Oriental Philosophies. Through the centuries a rich spiritual import has trickled into the West by word of mouth, through the writings of scholars, through translations and caravans. Philosophies older than that of the ancient greeks have had a significant influence on European thought, especially The Bhagavad-Gita, The Upanishads, the Diamond Sutra, the discourses of Confucious and Mencius and Lao Tzu and the Dharma of the Buddha.
Even the teachings in The Bible which came to be called Christian was itself, as St. Augustine frankly acknowledged, orientally derived. Concepts such as salvation were long before the rise of Christianity in the West common both in India and China and even, though to a lesser degree at the Mystery Schools of ancient Egypt. From the book:
A word of appreciation should go to those teachers of philosophy who have used this volume in earlier editions in their classes and who have so kindly made available their criticisms and comments. The authors are indebted to them for many of the improvements in the present revision. Perhaps a word should be said here relative to the forms of mosliteration employed. ln cases of such words as have found a place in standard English dictionaries, e. g. Nirvana, Mahayana, Hioayana, diacritical mukings have not been employed. In the case of the readings, the same system of translitteration is used as was used by the particular author or editor from whose writing the selections here were taken. It will thus be noted, for example, that the Legge system of transcription bas been used in such readings as have been taken from that author while elsewhere, in the text, the Wade-Giles system has been utilized because of its wide acceptance.
This book by William D. Gould, George B. Arbaugh, and R. R. Moore was first published in 1949 and it gives an overview with examples of the ancient eastern writings. Download the free PDF e-book here:
Oriental Philosophies
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