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{{short description|Mature state of consciousness transcending dualism}}
'''Nondualism''' refers to any kind of thought or philosophy that claims to transcend various forms of [[Dualism (Indian philosophy)|dualism]], the major one being [[Nonduality (spirituality)|nonduality]].
{{Spirituality sidebar}}
{{Asian philosophy sidebar}}
{{Universalism}} 
{{Advaita}}
{{EngvarB|date=April 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2015}}


In spirituality, '''nondualism''', also called '''nonduality''' and '''interconnectedness''';{{sfn|Grimes|1996|p=15}}{{sfn|Seager|2012|p=31}}{{sfn|Madigan|2010}} and '''nondual awareness''',{{sfn|Hanley|Nakamura|Garland|2018}}{{sfn|Josipovic|2018}} is a [[fuzzy concept]] for which many definitions can be found,{{refn|group=note|name="fuzzy"}} including: a rejection of [[Dualism (Indian philosophy)|dualistic thinking]] originating in [[Indian philosophy]]; the nondifference of [[Subject (philosophy)|subject]] and [[Object (philosophy)|object]]; the common identity of [[Phenomenon#Philosophy|metaphysical phenomena]] and [[Absolute (philosophy)|the Absolute]]; the "nonduality of duality and nonduality"; the unity of God and man; or simply [[monism]], the nonplurality of the world, or [[double-aspect theory]].<ref>Loy, David (2012). "Chapter 1: How Many Nondualities Are There?" ''Nonduality: A study in comparative philosophy''. Prometheus Books, p. 17.</ref> The term is derived from the [[Sanskrit]] "advaita" (अद्वैत), "not-two"{{sfn|Grimes|1996|p=15}}{{sfn|Katz|2007}} or "one without a second".{{sfn|Katz|2007}} While "advaita" is primarily related to the [[Hindu philosophy]] of [[Advaita Vedanta]], nondualism refers to several, related strands of thought, and there is no single definition for the English word "nonduality." According to David Loy it is best to speak of various "nondualities" or theories of nonduality.{{sfn|Loy|2012|p=7}}
== Eastern traditions ==
In the context of Hindu [[Vedanta]] philosophy, "non-dualism" (Sanskrit: ''advaita'') refers to various traditions, including:  
*[[Advaita Vedanta]]  
*[[Vishishtadvaita]] (qualified non-dual Vedanta)
*[[Shuddhadvaita|Suddhadvaita]] (pure non-dual Vedanta)
*[[Achintya Bheda Abheda|Achintya-Bheda-Abheda]] (inconceivable difference and non-difference)


Nondual awareness, also called '''pure awareness''' or '''pure consciousness'''{{sfn|Fasching|2008}}{{sfn|Srinivasan|2020}}{{sfn|Gamma|Metzinger|2021}} and the "non-difference of subject and object,"{{sfn|Loy|1997|p=17}} is primordial consciousness or [[Sakshi (Witness)|witness-consciousness]],{{sfn|Hanley|Nakamura|Garland|2018}}{{sfn|Josipovic|2018}} a "primordial, natural awareness" which is described as the essence of being, 'centerless' and without dichotomies.<ref group=web name="Undivided"/> Indian ideas of nondual awareness developed as proto-[[Samkhya]] speculations in ascetic milieus in the 1st millennium BCE, with the notion of [[Purusha]], the witness-conscious or 'pure consciousness'. In Indian traditions, the realisation of this primordial consciousness, witnessing but disengaged from the entanglements of the ordinary [[Citta|mind]] and ''[[samsara]]'', is considered [[moksha]] or ''vimutti'', release from [[Dukkha|suffering]] and ''samsara''. This is accomplished by self-restraint and ''[[bodhi]]'', discriminative discernment or [[Enlightenment (spiritual)|"enlightenment"]].<ref name="Yoga Vasistha 6.1.12-13">Yoga Vasistha 6.1.12-13</ref><ref group=web name=Bryant2010_IEP/>
In the context of other Hindu traditions, it may also refer to:
*Various schools of non-dualistic [[Shaivism]] ([[Shiva Advaita]]), including [[Kashmir Shaivism]]
*Some traditions of non-dualistic [[Shaktism]] (Shakta Advaita)


(Proto-)Samkya thoroughly influenced both Hindu-traditions such as Yoga, Advaita Vedanta, and Kashmir Shaivism, as well as Buddhism, which all emerged in close interaction.{{sfn|Samuel|2008|p=216}} All those traditions developed philosophical systems to describe the relation between this essence and mundane reality and its pains, and the means to escape from this entanglement and pain. Descriptions of nondual consciousness can be found in both [[Hinduism]] (''[[Purusha]]'', ''[[Turiya]], [[sahaja]]'') and [[Buddhism]] ([[luminous mind]], [[Nirvana]], [[Śūnyatā|emptiness]], [[Yogachara#The Three Natures and Emptiness|''pariniṣpanna'']], [[nature of mind]], ''[[rigpa]]'').
In the context of [[Mahayana|Mahayana Buddhism]], non-duality (Sanskrit: ''advaya'') can refer to various views on the nature of reality, such as:
*The [[Madhyamaka]] school's theory of [[Śūnyatā|emptiness]] (which holds that everything is non-dual since everything is empty)
*The [[Yogachara|Yogacara]] school's doctrine of mind-only (which holds that everything is non-dual since everything is mind)
*Other Buddhist views such as [[Buddha-nature]], [[Rangtong and shentong|Shentong]], [[Dzogchen]], [[Huayan]], and [[Tiantai]]


Regarding interconnectedness, or the "nonpluraility of the world,"{{sfn|Loy|1997|p=17}} the first millennium CE saw a movement towards postulating an underlying "basis of unity," both in the Buddhist Madhyamaka and Yogachara schools, and in Advaita Vedanta, collapsing phenomenal reality into a "single substrate or underlying principle."{{sfn|Samuel|2008|pp=217-218}} In the [[Buddhism|Buddhist tradition]], non-duality (''advaya'') is associated with the teachings of [[Pratītyasamutpāda|interdependence]]{{sfn|Seager|2012|p=31}} and emptiness (''[[śūnyatā]]'') and the [[two truths doctrine]], particularly the [[Madhyamaka]] teaching of the non-duality of absolute and relative truth;{{sfn|Loy|1988|pp=9-11}}{{sfn|Davis|2010}} and with the [[Yogachara]] notion of "mind/thought only" (''citta-matra'') or "representation-only" (''[[Yogacara#Representation-only|vijñaptimātra]]'').{{sfn|Raju|1992|p=177}} These teachings, coupled with the doctrine of [[Buddha-nature]] have been influential concepts in the subsequent development of [[Mahayana|Mahayana Buddhism]], not only in India, but also in [[East Asian Buddhism|East Asian]] and [[Tibetan Buddhism]], most notably in [[Zen|Chán (Zen)]] and [[Vajrayana]].
In the context of [[East Asian religions|East Asian religion]], non-dualism may refer to some [[Taoist philosophy|Daoist philosophical views]] which hold that everything partakes of the [[Tao|Dao]]


In Advaita Vedanta, nonduality refers to nondual awareness, the nonduality of Atman and Brahman.{{sfn|Grimes|1996|p=15}}{{sfn|Loy|1997|pp=26-27}}{{refn|group=note|grasping mind}} In a more general sense, it refers to [[monism]], "the [[Holism|interconnectedness]] of everything which is dependent upon the nondual One, Transcendent Reality,"{{sfn|Grimes|1996|p=15}} "the singular wholeness of existence that suggests that the personal self is an illusion."{{sfn|Katz|2007}}
== Western traditions ==
In the context of [[Abrahamic religions]], "non-duality" may refer to some views such as:
*[[Mysticism]] in general
*The esoteric teachings of [[Kabbalah]]
*[[Christian mysticism]]
*[[Sufi metaphysics]], particularly ''Waḥdat al-wujūd'', the doctrine of the "the Unity of Existence"


Nondual awareness can also be found in western traditions, such as [[Sufism]] ([[Sufi metaphysics#Waḥdat al-Wujūd (Unity of Existence)|Wahdat al Wujud]], [[Fanaa]], and [[Haqiqah]]) and western [[Christianity|Christian]] and [[Neoplatonism|neo-Platonic traditions]] ([[henosis]], [[Mysticism|mystical union]]). Western [[Neo-Platonism]] is an essential element of both [[Christian contemplation]] and [[mysticism]], and of [[Western esotericism]] and [[Spirituality#Modern spirituality|modern spirituality]], especially [[Unitarianism]], [[Transcendentalism]], [[Universalism]] and [[Perennial philosophy|Perennialism]].
In the context of [[Western philosophy]], the term may refer to:
{{TOC limit|3}}
*[[Monism|Monist]] philosophies, like [[Neo-Platonism]]
*[[Holism]]
*[[Josef Mitterer]]'s ''Non-dualizing Philosophy of Change''


==Etymology==
In the context of modern spirituality, it may refer to:
"Dual" comes from Latin "duo," two, prefixed with "non-" meaning "not"; "non-dual" means "not-two." When referring to nondualism, Hinduism generally uses the Sanskrit term ''Advaita,'' while Buddhism uses ''Advaya'' (Tibetan: ''gNis-med,'' Chinese: ''pu-erh,'' Japanese: ''fu-ni'')''.''{{sfn|Loy|2012|p=1}}
*[[Transcendentalism]]
*[[Perennialism]]
*[[Nonduality]] (modern interpretations)
*[[New Age|New age]] thought
*[[Neo-Advaita]]


"Advaita" (अद्वैत) is from Sanskrit roots ''a'', not; ''dvaita'', dual. As ''Advaita'', it means "not-two."{{sfn|Grimes|1996|p=15}}{{sfn|Katz|2007}} or "one without a second,"{{sfn|Katz|2007}} and is usually translated as "nondualism", "nonduality" and "nondual". The term "nondualism" and the term "''advaita''" from which it originates are [[Polyvalent logic|polyvalent]] terms.{{refn|group=note|One of the earliest uses of the word Advaita is found in verse 4.3.32 of the [[Brihadaranyaka Upanishad]] (~800 BCE), and in verses 7 and 12 of the [[Mandukya Upanishad]] (variously dated to have been composed between 500 BCE to 200 BCE).<ref>{{cite book|author=George Adolphus Jacob|title=A concordance to the principal Upanisads and Bhagavadgita|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tx-oj1dlojEC|year=1999|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-1281-9|page=33}}</ref> The term appears in the [[Brihadaranyaka Upanishad]] 4.3.32, in the section with a discourse of the oneness of [[Ātman (Hinduism)|Atman]] (individual soul) and [[Brahman]] (universal consciousness), as follows:<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/thirteenprincipa028442mbp#page/n147/mode/2up Brihadaranyaka Upanishad] Robert Hume (Translator), Oxford University Press, pp. 127–147</ref> "An ocean is that one seer, without any duality [Advaita]; this is the Brahma-world, O King. Thus did [[Yajnavalkya]] teach him. This is his highest goal, this is his highest success, this is his highest world, this is his highest bliss. All other creatures live on a small portion of that bliss.<ref>Max Muller, [https://archive.org/details/SacredBooksEastVariousOrientalScholarsWithIndex.50VolsMaxMuller Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad] The Sacred Books of the East, Volume 15, Oxford University Press, p. 171</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/stream/thirteenprincipa028442mbp#page/n159/mode/2up Brihadaranyaka Upanishad] Robert Hume (Translator), Oxford University Press, p. 138</ref><ref>Paul Deussen (1997), Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814677}}, p. 491; Sanskrit: ससलिले एकस् द्रष्टा '''अद्वैत'''स् भवति एष ब्रह्मलोकः (...)</ref>}}
{{disambiguation}}
 
"Advaya" (अद्वय) is also a Sanskrit word that means "identity, unique, not two, without a second," and typically refers to the two truths doctrine of [[Mahayana|Mahayana Buddhism]], especially [[Madhyamaka]].
 
