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If the reader has also received the benefit of the Vedas, the access to which by means of the Upanishads is in my eyes the greatest privilege which this still young century may claim before all previous centuries, if then the reader, I say, has received his initiation in primeval Indian wisdom, and received it with an open heart, he will be prepared in the very best way for hearing what I have to tell him. It will not sound to him strange, as to many others, much less disagreeable; for I might, if it did not sound conceited, contend that every one of the detached statements which constitute the Upanishads, may be deduced as a necessary result from the fundamental thoughts which I have to enunciate, though those deductions themselves are by no means to be found there.

Arthur Schopenhauer#8

PhilosophyEducationSpiritualityIndia

About this quote

What does it mean?
Understanding the Vedas and Upanishads prepares a reader to receive new teachings without resistance.
In plain terms
Knowing ancient Indian wisdom makes new ideas easier to accept.
What can you take from it?
Study foundational texts to better grasp new concepts.

Where it applies

  • reading philosophical works
  • learning a new tradition

Putting it to work

  • compare new ideas with known concepts
  • approach teachings with openness

Questions to consider

  • How does prior knowledge shape our reception of new ideas?
  • Can any teaching be fully understood without prior context?

Another view

The claim that all Upanishadic statements can be deduced from his own thoughts may be overconfident.

More from Arthur Schopenhauer

  1. Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.

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  2. How entirely does the Oupnekhat breathe throughout the holy spirit of the Vedas! How is every one who by a diligent study of its Persian Latin has become famil…

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  3. If there is anything in the world that can really be called a man's property, it is surely that which is the result of his mental activity.

    Permalink to quote #6

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