Tuesday, April 28, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Upanishads
✦ ─── ⟐ ─── ✦
Texts
Aitareya UpanishadThe Aitareya Upanishad — three meditations on creation, incarnation, and the identity of all consciousness with Brahman, culminating in the great saying: prajñānam brahma.Bṛhadāraṇyaka UpanishadThe longest principal Upanishad — Yājñavalkya's realization dialogues, the Maitreyi teaching, the Honey Doctrine, and the deepest philosophical inquiry in the Vedic tradition.Isa UpanishadThe shortest of the principal Upanishads — eighteen verses on the Self that pervades all things, the paradox of knowledge and ignorance, and the golden door of the True.Katha UpanishadA dialogue between the boy Nachiketas and Yama, the god of Death, on the nature of the Self, immortality, and the path beyond death.Kena UpanishadA dialogue between teacher and pupil on the unknowable Brahman that powers every sense yet cannot itself be sensed, culminating in the parable of the gods and the straw.Mandukya UpanishadThe shortest of the principal Upanishads — twelve verses on the syllable Om, the four states of consciousness, and the fourth state beyond waking, dreaming, and deep sleep.Mundaka UpanishadThe Upanishad of the shaven-headed seekers — three Muṇḍakas on higher and lower knowledge, the two birds on the same tree, and the arrow of the Self aimed at Brahman.Prasna UpanishadSix seekers approach the sage Pippalāda with six fundamental questions about the origin of life, the nature of breath, the states of sleep and dream, the syllable Om, and the person of sixteen parts.Śvetāśvatara UpanishadThe eighth principal Upanishad; the root text of Shaiva Vedānta, uniquely holding both dualism and non-dualism — God and soul are distinct, yet beneath all multiplicity lies the one Brahma.