The English term "nondual" was informed by early translations of the Upanishads in Western languages other than English from 1775. These terms have entered the English language from literal English renderings of "[[Advaita Vedanta|advaita]]" subsequent to the first wave of English translations of the [[Upanishads]]. These translations commenced with the work of [[Max Müller|Müller]] (1823–1900), in the monumental ''[[Sacred Books of the East]]'' (1879). [[Max Müller]] rendered "advaita" as "[[Monism]]", as have many recent scholars.<ref>{{cite book|author=R.W. Perrett|title=Indian Philosophy of Religion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LDWSBgAAQBAJ |year=2012|publisher=Springer Science|isbn=978-94-009-2458-1|page=124}}</ref><ref>S Menon (2011), [http://www.iep.utm.edu/adv-veda/ Advaita Vedanta], IEP, Quote:"The essential philosophy of Advaita is an idealist monism, and is considered to be presented first in the Upaniṣads and consolidated in the Brahma Sūtra by this tradition."</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=James G. Lochtefeld|title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: N-Z|url=https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000loch |url-access=registration|date=2002 |publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8239-3180-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000loch/page/645 645]–646 }}</ref> However, some scholars state that "advaita" is not really monism.<ref>{{cite book|author=S. Mark Heim|title=The Depth of the Riches: A Trinitarian Theology of Religious Ends|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SDDskenlLH8C&pg=PA227|year=2001|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-4758-4 |page=227 }}</ref>
 
==Definitions==
{{See also|Monism|Mind-body dualism|Dualistic cosmology|Pluralism (philosophy)}}
 
Nondualism is a [[fuzzy concept]], for which many definitions can be found.{{refn|group=note|name="fuzzy"| ee [http://www.nonduality.com/faq.htm#q1 Nonduality.com, ''FAQ''] and [http://www.nonduality.com/whatis.htm Nonduality.com, ''What is Nonduality, Nondualism, or Advaita? Over 100 definitions, descriptions, and discussions''].}} According to [[David Loy]], since there are similar ideas and terms in a wide variety of [[Spirituality|spiritualities]] and [[religion]]s, ancient and modern, no single definition for the English word "nonduality" can suffice, and perhaps it is best to speak of various "nondualities" or theories of nonduality.{{sfn|Loy|2012|p=7}} Loy sees non-dualism as a common thread in [[Taoism]], [[Mahayana|Mahayana Buddhism]], and [[Advaita Vedanta]],{{sfn|Loy|1988|pp=9–11}}{{refn|group=note|According to Loy, nondualism is primarily an Eastern way of understanding:
"...[the seed of nonduality] however often sown, has never found fertile soil [in the West], because it has been too antithetical to those other vigorous sprouts that have grown into modern science and technology. In the Eastern tradition [...] we encounter a different situation. There the seeds of seer-seen nonduality not only sprouted but matured into a variety (some might say a jungle) of impressive philosophical species. By no means do all these [Eastern] systems assert the nonduality of subject and object, but it is significant that three which do – Buddhism, Vedanta and Taoism – have probably been the most influential.{{sfn|Loy|1988|p=3}} According to Loy, referred by Pritscher:
{{quote|...when you realize that the nature of your mind and the [U]niverse are nondual, you are [[Enlightenment (spiritual)|enlightened]].{{sfn|Pritscher|2001|p=16}}}}}} distinguishes "Five Flavors Of Nonduality":<ref group="web" name="Tao">[http://taoism.about.com/od/buddhism/a/Nonduality_Loy.htm Elizabeth Reninger, ''Guide Review: David Loy's "Nonduality: A Study In Comparative Philosophy"'']</ref>
# ''Advaita'', nondual awareness, the nondifference of subject and object, or nonduality between subject and object.<ref group=web name="Tao" /> According to Loy, in the Upanishads "[i]t is most often expressed as the identity between Atman (the self) and Brahman."{{sfn|Loy|1997|pp=26-27}}{{refn|group=note|grasping mind|This identification is a soteriological device, to release the grip of the grasping mind, by disidentifying from the body-mind complex, and identifying with the observing mind. As Gaudapada states, when a distinction is made between subject and object, people grasp to objects, which is ''samsara''. By realizing one's true identity as ''Brahman'', there is no more grasping, and the mind comes to rest.{{sfn|Reddy Juturi|2021}}}}
# ''Advaya'', the identity of phenomena and the Absolute, the "nonduality of duality and nonduality",<ref group=web name="Tao" /> or the nonduality of relative and ultimate truth as found in [[Madhyamaka]] Buddhism and the [[two truths doctrine]].
# ''Monism'', the nonplurality of the world. Although the phenomenal world appears as a plurality of "things", in reality they are "of a single cloth".<ref group=web name="Tao" />
# The negation of dualistic thinking in pairs of opposites. The Yin-Yang symbol of Taoism symbolises the transcendence of this dualistic way of thinking.<ref group=web name="Tao" />
# ''Mysticism'', a mystical unity between God and Human.<ref group=web name="Tao" />
 
Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical ascetic traditions of the first millennium BCE developed in close interaction, utilizing proto-Samkhya enumerations (lists) analyzing experience in the context of meditative practices providing liberating insight into the nature of experience.{{sfn|Samuel|2008|p=216}} The first millennium CE saw a movement towards postulating an underlying "basis of unity," both in the Buddhist [[Madhyamaka]] and [[Yogacara]] schools, and in [[Advaita Vedanta]], collapsing phenomenal reality into a "single substrate or underlying principle."{{sfn|Samuel|2008|pp=217-218}}
 
===Nondual awareness===
Nondual awareness refers to "a primordial, natural awareness without subject or object".<ref group=web name="Undivided"/> According to Hanley, Nakamura and Garland, nondual awareness is central  to contemplative wisdom traditions, "a state of consciousness that rests in the background of all conscious experiencing – a background field of awareness that is unified, immutable, and empty of mental content, yet retains a quality of cognizant bliss [...] This field of awareness is thought to be ever present, yet typically unrecognized, obscured by discursive thought, emotion, and perception."{{sfn|Hanley|Nakamura|Garland|2018}} According to Josipovic, "consciousness-as-such is a non-conceptual nondual awareness, whose essential property is non-representational reflexivity. This property makes consciousness-as-such phenomenologically, cognitively and neurobiologically a unique kind, different from and irreducible to any contents, functions and states."{{sfn|Josipovic|2018}} It is the pure consciousness or witness-consciousness of the [[Purusha]] of [[Samkhya]] and the [[Ātman (Hinduism)|Atman]] of Advaita Vedanta, which is aware of [[prakriti]], the entanglements of the muddled mind and cognitive apparatus.
 
===Nonduality and interconnectedness (monism)===
According to Espín and Nickoloff, referring to monism, "nondualism" is the thought in some [[Hindu]], [[Buddhist]] and [[Tao]]ist schools, which, generally speaking, "teaches that the multiplicity of the universe is reducible to one essential reality."{{sfn|Espín|Nickoloff|2007|p=963}} The idea of nondualism as monism is typically contrasted with dualism, with dualism defined as the view that the universe and the nature of existence consists of two realities, such as the God and the world, or as God and Devil, or as [[Dualism (philosophy of mind)|mind and matter]], and so on.<ref name=Barton195>{{cite book|author=Stephen C. Barton|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Gospels|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PlMiAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA195 |year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-49455-8 |page=195}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Paul F. Knitter|title=Without Buddha I Could not be a Christian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eUNWh8sxAqAC&pg=PA7 |year=2013|publisher=Oneworld |isbn=978-1-78074-248-9 |pages=7–8}}</ref> In Advaita Vedanta, nonduality refers to monism, the nonduality of Atman and Brahman.{{sfn|Grimes|1996|p=15}}
 
In a more general sense, nonduality refers to "the interconnectedness of everything which is dependent upon the nondual One, Transcendent Reality,"{{sfn|Grimes|1996|p=15}} "the singular wholeness of existence that suggests that the personal self is an illusion."{{sfn|Katz|2007}} In western Buddhism, "interconnectedness" is a reinterpretation of interdependence (''[[pratītyasamutpāda]]''), the notion that all existents come into being in dependence on other existents.{{sfn|Seager|2012|p=31}} The [[Huayan|Huayan school]] (Flower Garland) developed the doctrine of the [[Huayan#Interpenetration|mutual containment and interpenetration of all phenomena]] (''dharmas'') or "perfect interfusion."{{sfn|King|1991|p=162}}
 
===Appearance in various religious traditions===
Different theories and concepts which can be linked to nonduality and nondual awareness are taught in a wide variety of religious traditions, including some western religions and philosophies. While their metaphysical systems differ, they may refer to a similar experience.{{sfn|Loy|1982}} These include:
* Early Indian asceticism (pre-Buddhist and pre-Hindu), as documented in the [[Upanishads]], which contain proto-Samkhya speculations and form the basis for Vedanta
* [[Buddhism]]:
** [[Luminous mind]]
** [[Nirvana]]
** "Shūnyavāda ([[Śūnyatā|emptiness]] view) or the [[Madhyamaka|Mādhyamaka]] school",{{sfn|Sarma|1996|p=xi}}{{sfn|Renard|2010|pp=91-92}} which holds that there is a non-dual relationship (that is, there is no true separation) between [[Two truths doctrine|conventional truth and ultimate truth]], as well as between [[Saṃsāra|samsara]] and [[Nirvana (Buddhism)|nirvana]].
** "Vijnānavāda (consciousness view) or the [[Yogachara|Yogācāra]] school",{{sfn|Sarma|1996|p=xi}}{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=92}} which holds that there is no ultimate perceptual and conceptual division between a [[Subject (philosophy)|subject]] and its objects, or a cognizer and that which is cognized. It also argues against mind-body dualism, holding that [[Yogachara#The doctrine of Vijñapti-mātra|there is only consciousness]].
** [[Buddha-nature|Tathagatagarbha]]-thought,{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=92}} which holds that all beings have the potential to become Buddhas.
** [[Vajrayana]]-buddhism,{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=93}} including [[Tibetan Buddhism|Tibetan Buddhist]] traditions of [[Dzogchen]]{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=97}}{{sfn|Hanley|Nakamura|Garland|2018}} and [[Mahamudra]].{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=98}}{{sfn|Hanley|Nakamura|Garland|2018}}
** [[East Asian Buddhism|East Asian Buddhist traditions]] like [[Zen]]{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=96}} and [[Huayan]], particularly their concept of empty mind and [[Huayan#Interpenetration|interpenetration]] (sse also [[Indra's net]]).
* [[Hinduism]]:
** The [[Advaita Vedanta]] of [[Shankaracharya|Shankara]]{{sfn|Sarma|1996|pp=xi-xii}}{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=88}}{{sfn|Hanley|Nakamura|Garland|2018}} which teaches that the Atman is pure consciousness, and that a single pure consciousness, ''svayam prakāśa'', is the only reality, and that the world is unreal (Maya).
** Non-dual forms of [[Tantra#Hinduism|Hindu Tantra]]{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=89}} including [[Kashmir Shaivism|Kashmira Shaivism]]{{sfn|Sarma|1996|p=xii}}{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=89}} and the goddess centered [[Shaktism]]. Their view is similar to Advaita, but they teach that the world is not unreal, but it is the real manifestation of consciousness.<ref>Ksemaraja, trans. by Jaidev Singh, Spanda Karikas: The Divine Creative Pulsation, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, p.119</ref>
** Forms of [[Modern Hinduism|Hindu Modernism]] which mainly teach Advaita and modern Indian saints like [[Ramana Maharshi]] and [[Swami Vivekananda]].
* [[Taoism]],{{sfn|Renard|2010|pp=98-99}} which teaches the idea of a single subtle universal force or cosmic creative power called [[Tao]] (literally "way").
* [[Subud]]{{sfn|Renard|2010}}
* [[Abrahamic religions|Abrahamic traditions]]:
** [[Christian mysticism|Christian mystics]] who promote a "nondual experience", such as [[Meister Eckhart]] and [[Julian of Norwich]]''.'' The focus of this Christian nondualism is on bringing the worshiper closer to [[God in Christianity|God]] and realizing a "oneness" with the Divine.<ref>James Charlton, ''Non-dualism in Eckhart, Julian of Norwich and Traherne,: A Theopoetic Reflection'', 2012, p. 2.</ref>
** [[Sufism]]{{sfn|Renard|2010|pp=98-99}}{{sfn|Hanley|Nakamura|Garland|2018}}
** Jewish [[Kabbalah]]{{sfn|Hanley|Nakamura|Garland|2018}}
* Western traditions:
** [[Neoplatonism|Neo-platonism]]<ref name=":02">McCagney, Nancy (1997), ''Nāgārjuna and the Philosophy of Openness'', Rowman & Littlefield, 1997, pp. 95-96.</ref> which teaches there is a single source of all reality, [[Neoplatonism#The One|The One]].
** [[Gnosticism]]{{sfn|Hanley|Nakamura|Garland|2018}}
** Western philosophers like [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegel]], [[Baruch Spinoza|Spinoza]] and [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauer]]''.''<ref name=":02" /> They defended different forms of [[Monism|philosophical monism]] or [[Idealism]].
** [[Transcendentalism]], which was influenced by [[German idealism|German Idealism]] and [[Indian religions]].
** [[Theosophy (Blavatskian)|Theosophy]]
** [[New Age|New age]]
 
