Editing Transcendentalism (section)

===Indian religions===
While firmly rooted in the western philosophical traditions of [[Platonism]], [[Neoplatonism]], and [[German idealism]], Transcendentalism was also directly influenced by [[Indian religions]].{{sfn|Versluis|1993}}{{sfn|Versluis|2001|p=3}}{{refn|group=note|Versluis: "In ''American Transcendentalism and Asian religions'', I detailed the immense impact that the Euro-American discovery of Asian religions had not only on European Romanticism, but above all, on American Transcendentalism. There I argued that the Transcendentalists' discovery of the [[Bhagavad-Gita]], the [[Vedas]], the [[Upanishads]], and other world scriptures was critical in the entire movement, pivotal not only for the well-known figures like Emerson and Thoreau, but also for lesser known figures like Samuel Johnson and William Rounsville Alger. That Transcendentalism emerged out of this new knowledge of the world's religious traditions I have no doubt."{{sfn|Versluis|2001|p=3}}}}  Thoreau in ''[[Walden]]'' spoke of the Transcendentalists' debt to Indian religions directly:
[[File:Henry David Thoreau 2.jpg|thumb|left|[[Henry David Thoreau]]]]
{{quote|In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the [[Bhagavad Gita|Bhagavat Geeta]], since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions. I lay down the book and go to my well for water, and lo! there I meet the servant of the [[Brahmin]], priest of [[Brahma]], and [[Vishnu]] and [[Indra]], who still sits in his temple on the Ganges reading the [[Vedas]], or dwells at the root of a tree with his crust and water-jug. I meet his servant come to draw water for his master, and our buckets as it were grate together in the same well. The pure Walden water is mingled with the [[Sacred waters|sacred water]] of the Ganges.<ref>Thoreau, Henry David. ''[[Walden]]''. Boston: Ticknor&Fields, 1854. p. 279. Print.</ref>|sign=|source=}}
In 1844, the first English translation of the [[Lotus Sutra]] was included in ''[[The Dial]]'', a publication of the New England Transcendentalists, translated from French by [[Elizabeth Peabody|Elizabeth Palmer Peabody]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lopez|first1=Donald S. Jr.|title=The Life of the Lotus Sutra|journal=Tricycle Magazine|date=2016|issue=Winter|url=https://tricycle.org/magazine/lotus-sutra-history/|access-date=2017-11-09|archive-date=2022-01-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128095709/https://tricycle.org/magazine/lotus-sutra-history/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Emerson|first1=Ralph Waldo|last2=Fuller|first2=Margaret|last3=Ripley|first3=George|title=The Preaching of Buddha|journal=The Dial|date=1844|volume=4|page=391|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VnsAAAAAYAAJ|access-date=2017-11-09|archive-date=2024-02-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208234705/https://books.google.com/books?id=VnsAAAAAYAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>