.55, and so on; Samkhya Karika 17, 21, and so on; Samkhya Sutra I.144, 155.

  9. 9.

    See for instance Samkhya Sutra I. 93–95. Sutra 93 states that the existence of isvara is unproved.

  10. 10.

    Samkhya Sutra I.95. Trans. in J. R. Ballantyne, trans., Samkhya Aphorisms (Delhi: Parimal Publications, 1984), p. 115. Commenting on this verse, Aniruddha makes it clear that isvara “is applied, by way of eulogy, either to a soul as it were liberated, or to a person who through devotion has acquired transcendent faculties, that is to say, the Yogi” (in Ballantyne, Samkhya Aphorisms, p. 116).

  11. 11.

    Yoga Sutra I.23–24. Trans. in Barbara Stoler Miller, trans., Yoga: Discipline of Freedom (New York: Bantam Books, 1998), p. 35.

  12. 12.

    For example, G.M. Koelman, cited in Georg Feuerstein, Classical Yoga (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1980), p. 13.

  13. 13.

    Shankaracharya, Brahma Sutra Bhashya on I.1.5, Trans. Thibault, in Eliot Deutsch and Rohit Dalvi, eds., The Essential Vedanta (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2004), p. 202.

  14. 14.

    See, for example, Shankaracharya, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Bhashya on II.4.5: “Therefore ‘the Self, my dear Maitreyi, should be realized, is worthy of realization, or should be made the object of realisation. It should first be heard of from a teacher and from the scriptures, then reflected on through reasoning, and then steadfastly meditated upon.’ Thus only is It realised—when these means, viz. hearing, reflection and meditation, have been gone through.” Trans. in Swami Madhavananda, trans., The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad with the Commentary of Sankaracarya (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, 2009), p. 247. See also Shankaracharya, Upadeshasahasri I.3 (in Deutsch and Dalvi, Essential Vedanta, p. 164).

  15. 15.

    Shankaracharya, Brahma Sutra Bhashya, Introduction. Trans. Thibault, in Deutsch and Dalvi, Essential Vedanta, p. 196.

  16. 16.

    Samkhya Sutra I.19. Trans. in Ballantyne, trans., Samkhya Aphorisms, p. 21.

  17. 17.

    Samkhya Sutra I.55–56. Trans. in Ballantyne, trans., Samkhya Aphorisms, p. 59.

  18. 18.

    Samkhya Karika 62. Trans. in Mainkar, trans. Samkhyakarika of Isvarakrishna (Delhi: Chaukhamba Sanskrit Pratishthan, 2004), p. 195.

  19. 19.

    Gaudapada’s Bhashya on Samkhya Karika 57. Trans. in Mainkar, trans., Samkhyakarika, p. 186.

  20. 20.

    Yoga Sutra II.17. Trans. in Miller, trans., Yoga, p. 49.

  21. 21.

    Yoga Sutra I.1, 12, 47. Trans. in Miller, trans., Yoga, pp. 29, 32, 42.

  22. 22.

    Bhagavad Gita XVIII.53. Trans. in W. J. Johnson, trans., The Bhagavad Gita (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 79.

  23. 23.

    Bhagavad Gita Bhashya on V.13. Trans. in Allady Mahadeva Sastry, trans., The Bhagavad Gita with the Commentary of Sri Shankaracharya (Madras: Samata Books, 1998), p. 167.

  24. 24.

    Yoga Sutra I.3, Trans. in Miller, trans., Yoga, p. 29.

  25. 25.

    Bhagavad Gita II.56, 64. Trans. in Johnson, trans., Bhagavad Gita, pp. 11–12.

  26. 26.

    Sutrakritanga I.12.11; Anguttara Nikaya III. Cited in Bimala Churn Law, Mahavira: His Life and Teaching (Calcutta: Mrs. K. K. Law, n.d.), p. 82.

  27. 27.

    Dhammapada 379. Trans. in Harishchandra Kaviratna, trans. Dhammapada: Wisdom of the Buddha (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 2001), p. 149.

  28. 28.

    Sutrakritanga I.8.17–18. Trans. Hermann Jacobi, in Jaina Scriptures, in Sacred-texts.com; http://www.sacred-texts.com/jai/sbe22/, accessed on 6 June 2014 (I emend “Karman” to “karma”).

  29. 29.

    Umasvati, Tattvarthadhigama Sutra 10. Trans. in Nathmal Tatia, trans., Tattvartha Sutra: That Which Is (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1994), p. 253.

  30. 30.

    Majjhima Nikaya XXVI.18, 19. Trans. in Nanamoli and Bodhi, trans., The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (Somerville MA: Wisdom Publications, 1994), pp. 259–260.