==Samkhya and yoga==
{{Main|Samkhya|Yoga|Yoga philosophy}}
 
Samkhya is a [[Dualism (Indian philosophy)|dualistic]] [[Āstika and nāstika|''āstika'']] school of Indian philosophy,<ref>Knut Jacobsen, Theory and Practice of Yoga, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120832329}}, pages 100-101</ref><ref>"Samkhya", American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition (2011), Quote: "Samkhya is a system of Hindu philosophy based on a dualism involving the ultimate principles of soul and matter."</ref><ref>"Samkhya", Webster’s College Dictionary (2010), Random House, {{ISBN|978-0375407413}}, Quote: "Samkhya is a system of Hindu philosophy stressing the reality and duality of spirit and matter."</ref> regarding human experience as being constituted by two independent realities, ''[[purusha|puruṣa]]'' ('[[consciousness]]'); and ''[[prakṛti]]'', cognition, mind and emotions. Samkhya is strongly  related to the [[Yoga (philosophy)|Yoga]] school of [[Hinduism]], for which it forms the theoretical foundation, and it was influential on other schools of Indian philosophy.<ref name="royper">Roy Perrett, Indian Ethics: Classical traditions and contemporary challenges, Volume 1 (Editor: P Bilimoria et al), Ashgate, {{ISBN|978-0754633013}}, pages 149-158</ref>
 
===Philosophy===
[[File:Purusha-Pakriti.jpg|thumb|right|Purusha-Pakriti]]
''Purusha'', (''{{IAST|puruṣa}}'' or {{Lang-sa|पुरुष}}) is a complex concept<ref name=amalinar>Angelika Malinar, Hindu Cosmologies, in Jessica Frazier (Editor) - A Continuum Companion to Hindu Studies, {{ISBN|978-0-8264-9966-0}}, pp 67</ref> whose meaning evolved in [[Vedas|Vedic]] and [[Upanishads|Upanishadic]] times. Depending on source and historical timeline, it means the [[Macranthropy|cosmic being]] or [[self]], [[consciousness]], and universal principle.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/484231/purusha Purusha] Encyclopædia Britannica (2013)</ref><ref name=amalinar/><ref name="kpotter">Karl Potter, Presuppositions of India’s Philosophies, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|81-208-0779-0}}, pp 105-109</ref> In early Vedas, ''Purusha'' was a cosmic being whose sacrifice by the gods created all life.<ref name=kklostermair>Klaus K. Klostermair (2007), A survey of Hinduism, 3rd Edition, State University of New York Press, {{ISBN|978-0-7914-7081-7}}, pp 87</ref> This was one of many [[creation myth]]s discussed in the Vedas. In the Upanishads, the ''Purusha'' concept refers to abstract essence of the Self, Spirit and the Universal Principle that is eternal, indestructible, without form and is all pervasive.<ref name=kklostermair/> In the [[Sankhya]] philosophy, purusha is the plural immobile male (spiritual) cosmic principle, pure consciousness.  It is absolute, independent, free, imperceptible, unknowable through other agencies, above any experience by mind or senses and beyond any words or explanations. It remains pure, "nonattributive consciousness". Puruṣa is neither produced nor does it produce.{{sfn|Sharma|1997|pages=155–7}} No appellations can qualify purusha, nor can it substantialized or objectified.{{sfn|Chapple|2008|p=21}} It "cannot be reduced, can't be 'settled'." Any designation of purusha comes from prakriti, and is a limitation.{{sfn|Osto|2018|p=203}}
 
Unmanifest prakriti is infinite, inactive, and unconscious, and consists of an equilibrium of the three ''[[guṇa]]s'' ('qualities, innate tendencies'),{{sfn|Osto|2018|pp=204-205}}<ref>Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120805033}}, pages 154-206</ref> namely ''[[sattva]]'' , ''[[rajas]]'', and ''[[Tamas (philosophy)|tamas]]''. When prakṛti comes into contact with Purusha this equilibrium is disturbed, and Prakriti becomes manifest, evolving twenty-three ''[[tatva]]s'',{{Sfn|Osto|2018|p=204}} namely intellect ([[buddhi]], mahat), ego ([[ahamkara]]) mind ([[Manas (early Buddhism)|manas]]); the five sensory capacities; the five action capacities; and the five "subtle elements" or "modes of sensory content" (''tanmatras''), from which the five "gross elements" or "forms of perceptual objects" emerge,{{Sfn|Osto|2018|pp=204-205}}{{sfn|Haney|2002|page=42}} giving rise to the manifestation of sensory experience and cognition.{{sfn|Osto|2018|p=205}}{{sfn|Larson|1998|page=11}}
 
''[[Jiva]]'' ('a living being') is that state in which ''purusha'' is bonded to ''prakriti''.<ref name=sambri/>  Human experience is an interplay of ''purusha-prakriti'', purusha being conscious of the various combinations of  cognitive activities.<ref name=sambri>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/520526/Samkhya Samkhya - Hinduism] Encyclopædia Britannica (2014)</ref> The end of the bondage of Purusha to prakriti is called liberation or ''[[kaivalya]]'' by the Samkhya school,<ref name="Gerald James Larson 2011 pages 36-47">Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120805033}}, pages 36-47</ref> and can be attained by insight and self-restraint.<ref name="Yoga Vasistha 6.1.12-13"/><ref group=web name=Bryant2010_IEP/>
 
===Origins and development===
While samkhya-like speculations can be found in the Rig Veda and some of the older Upanishads, Samkhya may have non-Vedic origins, and developed in ascetic milieus. Proto-samkhya ideas developed from the 8th/7th c. BCE onwards, as evidenced in the middle Upanishads, the [[Buddhacarita]], the Bhagavad Gita, and the ''Moksadharma''-section of the [[Mahabharata]].{{sfn|Larson|2014|p=4}} It was related to the early ascetic traditions and meditation, spiritual practices, and religious cosmology,{{sfn|Larson|2014|p=5}} and methods of reasoning that result in liberating knowledge (''vidya'', ''jnana'', ''viveka'') that end the cycle of ''dukkha'' and rebirth.{{sfn|Larson|2014|pp=4-5}} allowing for "a great variety of philosophical formulations."{{sfn|Larson|2014|p=5}} Pre-''karika'' systematic Samkhya existed around the beginning of the first millennium CE.{{sfn|Larson|2014|pp=9-11}} The defining method of Samkhya was established with the [[Samkhyakarika]] (4th c. CE).
 
===Upanishads===
The Upanishads contain proto-Shamkhya speculations.{{sfn|Larson|2014|pp=4-5}} [[Yajnavalkya]]'s exposition on the Self in the ''[[Brihadaranyaka Upanishad]]'', and the dialogue between [[Uddalaka Aruni]] and his son Svetaketu in the ''[[Chandogya Upanishad]]'' represent a more developed notion of the essence of man (''Atman'') as "pure subjectivity - i.e., the knower who is himself unknowable, the seer who cannot be seen," and as "pure conscious," discovered by means of specultions, or enumerations.{{sfn|Larson|1998|pages=88–89}} Acdording lo Larson, "it seesm quite likely that both the monistic trends in Indian thought and the duslistic samkhya could have developed out of these ancient speculations."{{sfn|Larson|1998|pages=89}} According to Larson, the enumeration of [[tattva]]s in Samkhya is also found in [[Taittiriya Upanishad]], [[Aitareya Upanishad]] and Yajnavalkya–Maitri dialogue in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.{{sfn|Larson|1998|pages=88–90}}
 
The [[Katha Upanishad]] in verses 3.10–13 and 6.7–11 describes a concept of puruṣa, and other concepts also found in later Samkhya.<ref name=pauldeussen>[[Paul Deussen]], ''Sixty Upanishads of the Veda'', Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, pages 273, 288–289, 298–299</ref> The Katha Upanishad, dated to be from about the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, in verses 2.6.6 through 2.6.13 recommends a path to Self-knowledge akin to Samkhya, and calls this path ''Yoga''.<ref>[[Max Muller]] (1962), Katha Upanishad, in The Upanishads – Part II, Dover Publications, {{ISBN|978-0-486-20993-7}}, page 22</ref>
 
{{Quote|
<poem>
Only when ''Manas'' (mind) with thoughts and the five senses stand still,
and when ''Buddhi'' (intellect, power to reason) does not waver, that they call the highest path.
That is what one calls Yoga, the stillness of the senses, concentration of the mind,
It is not thoughtless heedless sluggishness, Yoga is creation and dissolution.
</poem>
|Katha Upanishad, 2.6.10-11<ref>WD Whitney, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2935810 Translation of the Katha-Upanishad], Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. 21, pages 88- 112</ref><ref name=pauldeussen2610>[[Paul Deussen]], Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, pages 298-299</ref>}}
 
==Buddhism==
There are different Buddhist views which resonate with the concepts and experiences of primordial awareness and non-duality or "not two" (''advaya''). The [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]] does not use the term ''advaya'' in the [[Early Buddhist Texts|earliest Buddhist texts]], but it does appear in some of the [[Mahayana sutras]], such as the [[Vimalakirti Sutra|''Vimalakīrti'']].<ref>Watson, Burton, ''The Vimalakirti Sutra,'' Columbia University Press, 1997, p. 104.</ref> While the Buddha taught unified states of mental focus (''[[Samadhi#Buddhism|samadhi]]'') and meditative absorption (''[[Dhyāna in Buddhism|dhyana]]'') which were commonly taught in [[Upanishads|Upanishadic]] thought, he also rejected the metaphysical doctrines of the Upanishads, particularly ideas which are often associated with Hindu nonduality, such as the doctrine that "this cosmos is the self" and "everything is a Oneness" (cf. [[Saṃyutta Nikāya|SN]] 12.48 and [[Majjhima Nikaya|MN]] 22).<ref>Thanissaro Bhikkhu [trans], [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.048.than.html SN 12.48 PTS: S ii 77 CDB i 584 Lokayatika Sutta: The Cosmologist], 1999;</ref><ref>Thanissaro Bhikkhu [trans], [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.022.than.html MN 22 PTS: M i 130 Alagaddupama Sutta: The Water-Snake Simile], 2004.</ref> Because of this, Buddhist views of nonduality are particularly different than Hindu conceptions, which tend towards [[Idealism|idealistic]] [[monism]].
 
