A Journey To Bodh A Study Of Ralph Waldo Emerson And Henry David Thoreau

Abstract

This study through a reading of the non-fictional prose writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and newlineHenry David Thoreau advances the argument that the two American Transcendentalists shared a newlinefruitful relationship with Buddhist thought and philosophy an influence which has been newlinesomewhat understudied in scholarship. By mapping the history of Buddhism and its influx into newlineEurope and America, this thesis explores and charts the kind of Buddhist discourse that was in newlinecirculation in nineteenth-century America, further delineating how Emerson and Thoreau s newlinedegree of exposure to and their knowledge of Buddhism had been relatively greater than has newlinebeen generally perceived by the critical consensus. Using a comparative methodology the study newlineproceeds to demonstrate how the affinities among Emerson, Thoreau and the Buddha go deeper newlinethan simply ostensible from the manifest references to Buddha and Buddhism in the letters, newlinejournals and published writings of Emerson and Thoreau. Their works carry copios traces of Zen, newlineTibetan and Theravadin Buddhist principles and tenets traces betraying much similitude not newlineonly in their ideation of a metaphysics and religion, essentially non-dogmatic, rational, karmaoriented, newlineintuitive; and more particularly, utilitarian and salvific in ethos and in motive; but also newlinea commonality which runs deeper, at a much visceral level, as evinced in Emerson, Thoreau and newlinethe Buddha s emphasis on unity, interdependence, self-reliance, self-knowledge, mindfulness, newlineand most importantly, spiritual awakening. It concludes with the contention that Emerson and newlineThoreau bore ample Buddhist underpinnings in their orientation, objectives and socio-spiritual newlinereformist impulses, thus veritably warranting the claim that both Emerson and Thoreau were newlineand#8215;Buddhistic , if not formal Buddhists; that they were and#8215;Buddhas in the making, if not Buddhists newlinethemselves. newline