ABSTRACT
In Chapter 6 James Madaio explores the transformative strategies that underpin some of the stories and dialogues in the Yogavāsiṣṭha. The central framing story of the Yogavāsiṣṭha depicts a conversation between the enlightened preceptor Vasiṣṭha and the dejected prince Rāma. Vasiṣṭha repeatedly instructs Rāma about the nature of non-dual reality through a series of fantastical narratives, many of which feature dialogical encounters. Madaio argues that certain characters in these narratives mirror Rāma’s condition, while also reflecting the state of the reader. Within this mirroring context, Madaio contends that the story-worlds of the Yogavāsiṣṭha simulate in the reader methods of dialogic inquiry or vicāra, which probe the nature of self and world. Focusing on the gnoseological dialogue featured in the story of the enlightened princess Cūḍālā and her stubbornly object-oriented husband, king Śikhidvaja, Madaio examines how the dialogue works to disrupt core beliefs of a dualistic worldview, not only in Śikhidvaja and Rāma, but also in the reader.