===Indian Buddhism===
[[File:Vimalakirti Debates Manjusri Dunhuang Mogao Caves Detail.jpeg|thumb|The layman [[Vimalakirti|Vimalakīrti]] Debates [[Manjusri]], [[Dunhuang]] [[Mogao Caves]]]]
 
====''Nirvana'', luminous mind, and Buddha-nature====
 
=====Nirvana=====
{{See also|Nirvana (Buddhism)#As a metaphysical place or transcendent consciousness|l1=Transcendental Nirvana}}
 
In [[Pre-sectarian Buddhism|archaic Buddhism]], ''[[Nirvana (Buddhism)|Nirvana]]'' may have been a kind of transformed and transcendent consciousness or discernment (''[[Vijñāna|viññana]]'') that has "stopped" (''nirodhena'').{{sfn|Harvey|1989|p={{page needed|date=January 2021}}}}{{sfn|Harvey|1995b|pp=200-208}}<ref>Johansson, Rune, ''The Psychology of Nirvana,'' 1969, p. 111.</ref> According to Harvey this nirvanic consciousness is said to be "objectless", "infinite" (''anantam''), "unsupported" (''appatiṭṭhita'') and "non-manifestive" (''anidassana'') as well as "beyond time and spatial location".{{sfn|Harvey|1989|p={{page needed|date=January 2021}}}}{{sfn|Harvey|1995b|pp=200-208}}
 
[[Pre-sectarian Buddhism|Stanislaw Schayer]], a Polish scholar, argued in the 1930s that the [[Nikāya|Nikayas]] preserve elements of an archaic form of Buddhism which is close to Brahmanical beliefs,{{sfn|Lindtner|1997}}{{sfn|Lindtner|1999}}{{sfn|Akizuki|1990|pp=25-27}}{{sfn|Ray|1999}} and survived in the [[Mahayana]] tradition.{{sfn|Reat|1998|p=xi}}{{sfn|Conze|1967|p=10}} Schayer's view, possibly referring to texts where "'consciousness' (''vinnana'') seems to be the ultimate reality or substratum" as well as to [[luminous mind]],{{sfn|Wynne|2007|p=99}} saw nirvana as an immortal, deathless sphere, a transmundane reality or state.{{sfn|Ray|1999|pp=374–377}}{{refn|group=note|According to Alexander Wynne, Schayer "referred to passages in which "consciousness" (''vinnana'') seems to be the ultimate reality or substratum (e.g. A I.10) 14 as well as the ''Saddhatu Sutra'', which is not found in any canonical source but is cited in other Buddhist texts — it states that the personality (pudgala) consists of the six elements (dhatu) of earth, water, fire, wind, space and consciousness; Schayer noted that it related to other ancient Indian ideas. Keith’s argument is also based on the ''Saddhatu Sutra'' as well as "passages where we have explanations of Nirvana which echo the ideas of the Upanishads regarding the ultimate reality." He also refers to the doctrine of "a [[Luminous mind|consciousness, originally pure]], defiled by adventitious impurities."{{sfn|Wynne|2007|p=99}}}} A similar view is also defended by C. Lindtner, who argues that in precanonical Buddhism nirvana is an actual existent.{{sfn|Lindtner|1997}}{{refn|group=note|Lindtner: "... a place one can actually go to. It is called ''nirvanadhatu'', has no border-signs (''animitta''), is localized somewhere beyond the other six ''dhatus'' (beginning with earth and ending with ''vijñana'') but is closest to ''akasa'' and ''vijñana''. One cannot visualize it, it is ''anidarsana'', but it provides one with firm ground under one’s feet, it is dhruva; once there one will not slip back, it is ''acyutapada''. As opposed to this world, it is a pleasant place to be in, it is sukha, things work well.{{sfn|Lindtner|1997}} Cited in {{harvtxt|Wynne|2007|p=99}}.}} The original and early Buddhist concepts of nirvana may have been similar to those found in competing [[Śramaṇa]] (strivers/ascetics) traditions such as [[Jainism]] and Upanishadic Vedism.{{Sfn|Lindtner|1997|pp=112-113, 118-119}} Similar ideas were proposed by [[Edward Conze]]{{sfn|Conze|1967|p=10}} and M. Falk,{{sfn|Ray|1999|p=375}} citing sources which speak of an eternal and "invisible infinite consciousness, which shines everywhere" as point to the view that nirvana is a kind of [[Absolute (philosophy)|Absolute]],{{sfn|Conze|1967|p=10}} and arguing that the nirvanic element, as an "essence" or pure consciousness, is immanent within [[Saṃsāra|samsara]],{{sfn|Ray|1999|p=375}} an "abode" or "place" of [[Prajñā (Buddhism)|prajña]], which is gained by the enlightened.<ref>M. Falk (1943, ''Nama-rupa and Dharma-rupa''</ref>{{sfn|Ray|1999|p=375}}{{refn|group=note|See Digha Nikaya 15, ''Mahanidana Sutta'', which describes a nine-fold chain of causation. Mind-and-body (''nama-rupa'') and consciousness (''vijnana'') do condition here each other (verse 2 & 3). In verse 21 and 22, it is stated that consciousness comes into the mother's womb, and finds a resting place in mind-and-body. {{sfn|Walshe|1995|pp=223, 226}}}}
 
In the Theravada tradition, ''nibbāna'' is regarded as an uncompounded or unconditioned (''asankhata'') [[Abhidharma|dhamma]] (phenomenon, event) which is "transmundane",{{sfn|Choong|1999|p=21}}{{refn|group=note|According to Peter Harvey, the Theravada-tradition tends to minimize mystical tendencies, but there is also a tendency to stress the complete otherness of ''nirvana'' from ''samsara''. The [[Pāli Canon]] provides good grounds for this minimalistic approach, bit it also contains material suggestive of a Vijnavada-type interpretation of ''nirvāṇa'', namely as a [[Eight Consciousnesses#Transformations of consciousness|radical transformation of consciousness]].{{sfn|Harvey|1989|p=82}}}} and which is beyond our normal dualistic conceptions.{{sfn|Rahula|2007|loc=Kindle Locations 1105-1113}}{{refn|group=note|Walpola Rahula: "Nirvāṇa is beyond all terms of duality and relativity. It is therefore beyond our conceptions of good and evil, right and wrong, existence and non-existence. Even the word 'happiness' (sukha) which is used to describe Nirvāṇa has an entirely different sense here. Sāriputta once said: 'O friend, Nirvāṇa is happiness! Nirvāṇa is happiness!' Then Udāyi asked: 'But, friend Sāriputta, what happiness can it be if there is no sensation?' Sāriputta's reply was highly philosophical and beyond ordinary comprehension: "That there is no sensation itself is happiness'."{{sfn|Rahula|2007|loc=Kindle Locations 1105-1113}}}} In Theravada [[Abhidharma|Abhidhamma]] texts like the ''[[Vibhanga]],'' ''nibbana'' or the ''asankhata-dhatu'' (unconditioned element) is defined thus:
{{quote|‘What is the unconditioned element (''asankhata dhatu'')? It is the cessation of passion, the cessation of hatred and the cessation of delusion.’}}
 
=====Luminous mind=====
Another influential concept in Indian Buddhism is the idea of [[luminous mind]] which became associated with Buddha-nature. In the [[Early Buddhist Texts]] there are various mentions of luminosity or radiance which refer to the development of the mind in [[Buddhist meditation|meditation]]. In the ''Saṅgīti-sutta'' for example, it relates to the attainment of [[samadhi]], where the perception of light (''āloka sañña'') leads to a mind endowed with luminescence (''sappabhāsa'').<ref name="Anālayo2017">Anālayo, The Luminous Mind in Theravāda and Dharmaguptaka Discourses, Journal for the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies 2017 (13): 10-51.</ref> According to Analayo, the ''Upakkilesa-sutta'' and its parallels mention that the presence of defilements "results in a loss of whatever inner light or luminescence (obhāsa) had been experienced during meditation".<ref name="Anālayo2017" /> The Pali ''Dhātuvibhaṅga-sutta'' uses the metaphor of refining gold to describe equanimity reached through meditation, which is said to be "pure, bright, soft, workable, and luminous".{{sfn|Loy|2012|p=1}} The Pali [[Anguttara Nikaya]] (A.I.8-10) states:<ref>Harvey, page 94. The reference is at A I, 8-10.</ref>
{{quote|Luminous, monks, is the mind. And it is freed from incoming defilements. The well-instructed disciple of the noble ones discerns that as it actually is present, which is why I tell you that — for the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones — there is development of the mind.<ref>Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an01/an01.049.than.html].</ref>}}
 
The term is given no direct doctrinal explanation in the Pali discourses, but later Buddhist schools explained it using various concepts developed by them.<ref name="Harvey, page 99">Harvey, page 99.</ref> The [[Theravada]] school identifies the "luminous mind" with the ''[[bhavanga]]'', a concept first proposed in the [[Theravāda Abhidhamma]].<ref>Collins, page 238.</ref> The later schools of the [[Mahayana]] identify it with both the Mahayana concepts of ''[[bodhicitta]]'' and ''[[tathagatagarbha]]''.<ref name="Harvey, page 99"/> The notion is of central importance in the philosophy and practice of [[Dzogchen]].<ref>{{cite book|author=B. Alan Wallace|title=Contemplative Science|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2007|pages= 94–96}}</ref>
 
=====Buddha-nature=====
[[Buddha-nature|Buddha nature]] or ''[[tathagata-garbha]]'' (literally "Buddha womb") is that which allows sentient beings to become Buddhas.<ref>Williams, Paul. ''Buddhist Thought.'' Routledge 2000, p. 160.</ref> Various Mahayana texts such as the ''[[Tathāgatagarbha sūtras]]'' focus on this idea and over time it became a very influential doctrine in Indian Buddhism, as well in East Asian and Tibetan Buddhism. The Buddha nature teachings may be regarded as a form of nondualism. According to Sally B King, all beings are said to be or possess ''[[tathagata-garbha]]'', which is nondual [[Tathātā|Thusness]] or [[Dharmakāya|Dharmakaya]]. This reality, states King, transcends the "duality of self and not-self", the "duality of form and emptiness" and the "two poles of being and non being".<ref>King, Sally (1991), ''Buddha Nature'', SUNY Press, pp. 99, 106, 111.</ref>
 
There various interpretations and views on [[Buddha-nature]] and the concept became very influential in India, China and Tibet, where it also became a source of much debate. In later Indian Yogācāra, a new sub-school developed which adopted the doctrine of ''[[tathagata-garbha]]'' into the Yogācāra system.<ref name=":2" /> The influence of this hybrid school can be seen in texts like the ''[[Lankavatara Sutra]]'' and the [[Ratnagotravibhāga|''Ratnagotravibhaga'']]. This synthesis of Yogācāra [[tathagata-garbha]] became very influential in later Buddhist traditions, such as Indian [[Vajrayana]], [[Chinese Buddhism]] and [[Tibetan Buddhism]].<ref>Brunnholzl, Karl'', When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sutra and Tantra,'' Shambhala Publications, 2015, p. 118.</ref><ref name=":2" />
 
====''Advaya''====
According to Kameshwar Nath Mishra, one connotation of ''advaya'' in Indic [[Sanskrit Buddhist literature|Sanskrit Buddhist texts]] is that it refers to the [[Middle Way|middle way]] between two opposite extremes (such as [[Sassatavada|eternalism]] and [[Eternal oblivion|annihilationism]]), and thus it is "not two".<ref>Kameshwar Nath Mishra, ''Advaya (= Non-Dual) in Buddhist Sanskrit,'' Vol. 13, No. 2 (Summer 1988), pp. 3-11 (9 pages).</ref>
 
One of these [[Sanskrit]] [[Mahayana sutras]], the [[Vimalakirti Sutra|''Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra'']] contains a chapter on the "Dharma gate of non-duality" (''advaya dharma dvara pravesa'') which is said to be entered once one understands how numerous pairs of opposite extremes are to be rejected as forms of grasping. These extremes which must be avoided in order to understand ultimate reality are described by various characters in the text, and include: Birth and extinction, 'I' and 'Mine', Perception and non-perception, defilement and purity, good and not-good, created and uncreated, worldly and unworldly, samsara and nirvana, enlightenment and ignorance, form and emptiness and so on.<ref>Watson, Burton, ''The Vimalakirti Sutra,'' Columbia University Press, 1997, pp. 104-106.</ref> The final character to attempt to describe ultimate reality is the bodhisattva [[Manjushri]], who states:<blockquote>It is in all beings wordless, speechless, shows no signs, is not possible of cognizance, and is above all questioning and answering.<ref name=":3">Nagao, Gadjin M. ''Madhyamika and Yogacara: A Study of Mahayana Philosophies,'' SUNY Press, 1991, p. 40.</ref> </blockquote>[[Vimalakirti|Vimalakīrti]] responds to this statement by maintaining completely silent, therefore expressing that the nature of ultimate reality is ineffable (''anabhilāpyatva'') and inconceivable (''acintyatā''), beyond verbal designation (''[[Conceptual proliferation|prapañca]]'') or thought constructs (''vikalpa'').<ref name=":3" /> The ''[[Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra]]'', a text associated with [[Yogachara|Yogācāra]] Buddhism, also uses the term "''advaya''" extensively.<ref>McCagney, Nancy, ''Nāgārjuna and the Philosophy of Openness,'' Rowman & Littlefield, 1 January 1997, p. 129.</ref>
 
