One of Western Buddhism’s most sophisticated thinkers on one of Buddhism’s most central topics.

The concept of nonduality lies at the very heart of Mahayana Buddhism. In the West, it’s usually associated with various kinds of absolute idealism in the West, or mystical traditions in the East—and as a result, many modern philosophers are poorly informed on the topic. Increasingly, however, nonduality is finding its way into Western philosophical debates. In this “scholarly but leisurely and very readable” (Spectrum Review) analysis of the philosophies of nondualism of (Hindu) Vedanta, Mahayana Buddhism, and Taoism, renowned thinker David R. Loy extracts what he calls “a core doctrine” of nonduality. Loy clarifies this easily misunderstood topic with thorough, subtle, and understandable analysis.

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Previously published as Nonduality by Humanity Books.
 

Previously published: Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1997.

“David Loy’s thinking is always ahead of its time.  Nonduality is a prime example of this. It was ahead of its time when first published in 1988.  It became the “go to” book on nonduality in the first years of its publication. It is thus a great service to philosophers and practitioners for Wisdom Publications to reissue a volume that has retained its preeminent reference status for 30 years. In Nonduality, Loy shows complete mastery of nondual traditions from historical, philosophical and experiential perspectives.  Nonduality offers a highly nuanced, comparative analysis of nonduality is its primary settings of Advaita, Zen, Buddhism and Taoism, while referencing Western philosophers such as Plotinus, Descartes, Kant and Heidegger. At the same time Loy advances his own thesis that there is a core experience of nonduality that can be sourced within different conceptual frameworks. No other single volume on nonduality offers the breadth and sophistication of Loy’s analysis.”