Universität Wien

180099 VO-L On the Heart of Indian Philosophies and The concept of the Heart in Indian Philosophies. (2023W)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 18 - Philosophie
Moodle

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Details

Language: English

Examination dates

Tuesday 30.01.2024 18:30 - 20:00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1 Monday 04.03.2024 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien Monday 22.04.2024 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3B NIG 3.Stock

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Tuesday 10.10. 18:30 - 20:00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1
Tuesday 17.10. 18:30 - 20:00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1
Tuesday 24.10. 18:30 - 20:00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1
Tuesday 31.10. 18:30 - 20:00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1
Tuesday 07.11. 18:30 - 20:00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1
Tuesday 14.11. 18:30 - 20:00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1
Tuesday 21.11. 18:30 - 20:00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1
Tuesday 28.11. 18:30 - 20:00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1
Tuesday 05.12. 18:30 - 20:00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1
Tuesday 12.12. 18:30 - 20:00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1
Tuesday 09.01. 18:30 - 20:00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1
Tuesday 16.01. 18:30 - 20:00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1
Tuesday 23.01. 18:30 - 20:00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The aim of this lecture is to introduce you to philosophical conceptions of the heart from the Indian cultural sphere. The heart, in the context of Indian philosophies, refers not so much to an organ within the human organism as to a global space that all things can inhabit. As the hymn of creation in the oldest Veda, the Ṛgveda, says, the heart space reaches from the oceanic depths of the unconscious to the luminous heights of the superhuman. By virtue of it immeasurable vastness, the heart space is able to connect the farthest ends of the world in such a way that the opposites lose their irreconcilability in the infinite space of the heart. Being (sat) & non-being (asat), the present & the absent, social differences and gender differences become–through the queer practice of the heart–merely regional distinctions that lose their meaning and significance in the all-gathering vastness of a heart. It has therefore been said (Ṛgveda X.129) that it was only through the intensive exploration of their hearts that the Vedic poets and seers were able to release those rivers of clarity within themselves that finally allowed them to glimpse that Gnostic truth for which their hearts had long aspired.
But what does truth (ṛtam) have to do with the heart (hṛdaya)? Is the heart an organ of knowledge? Is the heart, as an organ, always already enveloped in what Indian philosophies called the epistemic sheat of our cosmos (vijñānamayakośa)? And if the heart should indeed have its own reference to truth, what truth(s) is it, a heart is capable of discerning? And how should we differentiate different forms of knowing? E.g. Knowledge reached on the plane of mental thinking (manomayakośa), on the vital plane (prāṇamayakośa), or on the bodily, physical plane (annamayakośa) Why does Asian Philosophies speak from the heart and the mind often in such a manner, as if they would form an assemblage, that belongs together (Heart-mind)? And why does the heart is capable according to ancient Indian philosophies to taste, not just the present and the past, but also the future?

Questions, which finally do end up in the question, which have to be clarified in the seminar, what it could mean to think with the Heart (sahṛdaya), that is, to think heartily? It is telling that this way of thinking precisely defines the persona of the aesthete in Indian philosophies and aesthetics. There the stage is often described as a pulsating heart-space, assembling the hearts of the performer and the audience which binds them together in a vibrrant, affectionate manner.

Assessment and permitted materials

4 written exam dates:

1st exam date: DI 30.01.2024 18.30-20.00 BIG lecture hall main building, first floor staircase 1 courtyard 1 (Confirmed).
2nd exam date: MO 04.03.2024 18.30-20.00 Lecture hall 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3rd floor, 1010 Vienna (Confirmed)
3rd exam date: Second half of April 2024
4th examination date: End of June 2024

No AI, smartphone or computer may be used during the written exams.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Written examinations will comprise of four main questions with sub-questions (max. 40 points)
0-20 points = insufficient, 21-25 points = sufficient, 26-30 points: satisfactory, 31-35 points = good, 36-40 points = very good. At the written exam, one needs to reach > 50% of the points in order to pass the exam.

Dates of examinations:
1. Examination: DI 30.01.2024 18.30-20.00 BIG-Hörsaal Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 1 Hof 1 (Bestätigt)
2. Examination: MO 04.03.2024 18.30-20.00 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien (Bestätigt)
3. Examination: Second half in April 2024
4. Examination: End of June 2024

Examination topics

Only texts that will be explicitly discussed in the lecture during the course of the semester, will be relevant for the exam. These texts will be part of the power point slides which will be made accessible on Moodle.

Reading list

Obligatory Literature:
Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1998): The Secret of the Veda, VOLUME 15, THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust. Pondycherry.
Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1999): The Synthesis of Yoga, VOLUMES 23 and 24, THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust. Pondycherry.
Lakshmanjoo, Swami (2000): Kashmir Shaivism: The Secret Supreme. Lakshmanjoo Academy.
Skora, Kerry Martin (2007): The Pulsating Heart and Its Divine Sense Energies: Body and Touch in Abhinavagupta's Trika. In: Numen , 2007, Vol. 54, No. 4, Religion through the Senses (2007), Leiden/ Bosten: Brill. pp. 420-458.
Muller-Ortega, Paul Eduardo (1989): The Triadic Heart of Siva. Kaula Tantricism of Abhinavagupta in the Non-Dual Shaivism of Kashmir. New York: State University of New York Press.

Non-Obligatory Literature:
Bäumer, Bettina (ed.) (1988): Kalātattvakośa. A Lexicon of Fundamental Concepts of the Indian Arts. Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. New Delhi: Shri Jainendra Press.
Bäumer, Bettina (2016): Die flüssige Natur ästhetischer Erfahrung. Polylog 35, pp. 89–95.
Barad, Karen (2007): Meeting the Universe Halfway - Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham & London: Duke University Press.
Bryant, Edwin F. (2009): The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali. New York: North Point Press.
Banerji, Debashish, (ed.) (2020): Integral Yoga Psychology: Metaphysics & Transformation as Taught by Sri Aurobindo. Twin Lakes: Lotus Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42240-021-00091-5
Gonda, Jan (1977): A History of Indian Literature. Vol. 2, fasc. 1, Medieval Religious Literature in Sanskrit. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Heeds, Peter (2006): Sri Aurobindo and Hinduism. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives and Research Library.
Maas, Philipp (2006): “Samādhipāda: Das erste Kapitel des Pātañjalayogaśāstra zum ersten Mal kritisch ediert. = The First Chapter of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra for the First Time Critically Edited. Aachen: Shaker Verlag.
Maharaj, Ayon (2018): Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ortez, Javier (1989): A Hermeneutics of Symbolic ("Spatial") terms (Sunya, Akaia, Kha, Vyoman) and the Relationship with the "Centre" ("Heart" Hrdaya) in the Sivaism of Kashmir. Varanasi: Banaras Hindu University
White, David Gordon (1991): Tantra in Practice. Princeton Readings in Religions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
White, David Gordon (2009): Yogic Rays: The Self-Externalization of the Yogi in Ritual,Narrative and Philosophy. Paragrana 18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1524/para.2009.0005
White, David Gordon (2014): The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: A Biography (Lives of Great Religious Books, Band 43). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Wolfers, Alex (2017): The Making of an Avatar: Reading Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1872–1950) Religions of South Asia 11, nos 2-3. pp. 274 -341. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.37030

Association in the course directory

Last modified: We 06.03.2024 09:46