JustARandomPanda

Ok. I am looking for a good introductory/overview type book on Vedanta in particular but other Indian spiritual traditions as well. Some background: 1. I like to see the different angles and POVs that all the world's traditions have in passing on techniques/philosophies, etc of "ultimate reality" (for want of a better word). 2. My personal bias is that all these assorted world traditions are all fingers pointing to the same moon. 3. I am a huge fan of Bill Bodri, Ven. Master Nan Huai-Chin, Ven. Master Hsuan Hua and Yogiraj Gurunath Siddanath (I'm not really sure which Indian spiritual tradition Gurunath is from but I sure do like him and his teachings!) 4. I have always vehemently disagreed with Vajrahidaya's insistence that Buddhism is the "best" spiritual tradition ever discovered, taught, etc whatever else you wanna call it. Let me put it this way - a student/practitioner may have erroneous ideas about 'reality' - Tao/Brahman/Ein Sof/Absolute/One/Dependent Origination or whatever the heck else you wanna call it) but that doesn't mean we should lay blame to the word, tradition, etc. 5. Bill Bodri says Vedanta is essentially modern-day Zen. When I talked to Bodri (yes, I actually did get to talk to him personally) he advised against studying Zen first as the teachings/suttas/etc are from hundreds and hundreds of years ago from a society that was very different from modern societies and furthermore are in ancient, obscure writing that's difficult even for native Chinese to understand (ie all written in archaic Chinese). Vedanta he said on the other hand has many books written by gurus/living masters who wrote in English, and know and understand how to deal with the mental baggage and unconscious blindnesses modern students carry around. Bodri says to study and understand Vedanta first and only after a thorough grounding in Vedanta THEN go back and study Zen and you'll finally understand what the old Zen masters were getting at. So here I am...looking for a good intro book to Vedanta philosophy and practices but other Indian spiritual traditions are welcome too.