Plotinus and Buddhism

Abstract

The relationship between Plotinus and Buddhism has not been overly studied, in part because of the paucity of evidence. This article retraces some familiar terrain, enumerating parallels between the philosophy of Plotinus and those of the Yogācārin Vasubandhu and his Indian and Chinese inheritors. Similarities are noted between Plotinus' thought and Zen Buddhism, which was a natural outgrowth of Vasubandhu's philosophy, and, more importantly, between Plotinus and Buddhist Tantra. It is nonetheless conceded that there are more similarities between Tantra and the later Neoplatonists than there are between Tantra and Plotinus. Distinctive to this article are the Plotinian elements descried in the lives of Vasubandhu and the Tibetan Tantrist Ra Lotsāwa.