  31. 31.

    Majjhima Nikaya X.1, 47. Trans. in Nanamoli and Bodhi, trans., Middle Length Discourses, pp. 145–155.

  32. 32.

    Acaranga Sutra IV.16.4. Trans. Hermann Jacobi, in Jaina Scriptures, in Sacred-texts.com; http://www.sacred-texts.com/jai/sbe22/sbe2280.htm, accessed on 6 June 2014.

  33. 33.

    Majjhima Nikaya XXXIX.23, 29; I.51. Trans. in Nanamoli and Bodhi, trans., Middle Length Discourses, pp. 370–371, 87.

  34. 34.

    Lankavatara Sutra VI.66. Trans. in Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1999), p. 18.

  35. 35.

    Analects IV.4. Trans. in D.C. Lau, trans. The Analects (London: Penguin, 1979), p. 72.

  36. 36.

    Analects XII.2. Trans. in Lau, trans., The Analects, p. 112.

  37. 37.

    Analects VI.22, XI.12–13. Trans. in Lau, trans., The Analects, pp. 84, 107.

  38. 38.

    Daodejing 18. Trans. in Edmund Ryden, trans., Daodejing (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 39.

  39. 39.

    Daodejing 38. Trans. in Ryden, trans., Daodejing, p. 81.

  40. 40.

    Zhuangzi 6. Trans. in Burton Watson, trans., Zhuangzi: Basic Writings (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), p. 77.

  41. 41.

    Analects XVIII.151. Trans. in Lau, trans., The Analects, p. 151.

  42. 42.

    Daodejing 81, 2, 47. Trans. in Ryden, trans., Daodejing, pp. 167, 7, 99.

  43. 43.

    Zhuangzi 6. Trans. in Watson, trans., Basic Writings, p. 77.

  44. 44.

    Memorabilia I.1.11–16. Trans. in Stephen Nadler, Spinoza’s Ethics: An Introduction (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. viii.

  45. 45.

    Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life (Malden MA: Blackwell, 1995), p. 58.

  46. 46.

    Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers VI.1. Trans. in Hicks, ed., http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=D.%20L.%206&lang=original, accessed on 6 June 2014.

  47. 47.

    Dio Chrysostom, Discourses VIII.15. Trans. J. W. Cohoon, trans., in http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dio_Chrysostom/Discourses/8*.html, accessed on 6 June 2014.

  48. 48.

    Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus 129. Trans. in Eugene O’Connor, trans., The Essential Epicurus (Amherst NY: Prometheus Books, 1993), p. 65.

  49. 49.

    Epicurus, Fragments 54. Trans. in O’Connor, trans., Essential Epicurus, p. 97.

  50. 50.

    Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus 129; Principal Doctrines 4. Trans. in O’Connor, trans., Essential Epicurus, pp. 63, 69.

  51. 51.

    Epictetus, Enchiridion 1, 8. Trans. in Robert Dobbin, trans., Discourses and Selected Writings (London: Penguin, 2008), p. 124.

  52. 52.

    Seneca, To Marcia on Consolation IX.5. Trans. in John W. Basore, trans., Essays, vol. II, in http://www.stoics.com/seneca_essays_book_2.html, accessed on 6 June 2014.

  53. 53.

    Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism III.24. Trans. in William B. Irvine, On Desire (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 252.

  54. 54.

    Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism I.6, I.4, I.8, in “Outlines of Pyrrhonism (in part),” http://people.uvawise.edu/philosophy/phil205/Sextus.html, accessed on 6 June 2014.

  55. 55.

    Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers VI.54. Trans. in Hicks, ed., http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=D.%20L.%206&lang=original, accessed on 6 June 2014.

  56. 56.

    Lucretius, De Rerum Natura V.1203. Trans. in R.E. Latham, trans., On the Nature of the Universe (London: Penguin Books, 2001), p. 159.

  57. 57.

    Seneca, On Firmness, VIII.1–2. Trans. Basore, in Essays, vol. I, in http://www.stoics.com/seneca_essays_book_1.html, accessed on 6 June 2014.

  58. 58.

    In this I follow Sri Aurobindo, who in his Synthesis of Yoga (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1999) divided the methods of yoga into four main groups: dynamic (karmayoga), mental (jnanayoga), emotional ( bhakti yoga), and technical (the yoga of self-perfection).

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  1. Independent Scholar, Pondicherry, India

    Peter Heehs

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  1. Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Ananta Kumar Giri

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Heehs, P. (2018). Practices of Nontheistic Spirituality. In: Giri, A. (eds) Practical Spirituality and Human Development. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0803-1_6

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