In the [[Mahayana]] [[Buddhist philosophy]] of [[Madhyamaka]], the [[Two truths doctrine|two truths]] or ways of understanding reality, are said to be ''advaya'' (not two). As explained by the Indian philosopher [[Nagarjuna]], there is a non-dual relationship, that is, there is no absolute separation, between conventional and ultimate truth, as well as between [[samsara]] and [[nirvana]].<ref name="Davis2010p5">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r_kHcG0tspgC|title=Advaita Vedanta and Zen Buddhism: Deconstructive Modes of Spiritual Inquiry|author=Leesa S. Davis|publisher=A&C Black|year=2010|isbn=978-0-8264-2068-8|pages=5–7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCH7ueXrJowC|title=Nāgārjuna and the Philosophy of Openness|author=Nancy McCagney|date=1997|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8476-8627-8|pages=40–41}}</ref>
 
The concept of nonduality is also important in the other major Indian Mahayana tradition, the [[Yogachara|Yogacara]] school, where it is seen as the absence of duality between the perceiving [[Subject (philosophy)|subject]] (or "grasper") and the [[Object (philosophy)|object]] (or "grasped"). It is also seen as an explanation of [[Śūnyatā|emptiness]] and as an explanation of the content of the awakened mind which sees through the illusion of subject-object duality. However, it is important to note that in this conception of non-dualism, there are still a multiplicity of individual [[Mindstream|mind streams (''citta santana'')]] and thus Yogacara does not teach an idealistic monism.<ref>Kochumuttom, Thomas A. (1999), A buddhist Doctrine of Experience. A New Translation and Interpretation of the Works of Vasubandhu the Yogacarin, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, p. 1.</ref>
 
These basic ideas have continued to influence Mahayana Buddhist doctrinal interpretations of Buddhist traditions such as [[Dzogchen]], [[Mahamudra]], [[Zen]], [[Huayan]] and [[Tiantai]] as well as concepts such as [[Buddha-nature]], [[luminous mind]], [[Indra's net]], [[rigpa]] and [[Rangtong-Shentong|shentong]].
 
==== Madhyamaka ====
{{Main|Madhyamika|Shunyata|Two truths doctrine}}
[[File:Nagarjuna and Aryadeva as Two Great Indian Buddhist Scholastics - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|[[Nagarjuna]] (right), [[Aryadeva]] (middle) and the Tenth [[Karmapa]] (left).]]
 
Madhyamaka, also known as ''Śūnyavāda'' (the [[Śūnyatā|emptiness]] teaching), refers primarily to a [[Mahayana|Mahāyāna]] [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] school of philosophy {{sfn|Williams|2000|p=140}} founded by [[Nāgārjuna]]. In Madhyamaka, ''Advaya'' refers to the fact that the [[Two truths doctrine|two truths]] are not separate or different.,{{sfn|Garfield|1995|pp=296, 298, 303}} as well as the non-dual relationship of [[samsara|s''aṃsāra'']] (the round of [[Rebirth (Buddhism)|rebirth]] and [[Dukkha|suffering]]) and [[nirvana|''nirvāṇa'']] (cessation of suffering, [[Moksha|liberation]]).{{sfn|Espín|Nickoloff|2007|p=14}} According to Murti, in Madhyamaka, "Advaya" is an [[Epistemology|epistemological]] theory, unlike the metaphysical view of Hindu Advaita.{{sfn|Murti|2008|p=217}} Madhyamaka advaya is closely related to the classical Buddhist understanding that all things are impermanent (''[[anicca]]'') and devoid of "self" (''[[anatta]]'') or "essenceless" (''niḥsvabhāvavā''),<ref>{{cite book|author1=Robert E. Buswell Jr.|author2=Donald S. Lopez Jr.|title=The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DXN2AAAAQBAJ|year=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-4805-8|pages=42–43, 581}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Richard Gombrich|title=Theravada Buddhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jZyJAgAAQBAJ|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-90352-8|page=47}}, '''Quote:''' "All phenomenal existence [in Buddhism] is said to have three interlocking characteristics: impermanence, suffering and lack of soul or essence."</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Phra Payutto|author2=Grant Olson |title=Buddhadhamma: Natural Laws and Values for Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ffsumKIixS8C&pg=PA62 |year=1995|publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-2631-9 |pages=62–63}}</ref> and that this emptiness does not constitute an "absolute" reality in itself.{{refn|group=note|See also [[Essence-Function|essence and function]] and [[Chinese Chán#Absolute-relative|Absolute-relative on Chinese Chán]]}}.
 
In Madhyamaka, the two "truths" (''satya'') refer to conventional (''saṃvṛti'') and ultimate (''paramārtha'') truth.{{sfn|Cheng|1981}} The ultimate truth is [[Sunyata|"emptiness"]], or non-existence of inherently existing "things",{{sfn|Kalupahana|2006|p=1}} and the "emptiness of emptiness": emptiness does not in itself constitute an absolute reality. Conventionally, "things" exist, but ultimately, they are "empty" of any existence on their own, as described in Nagarjuna's magnum opus, the ''[[Mūlamadhyamakakārikā]]'' (MMK):{{quote|The Buddha's teaching of the Dharma is based on two truths: a truth of worldly convention and an ultimate truth. Those who do not understand the distinction drawn between these two truths do not understand the Buddha's profound truth. Without a foundation in the conventional truth the significance of the ultimate cannot be taught. Without understanding the significance of the ultimate, liberation is not achieved.{{refn|group=note|Nagarjuna, Mūlamadhyamakakārika 24:8-10. Jay L. Garfield, ''Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way''{{sfn|Garfield|1995|pp=296, 298}}}}}}
 
As [[Jay L. Garfield|Jay Garfield]] notes, for Nagarjuna, to understand the two truths as totally different from each other is to [[Reification (fallacy)|reify]] and confuse the purpose of this doctrine, since it would either destroy conventional realities such as the Buddha's teachings and the empirical reality of the world (making Madhyamaka a form of [[nihilism]]) or deny the [[Pratītyasamutpāda|dependent origination]] of phenomena (by positing eternal [[essence]]s). Thus the non-dual doctrine of the [[Middle Way|middle way]] lies beyond these two extremes.{{sfn|Garfield|1995|pp=303-304}}
 
"Emptiness" is a consequence of ''[[pratītyasamutpāda]]'' (dependent arising),{{sfn|Cabezón|2005|p=9387}} the teaching that no ''dharma'' ("thing", "phenomena") has an existence of its own, but always comes into existence in dependence on other ''dharmas''. According to Madhyamaka all [[Dharma#Dharmas in Buddhist phenomenology|phenomena]] are [[śūnyatā|empty]] of "substance" or "essence" ({{lang-sa|[[svabhāva]]}}) because they are [[Pratītyasamutpāda|dependently co-arisen]]. Likewise it is because they are dependently co-arisen that they have no intrinsic, independent reality of their own. Madhyamaka also rejects the existence of absolute realities or beings such as [[Brahman]] or Self.{{sfn|Kalupahana|1994}} In the highest sense, "ultimate reality" is not an ontological [[Absolute (philosophy)|Absolute]] reality that lies beneath an unreal world, nor is it the non-duality of a personal self (''atman'') and an absolute Self (cf. [[Purusha]]). Instead, it is the knowledge which is based on a deconstruction of such [[Reification (fallacy)|reifications]] and [[Conceptual proliferation]]s.<ref>Abruzzi; McGandy et al., ''Encyclopedia of Science and Religion'', Thomson-Gale, 2003, p. 515.</ref> It also means that there is no "transcendental ground," and that "ultimate reality" has no existence of its own, but is the negation of such a transcendental reality, and the impossibility of any statement on such an ultimately existing transcendental reality: it is no more than a fabrication of the mind.<ref group="web" name="PatrickJennings" />{{refn|group=note|See, for an influential example, [[Tsongkhapa]], who states that "things" ''do'' exist conventionally, but ultimately everything is dependently arisen, and therefore void of inherent existence.<ref group=web name="PatrickJennings">[http://thenonbuddhist.com/2014/01/12/tsongkhapa-in-praise-of-relativity-the-essence-of-eloquence/ Patrick Jennings, ''Tsongkhapa: In Praise of Relativity; The Essence of Eloquence''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518074106/http://thenonbuddhist.com/2014/01/12/tsongkhapa-in-praise-of-relativity-the-essence-of-eloquence/ |date=18 May 2015 }}</ref>}} Susan Kahn further explains:{{quote|Ultimate truth does not point to a transcendent reality, but to the transcendence of deception. It is critical to emphasize that the ultimate truth of emptiness is a negational truth. In looking for inherently existent phenomena it is revealed that it cannot be found. This absence is not findable because it is not an entity, just as a room without an elephant in it does not contain an elephantless substance. Even conventionally, elephantlessness does not exist. Ultimate truth or emptiness does not point to an essence or nature, however subtle, that everything is made of.<ref group=web name="SusanKahn">[http://emptinessteachings.com/2014/09/11/the-two-truths-of-buddhism-and-the-emptiness-of-emptiness/ Susan Kahn, ''The Two Truths of Buddhism and The Emptiness of Emptiness'']</ref>}}
 
However, according to Nagarjuna, even the very schema of ultimate and conventional, samsara and nirvana, is not a final reality, and he thus famously deconstructs even these teachings as being empty and not different from each other in the MMK where he writes:<ref name=":02"/>
{{quote|The limit (''koti'') of [[Nirvana|''nirvāṇa'']] is that of ''saṃsāra''<br>The subtlest difference is not found between the two.}}
 
According to Nancy McCagney, what this refers to is that the two truths depend on each other; without emptiness, conventional reality cannot work, and vice versa. It does not mean that samsara and nirvana are the same, or that they are one single thing, as in Advaita Vedanta, but rather that they are both empty, open, without limits, and merely exist for the conventional purpose of teaching the [[Buddha Dharma]].<ref name=":02"/> Referring to this verse, [[Jay L. Garfield|Jay Garfield]] writes that:<blockquote>to distinguish between samsara and nirvana would be to suppose that each had a nature and that they were different natures. But each is empty, and so there can be no inherent difference. Moreover, since nirvana is by definition the cessation of delusion and of grasping and, hence, of the reification of self and other and of confusing imputed phenomena for inherently real phenomena, it is by definition the recognition of the ultimate nature of things. But if, as Nagarjuna argued in Chapter XXIV, this is simply to see conventional things as empty, not to see some separate emptiness behind them, then nirvana must be ontologically grounded in the conventional. To be in samsara is to see things as they appear to deluded consciousness and to interact with them accordingly. To be in nirvana, then, is to see those things as they are – as merely empty, dependent, impermanent, and nonsubstantial, not to be somewhere else, seeing something else.{{sfn|Garfield|1995|pp=331-332}}</blockquote>
 
It is important to note however that the actual Sanskrit term "advaya" does not appear in the MMK, and only appears in one single work by Nagarjuna, the ''Bodhicittavivarana''.<ref>McCagney, Nancy (1997), ''Nāgārjuna and the Philosophy of Openness'', Rowman & Littlefield, 1997, pp. 128.</ref>
 
The later Madhyamikas, states Yuichi Kajiyama, developed the ''Advaya'' definition as a means to ''[[Nirvikalpa#Buddhism|Nirvikalpa-Samadhi]]'' by suggesting that "things arise neither from their own selves nor from other things, and that when subject and object are unreal, the mind, being not different, cannot be true either; thereby one must abandon attachment to cognition of nonduality as well, and understand the lack of intrinsic nature of everything". Thus, the Buddhist nondualism or Advaya concept became a means to realizing absolute [[Śūnyatā|emptiness]].<ref name="KiyotaJones1991p120" />
 
==== Yogācāra tradition ====
[[File:Muchaku Hokuendo Kofukuji 2.jpg|thumb|[[Asaṅga]] (fl. 4th century C.E.), a Mahayana scholar who wrote numerous works which discuss the [[Yogacara]] view and practice.]]
{{Main|Yogacara}}
{{See also|Svasaṃvedana}}
 
