Abstract

This dissertation shows how, despite vast differences in metaphysical approach. Gautama Siddhartha and Spinoza arrived at strikingly similar insights concerning the nature of the universe, the human condition and the place of man in that universe. It does not attempt to establish any influence of Buddhism upon Spinoza's thought. As well as exploring significant parallels in their philosophies, it refutes commonly-held misconceptions of them as pessimistic and ascetic and their characterization as mystics. Both offer positive philosophies showing the way to happiness and perfection via full understanding of the world when stripped of illusion and active participation in it despite the inevitability of unsatisfactoriness and suffering. ;Introduction. From the beginning of philosophic endeavor, the ultimate goal of both was to find a remedy for suffering and communicate it to others. Having arrived at the awareness of the unity of the apparently separate person with the whole of nature, and a way to achieve the maximum happiness possible within the limits of determined existence, both set out to show the way to that happiness, stressing the necessity for everyone ultimately to abandon the given and pursue the final goal of perfected realization of truth independently. ;Chapter I. Spinoza's Deus sive Natura and Buddhism's Dharmakaya. Draw parallels between Spinoza's theory of substance as Deus sive Natura and the Mahayana view of the phenomenal world as manifestation of the "Truth Body" . ;II. The Concept of Self. Points up parallels in the Buddha's and Spinoza's concept of self and their common view of the illusion of egoity as principal source of suffering and unsatisfactory relationships. ;III. "Dukkha" and Human Bondage: Their Roots in Craving/Endeavor and their Remedy in True Understanding. ;IV. Ethical Theory as Related to the Buddha's Karma and Spinoza's Efficient Causality. For both insight into the causal process governing humans as parts of the unified whole led to a morally neutral, naturalistic ethical theory. ;V. Salvation Through Enlightenment: The Buddha's Nirvana and Spinoza's Blessedness. Salvation through liberation is effected in the realization of truth, and moral perfection is pursued in rationally governed lives directed at social as well as personal harmony