Editing Arthur Schopenhauer (section)

====Indology====
[[File:Schopenhauer 1852.jpg|thumb|Schopenhauer, 1852]]

Schopenhauer read the Latin translation of the [[Hindu texts|ancient Hindu texts]], the ''[[Upanishads]]'', translated by French writer [[Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron|Anquetil du Perron]]{{sfn|Clarke|1997|page=68}} from the Persian translation of Prince [[Dara Shukoh]] entitled ''Sirre-Akbar'' ("The Great Secret"). He was so impressed by its [[Indian philosophy|philosophy]] that he called it "the production of the highest human wisdom", and believed it contained superhuman concepts. Schopenhauer considered India as "the land of the most ancient and most pristine wisdom, the place from which [[Europeans]] could trace their descent and the tradition by which they had been influenced in so many decisive ways",{{sfn|Clarke|1997|page=68}} and regarded the ''Upanishads'' as "the most profitable and elevating reading which [...] is possible in the world. It has been the solace of my life, and will be the solace of my death."{{sfn|Clarke|1997|page=68}}

Schopenhauer was first introduced to Anquetil du Perron's translation by Friedrich Majer in 1814.{{sfn|Clarke|1997|page=68}} They met during the winter of 1813–1814 in [[Weimar]] at the home of Schopenhauer's mother, according to the biographer Safranski. Majer was a follower of [[Johann Gottfried Herder|Herder]], and an early [[Indologist]]. Schopenhauer did not begin serious study of the Indic texts until the summer of 1814. Safranski maintains that, between 1815 and 1817, Schopenhauer had another important cross-pollination with Indian thought in [[Dresden]]. This was through his neighbor of two years, [[Karl Christian Friedrich Krause]]. Krause was then a minor and rather unorthodox philosopher who attempted to mix his own ideas with ancient Indian wisdom. Krause had also mastered [[Sanskrit]], unlike Schopenhauer, and they developed a professional relationship. It was from Krause that Schopenhauer learned [[meditation]] and received the closest thing to expert advice concerning Indian thought.<ref>Christopher McCoy, 3–4</ref>

{{blockquote|The view of things [...] that all plurality is only apparent, that in the endless series of individuals, passing simultaneously and successively into and out of life, generation after generation, age after age, there is but one and the same entity really existing, which is present and identical in all alike;—this theory, I say, was of course known long before Kant; indeed, it may be carried back to the remotest antiquity. It is the alpha and omega of the oldest book in the world, the sacred [[Vedas]], whose dogmatic part, or rather esoteric teaching, is found in the Upanishads. There, in almost every page this profound doctrine lies enshrined; with tireless repetition, in countless adaptations, by many varied parables and similes it is expounded and inculcated.|''On the Basis of Morality'', chapter 4<ref>{{cite book |last=Schopenhauer |first=Arthur |year=1840 |publication-date=1908 |title=[[On the Basis of Morality]] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/basisofmorality00schoiala#page/269/mode/2up |chapter=Part IV |translator-last=Bullock |translator-first=Arthur Brodrick |location=London |publisher=[[Swan Sonnenschein]] |pages=269–271 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>}}

For Schopenhauer, will had [[ontology|ontological]] primacy over the [[intellect]]; desire is prior to thought. Schopenhauer felt this was similar to notions of [[puruṣārtha]] or goals of life in [[Vedānta]] [[Hinduism]].

In Schopenhauer's philosophy, denial of the will is attained by:
* personal experience of an extremely great suffering that leads to loss of the [[will to live]]; or
* knowledge of the essential nature of life in the world through observation of the suffering of other people.

The book ''Oupnekhat'' (Upanishad) always lay open on his table, and he invariably studied it before going to bed. He called the opening up of [[Sanskrit literature]] "the greatest gift of our century", and predicted that the philosophy and knowledge of the Upanishads would become the cherished faith of the West.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.philosophy.ru/library/asiatica/indica/authors/motives.html|title=Western Indologists: A Study in Motives|last=Dutt|first=Purohit Bhagavan|access-date=9 May 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100802010348/http://www.philosophy.ru/library/asiatica/indica/authors/motives.html|archive-date=2 August 2010}}</ref> Most noticeable, in the case of Schopenhauer's work, was the significance of the ''[[Chandogya Upanishad]]'', whose [[Mahāvākyas|Mahāvākya]], [[Tat Tvam Asi]], is mentioned throughout ''The World as Will and Representation''.<ref>Christopher McCoy, 54–56</ref>