In the [[Mahayana]] tradition of Yogācāra ([[Sanskrit language|Skt]]; "yoga practice"), ''adyava'' (Tibetan: ''gnyis med'') refers to overcoming the conceptual and perceptual dichotomies of cognizer and cognized, or subject and object.{{sfn|Espín|Nickoloff|2007|p=14}}<ref name=":1">{{cite encyclopedia | last=Gold | first=Jonathan C. | title=Vasubandhu | encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | edition=Summer 2018 | editor-first=Edward N. | editor-last=Zalta | url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/entries/vasubandhu/ | date=27 April 2015 | access-date=5 September 2019 }}</ref><ref>Dreyfus, Georges B. J. ''Recognizing Reality: Dharmakirti's Philosophy and Its Tibetan Interpretations,'' SUNY Press, ''p. 438.''</ref><ref>Williams, Paul (editor), ''Buddhism: Yogācāra, the epistemological tradition and Tathāgatagarbha,'' Taylor & Francis, 2005, p. 138.</ref> The concept of ''adyava'' in Yogācāra is an epistemological stance on the nature of experience and knowledge, as well as a phenomenological exposition of yogic cognitive transformation. Early Buddhism schools such as [[Sarvastivada]] and [[Sautrāntika]], that thrived through the early centuries of the common era, postulated a dualism (''dvaya)'' between the mental activity of grasping (''grāhaka'', "cognition", "subjectivity") and that which is grasped (''grāhya'', "cognitum", intentional object).{{sfn|King|1995|p=156}}<ref name="KiyotaJones1991p120">{{cite book|author=Yuichi Kajiyama |editor=Minoru Kiyota and Elvin W. Jones|title=Mahāyāna Buddhist Meditation: Theory and Practice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s9KGFPr_zrQC |date=1991 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0760-0|pages=120–122, 137–139}}</ref>{{sfn|King|1995|p=156}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Williams |title=Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z3FuzkBnOxAC |year=2008|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-25057-8 |pages=82–83, 90–96}}</ref> Yogacara postulates that this dualistic relationship is a false illusion or superimposition (''samaropa'').<ref name="KiyotaJones1991p120" />
 
Yogācāra also taught the doctrine which held that only mental cognitions really exist (''vijñapti-mātra''),{{sfn|Kochumuttom|1999|p=5}}{{refn|group=note|"Representation-only"{{sfn|Kochumuttom|1999|p=5}} or "mere representation."<ref group="web" name="OR">[http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803115838613 Oxford Reference, ''vijñapti-mātra'']</ref> Oxford reference: "Some later forms of Yogācāra lend themselves to an idealistic interpretation of this theory but such a view is absent from the works of the early Yogācārins such as Asaṇga and Vasubandhu."<ref group="web" name="OR" />}} instead of the [[Mind–body dualism|mind-body dualism]] of other Indian Buddhist schools.<ref name="KiyotaJones1991p120" />{{sfn|King|1995|p=156}}{{sfn|Kochumuttom|1999|p=5}} This is another sense in which reality can be said to be non-dual, because it is "consciousness-only".<ref>Raymond E. Robertson, Zhongguo ren min da xue. Guo xue yuan, ''A Study of the Dharmadharmatavibhanga: Vasubandhu's commentary and three critical editions of the root texts, with a modern commentary from the perspective of the rNying ma tradition by Master Tam Shek-wing.'' Sino-Tibetan Buddhist Studies Association in North America, China Tibetology Publishing House, 2008, p. 218.</ref> There are several interpretations of this main theory, which has been widely translated as ''representation-only, ideation-only, impressions-only'' and ''perception-only.<ref name=":7">Cameron Hall, Bruce, ''The Meaning of Vijnapti in Vasubandhu's Concept of Mind,'' JIABS Vol 9, 1986, Number 1, p. 7.</ref>{{sfn|Kochumuttom|1999|p=5}}<ref name=":82">Wayman, Alex, ''A Defense of Yogācāra Buddhism'', Philosophy East and West, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Oct., 1996), pp. 447-476.</ref><ref name=":11">Siderits, Mark, ''Buddhism as philosophy'', 2017, p. 146.</ref>''  Some scholars see it as a kind of subjective or epistemic [[Idealism]] (similar to Kant's theory) while others argue that it is closer to a kind of [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]] or [[representationalism]]. According to Mark Siderits the main idea of this doctrine is that we are only ever aware of mental images or impressions which manifest themselves as external objects, but "there is actually no such thing outside the mind."<ref name=":12">Siderits, Mark, ''Buddhism as philosophy'', 2017, p. 149.</ref> For Alex Wayman, this doctrine means that "the mind has only a report or representation of what the sense organ had sensed."<ref name=":82"/> Jay Garfield and Paul Williams both see the doctrine as a kind of Idealism in which only mentality exists.<ref>Garfield, Jay L. Vasubandhu's ''treatise on the three natures'' translated from the Tibetan edition with a commentary, Asian Philosophy, Volume 7, 1997, Issue 2, pp. 133-154.</ref><ref>Williams 2008, p. 94.</ref>
 
However, it is important to note that even the idealistic interpretation of Yogācāra is not an absolute [[Monism|monistic]] idealism like [[Advaita Vedanta]] or [[Hegelianism]], since in Yogācāra, even consciousness "enjoys no transcendent status" and is just a conventional reality.<ref name=":2">Lusthaus, Dan, What is and isn't Yogacara, http://www.acmuller.net/yogacara/articles/intro.html</ref> Indeed, according to Jonathan Gold, for Yogācāra, the ultimate truth is not consciousness, but an ineffable and inconceivable "thusness" or "thatness" (''[[Tathātā|tathatā]]'').<ref name=":1" /> Also, Yogācāra affirms the existence of individual [[mindstream]]s, and thus Kochumuttom also calls it a ''realistic pluralism''.{{sfn|Kochumuttom|1999|p=1}}
 
The Yogācārins defined three basic modes by which we perceive our world. These are referred to in Yogācāra as the three natures (''trisvabhāva'')  of experience. They are:<ref>Siderits, Mark, ''Buddhism as philosophy'', 2017, pp. 177-178.</ref><ref name=":1"/>
# ''Parikalpita'' (literally, "fully conceptualized"): "imaginary nature", wherein things are incorrectly comprehended based on conceptual and linguistic construction, attachment and the subject object duality. It is thus equivalent to [[Saṃsāra|samsara]].
# ''Paratantra'' (literally, "other dependent"): "dependent nature", by which the [[dependently originated]] nature of things, their causal relatedness or flow of conditionality. It is the basis which gets erroneously conceptualized,
# ''Pariniṣpanna'' (literally, "fully accomplished"): "absolute nature", through which one comprehends things as they are in themselves, that is, empty of subject-object and thus is a type of non-dual cognition. This experience of "thatness" (''[[Tathātā|tathatā]]'') is uninfluenced by any conceptualization at all.
 
To move from the duality of the ''Parikalpita'' to the non-dual consciousness of the ''Pariniṣpanna,'' Yogācāra teaches that there must be a transformation of consciousness, which is called the "revolution of the basis" (''āśraya-parāvṛtti).'' According to [[Dan Lusthaus]], this transformation which characterizes awakening is a "radical psycho-cognitive change" and a removal of false "interpretive projections" on reality (such as ideas of a self, external objects, etc.).<ref>Lusthaus, Dan, ''Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogacara Buddhism and the Ch'eng Wei-shih Lun,'' Routledge, 2014, p. 327.</ref>
 
The ''[[Mahayana-sutra-alamkara-karika|Mahāyānasūtrālamkāra]],'' a Yogācāra text, also associates this transformation with the concept of [[Nirvana (Buddhism)#Apratiṣṭhita nirvāna|non-abiding nirvana]] and the non-duality of samsara and nirvana. Regarding this state of [[Buddhahood]], it states: <blockquote>Its operation is nondual (''advaya vrtti'') because of its abiding neither in samsara nor in nirvana (''samsaranirvana-apratisthitatvat''), through its being both conditioned and unconditioned (''samskrta-asamskrtatvena'').<ref name=":4">Makransky, John J. ''Buddhahood Embodied: Sources of Controversy in India and Tibet,'' SUNY Press, 1997, p. 92.</ref></blockquote>This refers to the Yogācāra teaching that even though a Buddha has entered nirvana, they do no "abide" in some quiescent state separate from the world but continue to give rise to extensive activity on behalf of others.<ref name=":4" /> This is also called the non-duality between the compounded (''samskrta'', referring to samsaric existence) and the uncompounded (''asamskrta'', referring to nirvana). It is also described as a "not turning back" from both samsara and nirvana.<ref>Nagao, Gadjin M. ''Madhyamika and Yogacara: A Study of Mahayana Philosophies,'' SUNY Press, 1991, p. 28.</ref>
 
For the later thinker [[Dignāga|Dignaga]], non-dual knowledge or ''advayajñāna'' is also a synonym for ''[[Prajnaparamita|prajñaparamita]]'' (transcendent wisdom) which liberates one from samsara.<ref>Harris, Ian Charles, ''The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism,'' BRILL, 1991, p. 52.</ref>
 
====Tantric Buddhism====
[[Vajrayana|Buddhist Tantra]], also known as Vajrayana, Mantrayana or Esoteric Buddhism, drew upon all these previous Indian Buddhist ideas and nondual philosophies to develop innovative new traditions of Buddhist practice and new religious texts called the [[Tantras (Buddhism)|Buddhist tantras]] (from the 6th century onwards).<ref>Williams, Wynne, Tribe; ''Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition'', pp. 205-206.</ref> Tantric Buddhism was influential in China and is the main form of Buddhism in the [[Himalayan Region|Himalayan regions]], especially [[Tibetan Buddhism]].
[[File:Chakrasamvara Vajravarahi.jpg|thumb|[[Chakrasamvara|Saṃvara]] with [[Vajravārāhī]] in [[Yab-Yum]]. These tantric Buddhist depictions of sexual union symbolize the non-dual union of compassion and emptiness.]]
The concept of ''advaya'' has various meanings in Buddhist Tantra. According to Tantric commentator Lilavajra, Buddhist Tantra's "utmost secret and aim" is Buddha nature. This is seen as a "non-dual, self-originated Wisdom ([[jnana]]), an effortless fount of good qualities."<ref>Wayman, Alex; Yoga of the Guhyasamajatantra: The arcane lore of forty verses : a Buddhist Tantra commentary, 1977, p. 56.</ref> In Buddhist Tantra, there is no strict separation between the sacred (nirvana) and the profane (samsara), and all beings are seen as containing an immanent seed of awakening or Buddhahood.<ref>Duckworth, Douglas; Tibetan Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna in "A companion to Buddhist philosophy", p. 100.</ref> The Buddhist Tantras also teach that there is a non-dual relationship between emptiness and compassion (''karuna''), this unity is called [[bodhicitta]].<ref>Lalan Prasad Singh, ''Buddhist Tantra: A Philosophical Reflection and Religious Investigation'', Concept Publishing Company, 2010, pp. 40-41.</ref> They also teach a "nondual pristine wisdom of bliss and emptiness."<ref>Rinpoche Kirti Tsenshap, ''Principles of Buddhist Tantra,'' Simon and Schuster, 2011'','' p. 127.</ref> Advaya is also said to be the co-existence of [[Prajñā (Buddhism)|Prajña]] (wisdom) and [[Upaya]] (skill in means).<ref>Lalan Prasad Singh, ''Buddhist Tantra: A Philosophical Reflection and Religious Investigation'', Concept Publishing Company, 2010, p. ix.</ref> These nondualities are also related to the idea of ''yuganaddha'', or "union" in the Tantras. This is said to be the "indivisible merging of innate great bliss (the means) and clear light (emptiness)" as well as the merging of relative and ultimate truths and the knower and the known, during Tantric practice.<ref>Jamgon Kongtrul, ''The Treasury of Knowledge: Book Five: Buddhist Ethics,'' Shambhala Publications, 5 June 2003, p. 345.</ref>
 
Buddhist Tantras also promote certain practices which are [[Antinomianism|antinomian]], such as [[Sexual ritual|sexual rites]] or the consumption of disgusting or repulsive substances (the "five ambrosias", feces, urine, blood, semen, and marrow.). These are said to allow one to cultivate nondual perception of the pure and impure (and similar conceptual dualities) and thus it allows one to prove one's attainment of nondual gnosis (''advaya jñana'').<ref>Wedemeyer, Christian K. ''Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism: History, Semiology, and Transgression in the Indian Traditions,'' Columbia University Press, 6 May 2014, p. 145.</ref>
 
Indian Buddhist Tantra also views humans as a microcosmos which mirrors the macrocosmos.{{sfn|White|2000|pp=8-9}} Its aim is to gain access to the awakened energy or consciousness of Buddhahood, which is nondual, through various practices.{{sfn|White|2000|pp=8-9}}
 
===East-Asian Buddhism===
 
====Chinese====
{{Main|Buddhism in China}}
 
[[File:Indrasnet.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A 3D rendering of [[Indra's net]], an illustration of the Huayan concept of interpenetration.]]
Chinese Buddhism was influenced by the philosophical strains of Indian Buddhist nondualism such as the [[Madhyamaka|Madhymaka]] doctrines of emptiness and the [[Two truths doctrine|two truths]] as well as [[Yogachara|Yogacara]] and ''[[tathagata-garbha]]''. For example, [[East Asian Mādhyamaka|Chinese Madhyamaka]] philosophers like [[Jizang]], discussed the nonduality of the two truths.<ref>Chang-Qing Shih, ''The Two Truths in Chinese Buddhism Motilal'' Banarsidass Publ., 2004, p. 153.</ref> [[East Asian Yogācāra|Chinese Yogacara]] also upheld the Indian Yogacara views on nondualism. One influential text in Chinese Buddhism which synthesizes ''[[Tathagata-garbha]]'' and Yogacara views is the [[Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana]], which may be a Chinese composition.
 
