The Philosophy of the Upanishads c4.1

c4.1

The present work forms the second part of my *General History of Philosophy*. It is however complete in itself; and has for its subject the Philosophy of the Upanishads, the culminating point of the Indian doctrine of the universe. This point had been already reached in Vedic, pre-Buddhist times; and in philosophical significance has been surpassed by none of the later developments of thought up to the present day. In particular the Sânkhya system has followed out lines of thought traced for it in the Upanishads, and has emphasized realistic tendencies already found there (*infra*, pp. 239–255). Buddhism also, though of entirely independent origin, yet betrays its indebtedness in essential points to the teaching of the Upanishads, when its main fundamental thought (*nirvânam*, the removal of suffering by the removal of *trishnâ*) meets us expressed in other words (union with Brahman by the removal of *kâma*) in the passage from the Brihadâranyaka quoted below.¹