Christopher Key Chapple is an Indologist and scholar of the renouncing religions of India, namely yoga, Jainism and Buddhism. He is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. He has written several books on the history and philosophy of yoga, and on the intersection of religion and ecology. [1]
Chapple received his bachelor's degree in comparative literature and religious studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1976. He went on to complete his master's degree in Buddhism (1978) and PhD in history of religions (1980) at Fordham University. [1] He noted in an interview that he initially struggled to reconcile Buddhism's "emptiness" with Yoga's self-realisation, and commented that the Yogavasistha answered the debate on "the tension between emptiness and consciousness in superbly poetic verse." [2]
He has published numerous books and papers on the history and philosophy of Indian religions, and on the intersection of religion and ecology. [3] [4]
Chapple advises the International Summer School of Jain Studies, the Forum on Religion and Ecology (Yale), the Ahimsa Center (Pomona), the Dharma Academy of North America (Berkeley), the Jain Studies Centre (SOAS), the South Asian Studies Association, and International School for Jain Studies (New Delhi). He founded the Masters Program in Yoga at Loyola Marymount University, where he is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology. [1]
Indian religions, sometimes also termed Dharmic religions or Indic religions, are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent. These religions, which include Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, are also classified as Eastern religions. Although Indian religions are connected through the history of India, they constitute a wide range of religious communities, and are not confined to the Indian subcontinent.
Karma means action, work, or deed. The term also refers to the spiritual principle of cause and effect, often descriptively called the principle of karma, wherein intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect): Good intent and good deeds contribute to good karma and happier rebirths, while bad intent and bad deeds contribute to bad karma and bad rebirths.
Yoga is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated in ancient India, aimed at controlling ('yoking') and stilling the mind, and recognizing the detached 'witness-consciousness' as untouched by the activities of the mind (Citta) and mundane suffering (Duḥkha). There are a broad variety of the schools of yoga, practices, and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and traditional forms and modern methods of yoga are practiced worldwide.
Bhakti literally means "attachment, participation, fondness for, homage, faith, love, devotion, worship, purity". It was originally used in Hinduism, referring to devotion and love for a personal god or a representational god by a devotee. In ancient texts such as the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, the term simply means participation, devotion and love for any endeavor, while in the Bhagavad Gita, it connotes one of the possible paths of spirituality and towards moksha, as in bhakti marga.
Comparative religion is the branch of the study of religions concerned with the systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices, themes and impacts of the world's religions. In general the comparative study of religion yields a deeper understanding of the fundamental philosophical concerns of religion such as ethics, metaphysics and the nature and forms of salvation. It also considers and compares the origins and similarities shared between the various religions of the world. Studying such material facilitates a broadened and more sophisticated understanding of human beliefs and practices regarding the sacred, numinous, spiritual and divine.
Indian philosophy refers to philosophical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. A traditional Hindu classification divides āstika and nāstika schools of philosophy, depending on one of three alternate criteria: whether it believes the Vedas as a valid source of knowledge; whether the school believes in the premises of Brahman and Atman; and whether the school believes in afterlife and Devas.
The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali is a collection of Sanskrit sutras (aphorisms) on the theory and practice of yoga - 195 sutras and 196 sutras. The Yoga Sutras was compiled in the early centuries CE, by the sage Patanjali in India who synthesized and organized knowledge about yoga from much older traditions.
The Eastern religions are the religions which originated in East, South and Southeast Asia and thus have dissimilarities with Western, African and Iranian religions. This includes the East Asian religions, Indian religions as well as animistic indigenous religions.
Graham M. Schweig was born in Manhattan, New York and raised in Washington, DC. He joined the faculty at Christopher Newport University in August, 2000, and is currently Professor of Religion and, Director of Studies in Religion, and former inaugural Director of the Asian Studies program. He is also Distinguished Research and Teaching Faculty at The Center for Dharma Studies of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California beginning June, 2017.
Aacharya Haribhadra Suri was a Svetambara mendicant Jain leader, philosopher, doxographer, and author. There are multiple contradictory dates assigned to his birth. According to tradition, he lived c. 459–529 CE. However, in 1919, a Jain monk named Jinvijay pointed out that given his familiarity with Dharmakirti, a more likely choice would be sometime after 650. In his writings, Haribhadra identifies himself as a student of Jinabhadra and Jinadatta of the Vidyadhara Kula. There are several, somewhat contradictory, accounts of his life. He wrote several books on Yoga, such as the Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya and on comparative religion, outlining and analyzing the theories of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains.
Śramaṇa means "one who labours, toils, or exerts themselves " or "seeker, one who performs acts of austerity, ascetic". The term in early Vedic literature is predominantly used as an epithet for the Rishis with reference to Shrama associated with the ritualistic exertion. The term in these texts doesn't express non-Vedic connotations as it does in post-Vedic Buddhist and Jain canonical texts. During its later semantic development, the term came to refer to several non-Brahmanical ascetic movements parallel to but separate from the Vedic religion. The Śramaṇa tradition includes Jainism, Buddhism, and others such as the Ājīvika, Ajñanas and Cārvākas.
Dhyāna in Hinduism means contemplation and meditation. Dhyāna is taken up in Yoga practices, and is a means to samadhi and self-knowledge.
Rajiv Malhotra is an India born American Hindutva activist, author and founder of Infinity Foundation, which focuses on Indic studies, and also funds projects such as Columbia University's project to translate the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur.
Enlightenment is the "full comprehension of a situation". The term is commonly used to denote the Age of Enlightenment, but is also used in Western cultures in a religious context. It translates several Buddhist terms and concepts, most notably bodhi, kensho, and satori. Related terms from Asian religions are kaivalya and moksha (liberation) in Hinduism, Kevala Jnana in Jainism, and ushta in Zoroastrianism.
Arindam Chakrabarti is, currently, a visiting professor of philosophy at Ashoka University, India. He is, also, a professor of philosophy at Stony Brook University, where he has been since 2018. Prior to moving to Stony Brook, Chakrabarti taught at the University of Hawaii, where he was the director of the EPOCH Project.
Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya is a 228 verse Sanskrit work on Yoga by the Jain Svetambara philosopher Acharya Haribhadrasuri yakini putra. It is a particularly informative work of comparative religion which analyzes the various philosophical views (drishtis) and practices of post-Gupta Buddhists, Hindus and Jains on Yoga and draws on them to present a uniquely Jaina form of Yoga, with an eightfold division.
Yogaśāstra is a 12th-century Sanskrit text by Hemachandra on Svetambara Jainism. It is a treatise on the "rules of conduct for laymen and ascetics", wherein "yoga" means "ratna-traya", i.e. right belief, right knowledge and right conduct for a Svetambara Jain. As a manual with an extensive auto-commentary called Svopajnavrtti, it was instrumental to the survival and growth of Svetambara tradition in western Indian states such as Gujarat and the spread of Sanskrit culture in Jainism.
Antonio T. de Nicolas is an American scholar, poet and professor of philosophy. He is professor emeritus of philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Geoffrey Samuel is an emeritus professor of religious studies at Cardiff University. He is known for his ethnographic studies of Tibetan and other Indic religions, investigating topics such as yoga, tantra, and the subtle body.
Navin Doshi is an author, scholar, philanthropist, and co-founder of Nalanda International, a non-profit organization.