Neil Dalal
Biographic Data
| ID | 5087295 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Neil Dalal |
| GIVEN NAMES | Neil |
| FAMILY NAME | Dalal |
| SIGNATURE | DALAL N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Alberta |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9993-1400 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Spiritual But Not Religious Mantra Theologies
Awake While Dreaming
This article explores ways to reconcile paradoxes of embodiment in Śaṅkara’s doctrine of liberation-while-living ( jīvanmukti ) by exploring its parallels with lucid dreaming. I engage in lucid dreaming as a thought experiment in which a lucid dreamer could feasibly reflect on dream experience through an Advaita Vedāntic philosophical lens. If approached this way, lucid dreaming provides a rich philosophical analogy ( dṛṣṭānta ) for Advaita Vedān…
Gayatri in the Modern Era
The Gayatri is a ubiquitous Vedic verbal ritual formula (mantra) in Brahmanical traditions and the modern period of Hinduism. This essay traces the Gayatri’s changing theological backgrounds, ritual contexts and political uses in the modern period. It seeks to understand the history of the Gayatri’s transformations in modern India, and questions how the Gayatri transitioned from a private initiation ritual in Vedic Brahmanical culture to a popula…
Selling Gāyatrī
This essay employs the Gāyatrī mantra as a case study to parse out cultural appropriation’s complex entanglements with modern yoga in North America. Public debates on appropriation in North America are largely based on premises of ownership, authenticity, purity, and corruption; however, theoretical arguments of non-essentialisms implicitly undermine accusations of harmful appropriation. Non-essentialisms potentially decompose fixed cultural esse…
Śaṅkara’s philosophy of dreaming
This article analyzes Śaṅkara’s use of dreaming in Advaita Vedānta. For Śaṅkara, dreaming functions philosophically as a direct phenomenal inquiry into mind and consciousness. Dreaming also functions as a syllogistic illustration. While dreaming, we experience unreal objects that do not exist apart from our minds. Dreaming thus illustrates the waking world’s nonrealism despite perceiving it as real, and that waking objects are consciousness alone…
The Ritual Roots for an Advaita Vedānta Ecotheology
Embodying Texts and Tradition
This article draws on theories of phenomenology, visual anthropology, and embodiment to explore Advaita Vedānta’s sensorial and embodied modes of praxis. It interweaves two threads based on a case study of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, an Advaita Vedānta institute in Tamil Nadu, India: (1) an ethnographic analysis of the intersections of textual study, religious praxis, and social-environmental context; and (2) the ways these intersections are groun…
Asian Perspectives on Animal Ethics
Contemplative Grammars
Contemplative Practice and Textual Agency in Advaita Vedānta
Advaita Vedāntins consider contemplative practice (nididhyāsana) as one of the primary practices for gaining self-knowledge and liberation. However, the nature of contemplative practice is both ambiguous and contested. How do Advaita Vedānta practitioners actually engage this contemplative process? What are the relationships between contemplative practice, scriptural study, and liberating experience? This paper explores the nature of contemplativ…
Selling Gāyatrī
This essay employs the Gāyatrī mantra as a case study to parse out cultural appropriation’s complex entanglements with modern yoga in North America. Public debates on appropriation in North America are largely based on premises of ownership, authenticity, purity, and corruption; however, theoretical arguments of non-essentialisms implicitly undermine accusations of harmful appropriation. Non-essentialisms potentially decompose fixed cultural esse…
Spiritual But Not Religious Mantra Theologies
Contemplative Grammars
Contemplative Practice and Textual Agency in Advaita Vedānta
Advaita Vedāntins consider contemplative practice (nididhyāsana) as one of the primary practices for gaining self-knowledge and liberation. However, the nature of contemplative practice is both ambiguous and contested. How do Advaita Vedānta practitioners actually engage this contemplative process? What are the relationships between contemplative practice, scriptural study, and liberating experience? This paper explores the nature of contemplativ…
Contemplative Practice and Textual Agency in Advaita Vedānta
Advaita Vedāntins consider contemplative practice (nididhyāsana) as one of the primary practices for gaining self-knowledge and liberation. However, the nature of contemplative practice is both ambiguous and contested. How do Advaita Vedānta practitioners actually engage this contemplative process? What are the relationships between contemplative practice, scriptural study, and liberating experience? This paper explores the nature of contemplativ…
Asian Perspectives on Animal Ethics
Contemplative Grammars
Embodying Texts and Tradition
This article draws on theories of phenomenology, visual anthropology, and embodiment to explore Advaita Vedānta’s sensorial and embodied modes of praxis. It interweaves two threads based on a case study of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, an Advaita Vedānta institute in Tamil Nadu, India: (1) an ethnographic analysis of the intersections of textual study, religious praxis, and social-environmental context; and (2) the ways these intersections are groun…
The Ritual Roots for an Advaita Vedānta Ecotheology
Śaṅkara’s philosophy of dreaming
This article analyzes Śaṅkara’s use of dreaming in Advaita Vedānta. For Śaṅkara, dreaming functions philosophically as a direct phenomenal inquiry into mind and consciousness. Dreaming also functions as a syllogistic illustration. While dreaming, we experience unreal objects that do not exist apart from our minds. Dreaming thus illustrates the waking world’s nonrealism despite perceiving it as real, and that waking objects are consciousness alone…
Gayatri in the Modern Era
The Gayatri is a ubiquitous Vedic verbal ritual formula (mantra) in Brahmanical traditions and the modern period of Hinduism. This essay traces the Gayatri’s changing theological backgrounds, ritual contexts and political uses in the modern period. It seeks to understand the history of the Gayatri’s transformations in modern India, and questions how the Gayatri transitioned from a private initiation ritual in Vedic Brahmanical culture to a popula…
Selling Gāyatrī
This essay employs the Gāyatrī mantra as a case study to parse out cultural appropriation’s complex entanglements with modern yoga in North America. Public debates on appropriation in North America are largely based on premises of ownership, authenticity, purity, and corruption; however, theoretical arguments of non-essentialisms implicitly undermine accusations of harmful appropriation. Non-essentialisms potentially decompose fixed cultural esse…
Spiritual But Not Religious Mantra Theologies
Awake While Dreaming
This article explores ways to reconcile paradoxes of embodiment in Śaṅkara’s doctrine of liberation-while-living ( jīvanmukti ) by exploring its parallels with lucid dreaming. I engage in lucid dreaming as a thought experiment in which a lucid dreamer could feasibly reflect on dream experience through an Advaita Vedāntic philosophical lens. If approached this way, lucid dreaming provides a rich philosophical analogy ( dṛṣṭānta ) for Advaita Vedān…
Philosophy (9 works) · Indian and Buddhist Studies (8 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Political science (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Law (3 works) · Mantra (3 works)