Piim’s Reviews > Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines > Status Update

NAMASTE

Shaivism and Vaishnavism

Resolved a misunderstanding I've had. The Brahmaa, Shiva, and Vishnu aspects all have their Shakti equivalents, those who dedicate themselves to those are called Shaktaas. But anything Shakti is within the confines of those 3, mainly the latter 2

Shaivism also is the closest to Metaphysical realisation. It is "destruction" only from POV of manifestation that returns to unmanifest Absolute

Been reading this every other day, but forgetting to update here. Went over perpetuity of Vedas, heterodoxy, le boudhismé, Manu, quick overview of castes. Less than 100 pages left and only in the immediate next chapter we get to Shaivism & Vaishnavism

Finished the first half of the book, which scrutinously elaborates on the exact nature of Metaphysics and how all the misconceptions are wrong

Forgot to update this for a few days, even though I've been slowly reading. Very time consuming with the annotations, it's safe to say that over 7 hours of reading have yielded progressing through 30 pages, due to how precisely the foundation is set up and defined

Relationship between Metaphysics and Theology. Theology is inherently insufficient and flawed due to the sentimental/emotional/feeling element, and anything to do with the domain of feeling is not Universal, ie it is a baggage upon Metaphysics that only obfuscates what's the truth. Religion (a constituent part of which is sentimentalism) also has a role in consolation, but Truth isn't concerned with consolation

Forgot to log this yesterday.

Talks of the essential characteristics of metaphysics. Had me following his convoluted chain of logic until "the general is not opposed to the individual, but only the particular". No explanation whatsoever what the difference between the individual and particular is.

Though there is an important true point that science could never be metaphysics since metaphysics is beyond experiment

1. Main divisions of Eastern World — Near East, Middle East, Far East
2. Principles of the unity of the Eastern Traditions
3. What is meant by Tradition?
4. Tradition and Religion

41 to 69 = 28 pages

LOTS of annotating in the margins. My instinct is to write a succinct rewording of the author's main point, making chain of logic very clear in my own words. Don't know if this is a good idea since time consuming