In Chinese Buddhism, the polarity of absolute and relative realities is also expressed as "[[Essence-Function|essence-function]]". This was a result of an ontological interpretation of the two truths as well as influences from native Taoist and Confucian metaphysics.<ref>Lai, Whalen (2003), Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey. In Antonio S. Cua (ed.): Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy, New York: Routledge.</ref> In this theory, the absolute is essence, the relative is function. They can't be seen as separate realities, but interpenetrate each other.<ref name="books.google.com">Park, Sung-bae  (1983). ''Buddhist Faith and Sudden Enlightenment.'' SUNY series in religious studies. SUNY Press. {{ISBN|0-87395-673-7}}, {{ISBN|978-0-87395-673-4}}. Source: [https://books.google.com/books?id=_A2QS03MP5EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Sung-bae+Park&source=bl&ots=kc-DMX8UBI&sig=VcgHGoIDY_r_XjWPrxx68TRO21k&hl=en&ei=QxG_S5jqA86TkAW_lrTWBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CCAQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false] (accessed: Friday 9 April 2010), p. 147</ref> This interpretation of the two truths as two ontological realities would go on to influence later forms of East Asian metaphysics.
 
As Chinese Buddhism continued to develop in new innovative directions, it gave rise to new traditions like [[Huayan|Huayen]], [[Tiantai]] and [[Zen|Chan (Zen)]], which also upheld their own unique teachings on non-duality.{{sfn|King|1991|p=162}}
 
The [[Tiantai]] school for example, taught a threefold truth, instead of the classic "two truths" of Indian Madhyamaka. Its "third truth" was seen as the nondual union of the two truths which transcends both.<ref name=":6">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Ziporyn |first1=Brook |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |title=Tiantai Buddhism |date=19 November 2014 |edition=Fall 2018 |editor-last1=Zalta |editor-first1=Edward N. |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/buddhism-tiantai}}</ref> Tiantai metaphysics is an immanent [[holism]], which sees every phenomenon, moment or event as conditioned and manifested by the whole of reality. Every instant of experience is a reflection of every other, and hence, suffering and nirvana, good and bad, Buddhahood and evildoing, are all "inherently entailed" within each other.<ref name=":6" /> Each moment of consciousness is simply the Absolute itself, infinitely immanent and self reflecting.
 
Another influential Chinese tradition, the [[Huayan|Huayan school]] (Flower Garland) flourished in [[China]] during the [[Tang period]]. It is based on the [[Avatamsaka Sutra|Flower Garland Sutra]] (S. ''Avataṃsaka Sūtra'', C. ''Huayan Jing''). Huayan doctrines such as the [[Four Dharmadhatu|Fourfold Dharmadhatu]] and the doctrine of the [[Huayan#Interpenetration|mutual containment and interpenetration of all phenomena]] (''dharmas'') or "perfect interfusion" (''yuanrong'', 圓融) are classic nondual doctrines.{{sfn|King|1991|p=162}} This can be described as the idea that all [[dharmas|phenomena]] "are representations of the wisdom of Buddha without exception" and that "they exist in a state of mutual dependence, interfusion and balance without any contradiction or conflict."<ref name="Hamar, Imre 2007, page 189">Hamar, Imre (Editor). Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism (ASIATISCHE FORSCHUNGEN), 2007, p. 189.</ref> According to this theory, any phenomenon exists only as part of the total nexus of reality, its existence depends on the total network of all other things, which are all equally connected to each other and contained in each other.<ref name="Hamar, Imre 2007, page 189"/> The Huayan patriarchs used various metaphors to express this view, such as [[Indra's net]].
 
====Zen====
[[File:DogenP2.JPG|thumb|[[Dogen]]]]
{{Main|Zen|Buddha-nature|Kenshō|Shikan-taza}}
{{See also|Bodhicitta|Karuṇā|Ten Bulls}}
 
The Buddha-nature and Yogacara philosophies have had a strong influence on Chán and Zen. The teachings of Zen are expressed by a set of polarities: Buddha-nature – sunyata;{{sfn|Kasulis|2003|pp=26–29}}{{sfn|McRae|2003|pp=138–142}} absolute-relative;{{sfn|Liang-Chieh|1986|p=9}} [[Subitism|sudden]] and gradual enlightenment.{{sfn|McRae|2003|pp=123–138}}
 
The Lankavatara-sutra, a popular sutra in Zen, endorses the Buddha-nature and emphasizes purity of mind, which can be attained in gradations. The Diamond-sutra, another popular sutra, emphasizes sunyata, which "must be realized totally or not at all".{{sfn|Kasulis|2003|pp=26–28}} The [[Prajnaparamita]] Sutras emphasize the non-duality of form and emptiness: form is emptiness, emptiness is form, as the [[Heart Sutra]] says.{{sfn|Liang-Chieh|1986|p=9}} According to [[Chinul]], Zen points not to mere emptiness, but to ''suchness'' or the [[dharmadhatu]].{{sfn|Buswell|1991|pp=240-241}}
 
The idea that the ultimate reality is present in the daily world of relative reality fitted into the Chinese culture which emphasized the mundane world and society. But this does not explain how the absolute is present in the relative world. This question is answered in such schemata as [[Five Ranks|the Five Ranks of Tozan]]{{sfn|Kasulis|2003|p=29}} and the [[Ten Bulls|Oxherding Pictures]].
 
The continuous pondering of the break-through [[kōan]] (''shokan''{{sfn|Hori|2005-B|p=132}}) or [[Hua Tou]], "word head",{{sfn|Ford|2006|p=38}} leads to [[kensho]], an initial insight into "seeing the [[Buddha-nature|(Buddha-)nature]]".{{sfn|Hori|2000|p=287}} According to Hori, a central theme of many koans is the "identity of opposites", and point to the original nonduality.{{sfn|Hori|2000|pp=289–290}}{{sfn|Hori|2000|p=310, note 14}} Victor Sogen Hori describes [[kensho]], when attained through [[Koan|koan-study]], as the absence of subject–object duality.{{sfn|Hori|1994|pp=30–31}} The aim of the so-called break-through koan is to see the "nonduality of subject and object", {{sfn|Hori|2000|pp=289–290}}{{sfn|Hori|2000|p=310, note 14}} in which "subject and object are no longer separate and distinct."{{sfn|Hori|2000|pp=288–289}}
 
Zen Buddhist training does not end with kenshō. Practice is to be continued to deepen the insight and to express it in daily life,{{sfn|Sekida|1996}}{{sfn|Kapleau|1989}}{{sfn|Kraft|1997|p=91}}{{sfn|Maezumi|Glassman|2007|pp=54, 140}} to fully manifest the nonduality of absolute and relative.{{sfn|Yen|1996|p=54}}{{sfn|Jiyu-Kennett|2005|p=225}} To deepen the initial insight of kensho, shikantaza and kōan-study are necessary. This trajectory of initial insight followed by a gradual deepening and ripening is expressed by [[Linji Yixuan]] in his [[Linji Yixuan#Three Mysterious Gates|Three Mysterious Gates]], the [[Hakuin#Four ways of knowing|Four Ways of Knowing]] of [[Hakuin]],{{sfn|Low|2006}} the [[Five Ranks]], and the [[Ten Bulls|Ten Ox-Herding Pictures]]{{sfn|Mumon|2004}} which detail the steps on the [[Buddhist Paths to liberation|Path]].
 
====Korean====
{{See also|Korean Buddhism|Essence-Function}}
The polarity of absolute and relative is also expressed as "essence-function". The absolute is essence, the relative is function. They can't be seen as separate realities, but interpenetrate each other. The distinction does not "exclude any other frameworks such as ''neng-so'' or 'subject-object' constructions", though the two "are completely different from each other in terms of their way of thinking".<ref name="books.google.com"/> In Korean Buddhism, essence-function is also expressed as "body" and "the body's functions".<ref>Park, Sung-bae (2009). ''One Korean's approach to Buddhism: the mom/momjit paradigm''. SUNY series in Korean studies: SUNY Press. {{ISBN|0-7914-7697-9}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7914-7697-0}}. Source: [https://books.google.com/books?id=TEAq0ldHjVYC&pg=PA11&dq=essence-function+nondual&hl=en&ei=wibkS7vzAY2gkQWNh6X7Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=essence-function%20nondual&f=false] (accessed: Saturday 8 May 2010), p. 11</ref> A metaphor for essence-function is "a lamp and its light", a phrase from the ''[[Platform Sutra]]'', where Essence is lamp and Function is light.<ref>Lai, Whalen (1979). "Ch'an Metaphors: waves, water, mirror, lamp". ''Philosophy East & West''; Vol. 29, no.3, July, 1979, pp. 245–253. Source: [http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/HistoricalZen/ChanMetaphors.htm] (accessed: Saturday 8 May 2010)</ref>
 
===Tibetan Buddhism===
{{Main|Vajrayana}}
 
====Adyava: Gelugpa school Prasangika Madhyamaka====
The Gelugpa school, following Tsongkhapa, adheres to the adyava [[Prasaṅgika]] [[Madhyamaka|Mādhyamaka]] view, which states that all phenomena are [[sunyata]], empty of self-nature, and that this "emptiness" is itself only a qualification, not a concretely existing "absolute" reality.<ref name=Stearns>{{cite book|last1=Stearns|first1=Cyrus|title=The Buddha from Dölpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen|date=2010|publisher=Snow Lion Publications|location=Ithaca, NY|isbn=978-1-55939-343-0|edition=Rev. and enl.}}</ref>
 
====Shentong====
{{Main|Rangtong-Shentong}}
In Tibetan Buddhism, the essentialist position is represented by ''shentong'', while the nominalist, or non-essentialist position, is represented by ''rangtong''.
 
