Eastern Philosophical Parallels to Pantheism

Key Insight

Spinoza's pantheistic philosophy exhibited striking parallels with various Eastern teachings, even though he was likely unaware of these connections. Prominent thinkers such as Immanuel Kant and Arthur Schopenhauer noted strong similarities, with Schopenhauer suggesting India was Spinoza's 'true spiritual home,' akin to the pantheism found in Chinese Taoism and Tibetan Buddhism. Albert Einstein also recognized these affinities, linking Spinoza and Buddha as 'enlightened' figures, indicating a shared, underlying current of non-dualism and an immanent divine across diverse ancient and modern traditions.

Ancient Indian pantheism, particularly Advaita Vedanta, centered on Brahman, an 'omnipresent absolute' that constituted a 'unity underlying all multiplicity.' It was an 'eternal infinite divine power' responsible for creating, sustaining, preserving, and reabsorbing all worlds. Schopenhauer, whose works Einstein repeatedly studied, extensively quoted from India's sacred scriptures like the Vedas and Upanishads. He argued that realizing one's essence as eternal allowed 'to look death calmly in the face,' aiming for a 'peace that is higher than all reason,' analogous to 'reabsorption in Brahman.' Mahatma Gandhi also articulated a deeply pantheistic view, claiming, 'God is an unseen Power residing within us and nearer to us than fingernails to the flesh' and 'in every atom,' identifying himself as a follower of the Advaita doctrine.

Einstein's intellectual journey further revealed these Eastern parallels. His interactions with Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel laureate poet and mystic whose Brahmoism drew heavily from the Upanishads, profoundly influenced him. Tagore described Brahman as 'the absolute Truth' realizable through 'completely merging the individual in its infinity.' Einstein's personal library also contained multiple copies of the Tao Te Ching, which he diligently studied. Richard Wilhelm, a key translator of Chinese spirituality, identified Taoism with 'the radical elimination of religious anthropomorphism' and its replacement with a higher order. He noted similarities between Lao Tzu’s Tao and Spinoza’s pantheism, where diverse aspects of the universe are 'identical in essence and different only in appearance,' depicting the Tao as 'all-pervading' and 'omnipresent,' akin to Spinoza’s Substance and Einstein’s 'arch-force.'