The Metaphysics of Meditation

The Metaphysics of Meditation is a deeply insightful study of Sankara’s and Aurobindo’s engagement with the Isa Upanisad. With his characteristic textual and analytical rigor, Phillips addresses important issues in metaphysics, philosophy of consciousness, philosophy of meditation, and the interpretation of Vedanta. It will be of great interest to scholars in philosophy, religion, and consciousness studies. * Matthew MacKenzie, Professor of Philosophy, Colorado State University, USA * Prevailing scholarship assumes irreconcilable differences in Sankara’s and Aurobindo’s Vedantic worldviews. Stephen Phillips challenges this through a critical comparison of their commentaries on the Isa Upanisad. He reveals overlooked convergences, and provides novel perspectives on the entanglements of meditation and yogic phenomenology with metaphysics. In the process, Phillips invites readers to bridge the temporal, cultural, and philosophical gaps between two of South Asia’s most influential thinkers. * Neil Dalal, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Alberta, Canada * In this remarkable book, Stephen Phillips offers a provocative new study of the Isa Upanisad that is admirably attentive to its literary, philosophical, and spiritual dimensions. More controversially, he claims to find common ground between Sankara and Sri Aurobindo—usually considered to be worlds apart—in their reflections on the metaphysical and meditative teachings in the scripture. * Swami Medhananda, Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at the Vedanta Society of Southern California and Hindu Chaplain at UCLA and the University of Southern California, USA * The Metaphysics of Meditation revisits academic clichés nuancing the “vulgata” contrasting Shankara’s and Sri Aurobindo’s standpoints and emphasizing their convergences on the basis of both an erudite close-reading of their sources and a pragmatic argument: for both philosophers metaphysics and self-knowledge-through-practice, intellectual and yogic knowledge, must be understood as mirroring one another and guaranteeing their respective validity. * Benedetta Zaccarello, Senior Researcher, ITEM (French National Centre for Scientific Research / École Normale Supérieure Paris), France *