에머슨, 멜빌, 동양 종교 사상

Emerson, Melville, and the Oriental Religious Thoughts

Emerson and Melville paid a huge amount of attention to spiritual themes, and it was known in their own time that each had a growing interest in Eastern religious thoughts. Emerson read The Bhagavad Gita. while still a student at Harvard and later coined the term "Oversoul" from his concept of the Brahman/Atman union. Melville also pursued spiritual themes in his works vigorously. Though Melville's works show despair and uncertainty, he powerfully describes expanded states of awareness brought by compassion and especially suffering. Melville has been accused of pessimism, nihilism and atheism But that is a Western response to an unfamiliar way of perceiving. Western craving for forms and definitions brings a biased view on the oriental system of thought which stresses emptiness, no soul, and the efficacy of suffering. Buddhist texts show how the dismantling of the individual ego results ultimately in compassion, expanded awareness, and joy rather than resignation. Emerson's psychological tendencies align him more closely with the Hindu way of perceiving, and Melville's works show a peculiarly Buddhist quality.