Shentong is a philosophical sub-school found in [[Tibetan Buddhism]]. Its adherents generally hold that the nature of mind (''[[svasaṃvedana]]''), the substratum of the [[mindstream]], is "empty" ({{bo|w=stong}}) of "other" ({{bo|w=gzhan}}), i.e., empty of all qualities other than an inherently existing, ineffable nature. Shentong has often been incorrectly associated with the Cittamātra ([[Yogacara]]) position, but is in fact also Madhyamaka,<ref>Stearns p. 72</ref> and is present primarily as the main philosophical theory of the [[Jonang]] school, although it is also taught by the [[Sakya]]<ref>Stearns p. 61</ref> and [[Kagyu]] schools.<ref name=TaiSitupa>{{cite book|author1=Pema Tönyö Nyinje, 12th Tai Situpa|author-link1=Pema Tönyö Nyinje|title=Ground, Path and Fruition|publisher=Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal Charitable Trust|isbn=978-1-877294-35-8|page=2005|date=August 2005}}</ref><ref name=Hookham>{{cite book|last1=Hookham|first1=S.K.|author-link1=Shenpen Hookham|title=The Buddha Within: Tathagatagarbha Doctrine According to the Shentong Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhaga|date=1991|publisher=State University of New York Press|location=Albany, NY|isbn=978-0-7914-0358-7|page=13}}</ref> According to Shentongpa (proponents of shentong), the emptiness of ultimate reality should not be characterized in the same way as the emptiness of apparent phenomena because it is ''[[ösel (yoga)|prabhāśvara]]-[[mindstream|saṃtāna]]'', or "luminous mindstream" endowed with limitless Buddha qualities.<ref>[http://www.ahs.org.uk/default.asp?action=article&ID=1847 Lama Shenpen, ''Emptiness Teachings''. Buddhism Connect] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903121246/http://www.ahs.org.uk/default.asp?action=article&ID=1847 |date=3 September 2011 }} (accessed March, 2010)</ref> It is empty of all that is false, not empty of the limitless Buddha qualities that are its innate nature.
 
The contrasting [[Prasaṅgika]] view that all phenomena are [[sunyata]], empty of self-nature, and that this "emptiness" is not a concretely existing "absolute" reality, is labeled [[rangtong]], "empty of self-nature."<ref name=Stearns/>
 
The shentong-view is related to the [[Ratnagotravibhāga]] sutra and the Yogacara-Madhyamaka synthesis of [[Śāntarakṣita]]. The truth of sunyata is acknowledged, but not considered to be the highest truth, which is the empty nature of mind. Insight into sunyata is preparatory for the recognition of the nature of mind.
 
====Dzogchen====
{{Main|Dzogchen|Rigpa}}
 
Dzogchen is concerned with the "natural state" and emphasizes direct experience. The state of nondual awareness is called ''[[rigpa]]''.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}} This primordial nature is clear light, unproduced and unchanging, free from all defilements. Through meditation, the [[Dzogchen]] practitioner experiences that thoughts have no substance. Mental phenomena arise and fall in the mind, but fundamentally they are empty. The practitioner then considers where the mind itself resides. Through careful examination one realizes that the mind is emptiness.<ref>{{cite book|last=Powers|first=John|title=Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism|pages=334–342|publisher=Snow Lion Publications|year=1995}}</ref>
 
[[Karma Lingpa]] (1326–1386) revealed "Self-Liberation through seeing with naked awareness" (''rigpa ngo-sprod'',{{refn|group=note|Full: ''rigpa ngo-sprod gcer-mthong rang-grol''{{sfn|Norbu|1989|p=x}}}}) which is attributed to [[Padmasambhava]].{{sfn|Norbu|1989|p=x}}{{refn|group=note|This text is part of a collection of teachings entitled "Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones"{{sfn|Fremantle|2001|p=20}} (''zab-chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol'', also known as ''kar-gling zhi-khro''{{sfn|Norbu|1989|p=ix}}), which includes the two texts of ''[[Bardo Thodol|bar-do thos-grol]]'', the so-called "Tibetan Book of the Dead".{{sfn|Norbu|1989|p=xii}} The ''bar-do thos-grol'' was translated by Kazi Dawa Samdup (1868–1922), and edited and published by W.Y. Evans-Wenz. This translation became widely known and popular as "the Tibetan Book of the Dead", but contains many mistakes in translation and interpretation.{{sfn|Norbu|1989|p=xii}}{{sfn|Reynolds|1989|pp=71–115}}}} The text gives an introduction, or [[pointing-out instruction]] (''ngo-spro''), into [[rigpa]], the state of presence and awareness.{{sfn|Norbu|1989|p=x}} In this text, Karma Lingpa writes the following regarding the unity of various terms for nonduality:
{{quote|With respect to its having a name, the various names that are applied to it are inconceivable (in their numbers).<br />Some call it "the [[nature of the mind]]" or "mind itself."<br />Some [[Tirthika]]s call it by the name Atman or "the Self."<br />The Sravakas call it the doctrine of Anatman or "the absence of a self."<br />The [[Yogacara|Chittamatrins]] call it by the name Chitta or "the Mind."<br />Some call it the Prajnaparamita or "the Perfection of Wisdom."<br />Some call it the name Tathagata-garbha or "the embryo of Buddhahood."<br />Some call it by the name [[Mahamudra]] or "the Great Symbol."<br />Some call it by the name "the Unique Sphere."<br />Some call it by the name Dharmadhatu or "the dimension of Reality."<br />Some call it by the name Alaya or "the basis of everything."<br />And some simply call it by the name "ordinary awareness."{{sfn|Karma Lingpa|1989|pp=13–14}}{{refn|group=note|See also [http://www.fodian.net/world/zzgse.html Self Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness]}}}}
 
==Hinduism==
 
===Vedanta===
{{Main|Vedanta}}
 
Several schools of Vedanta are informed by Samkhya and teach a form of nondualism. The best-known is Advaita Vedanta, but other nondual Vedanta schools also have a significant influence and following, such as [[Vishishtadvaita Vedanta]] and [[Dvaitadvaita]],{{sfn|Espín|Nickoloff|2007|p=14}} both of which are [[bhedabheda]].
 
"Advaita" refers to the nonduality of [[Ātman (Hinduism)|Atman]] (individual self, awareness, the witness-cosnciousness) and [[Brahman]] (the single universal existence), as in [[Vedanta]], [[Shaktism]] and [[Shaivism]].{{sfn|Espín|Nickoloff|2007|p=14}} Although the term is best known from the Advaita Vedanta school of [[Adi Shankara]], "advaita" is used in treatises by numerous medieval era Indian scholars, as well as modern schools and teachers.{{refn|group=note|This is reflected in the name "Advaita Vision," the website of advaita.org.uk, which propagates a broad and inclusive understanding of ''advaita''.<ref group=web>[http://www.advaita.org.uk/index.html Advaita Vision - Ongoing Development]</ref>}}
 
The Hindu concept of ''Advaita'' refers to the idea that all of the universe is one essential reality, and that all facets and aspects of the universe is ultimately an expression or appearance of that one reality.{{sfn|Espín|Nickoloff|2007|p=14}} According to Dasgupta and Mohanta, non-dualism developed in various strands of Indian thought, both Vedic and Buddhist, from the Upanishadic period onward.{{sfn|Dasgupta|Mohanta|1998|p=362}} The oldest traces of nondualism in Indian thought may be found in the [[Chandogya Upanishad]], which pre-dates the earliest Buddhism. [[Pre-sectarian Buddhism]] may also have been responding to the teachings of the [[Chandogya Upanishad]], rejecting some of its Atman-Brahman related metaphysics.{{sfn|Gombrich|1990|pp=12-20}}{{refn|group=note|Edward Roer translates the early medieval era Brihadaranyakopnisad-bhasya as, "(...) Lokayatikas and Bauddhas who assert that the soul does not exist. There are four sects among the followers of Buddha: 1. Madhyamicas who maintain all is void; 2. Yogacharas, who assert except sensation and intelligence all else is void; 3. Sautranticas, who affirm actual existence of external objects no less than of internal sensations; 4. Vaibhashikas, who agree with later (Sautranticas) except that they contend for immediate apprehension of exterior objects through images or forms represented to the intellect."<ref name=eroer1>Edward Roer (Translator), to ''Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad'' at pp. 3–4{{Google books|3uwDAAAAMAAJ|Shankara's Introduction|page=3}}</ref><ref name=eroer2>Edward Roer (Translator), {{Google books|3uwDAAAAMAAJ|Shankara's Introduction|page=3}} to ''Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad'' at p. 3, {{oclc|19373677}}</ref>}}
 
Advaita appears in different shades in various schools of Hinduism such as in [[Advaita Vedanta]], [[Vishishtadvaita|Vishishtadvaita Vedanta]] ([[Vaishnavism]]), [[Shuddhadvaita|Suddhadvaita]] Vedanta (Vaishnavism), non-dual [[Shaivism]] and [[Shaktism]].{{sfn|Espín|Nickoloff|2007|p=14}}{{Sfn|Raju|1992|pp=504-515}}<ref>'''[a]''' {{cite book|last=McDaniel |first=June |title=Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=caeJpIj9SdkC |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-534713-5|pages=89–91}};<br />'''[b]''' Jean Filliozat (1991), ''Religion, Philosophy, Yoga: A Selection of Articles'', Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120807181}}, pp. 68–69;<br />'''[c]''' Richard Davis (2014), ''Ritual in an Oscillating Universe: Worshipping Siva in Medieval India'', Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-691-60308-7}}, p. 167 note 21, Quote (p. 13): "Some agamas argue a monist metaphysics, while others are decidedly dualist."</ref> In the Advaita Vedanta of [[Adi Shankara]], advaita implies that all of reality is one with [[Brahman]],{{sfn|Espín|Nickoloff|2007|p=14}} that the [[Atman (Hinduism)|Atman]] (soul, self) and Brahman (ultimate unchanging reality) are one.<ref>Joseph Milne (1997), "Advaita Vedanta and typologies of multiplicity and unity: An interpretation of nondual knowledge," ''International Journal of Hindu Studies'', Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 165-188</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Comans |first=Michael |year=2000 |title=The Method of Early Advaita Vedānta: A Study of Gauḍapāda, Śaṅkara, Sureśvara, and Padmapāda |pages=183–184 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass}}</ref> The advaita ideas of some Hindu traditions contrasts with the schools that defend dualism or [[Dvaita Vedanta|Dvaita]], such as that of [[Madhvacharya]] who stated that the experienced reality and [[Ishvara|God]] are two (dual) and distinct.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Madhva (1238–1317) |first=Valerie|last=Stoker|encyclopedia=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy|year=2011 |access-date=2 February 2016|url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/madhva/}}</ref><ref>Betty Stafford (2010), Dvaita, Advaita, and Viśiṣṭādvaita. "Contrasting Views of Mokṣa, Asian Philosophy." ''An International Journal of the Philosophical Traditions of the East'', Volume 20, Issue 2, pp. 215–224</ref>
 
====Advaita Vedanta====
{{Main|Advaita Vedanta}}
[[File:SwansCygnus olor.jpg|thumb|Swans are important figures in Advaita]]
 
The nonduality of the Advaita Vedanta is of the identity of [[Brahman]] and the [[Ātman (Hinduism)|Atman]].<ref name="Craig, Edward 1998 p.476">Craig, Edward (general editor) (1998). ''Routledge encyclopedia of philosophy: Luther to Nifo, Volume 6''. Taylor & Francis. {{ISBN|0-415-07310-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-415-07310-3}}. Source: [https://books.google.com/books?id=G3UBxqkkCX8C&pg=PA476&dq=ontolog++nondual&hl=en&ei=kufPS-X2J5GTkAWVuq2ACg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false] (accessed: Thursday 22 April 2010), p.476</ref> As in Samkhya, Atman is awareness, the witness-consciousness. Advaita has become a broad current in Indian culture and religions, influencing subsequent traditions like [[Kashmir Shaivism]].
 
The oldest surviving manuscript on Advaita Vedanta is by [[Gaudapada|Gauḍapāda]] (6th century CE),{{sfn|Raju|1992|p=177}} who has traditionally been regarded as the teacher of [[Govinda bhagavatpāda]] and the grandteacher of [[Adi Shankara]]. Advaita is best known from the Advaita Vedanta tradition of [[Adi Shankara]] (788-820 CE), who states that [[Brahman]], the single unified eternal truth, is pure Being, Consciousness and Bliss (''[[Satcitananda|Sat-cit-ananda]]'').{{sfn|Raju|1992|p=178}}
 
Advaita, states Murti, is the knowledge of Brahman and self-consciousness (Vijnana) without differences.{{sfn|Murti|2008|p=217}} The goal of [[Vedanta]] is to know the "truly real" and thus become one with it.{{sfn|Murti|2008|pp=217–218}} According to Advaita Vedanta, Brahman is the highest [[Absolute (philosophy)|Reality]],{{sfn|Potter|2008|pp=6–7}}<ref name=james122>James Lochtefeld, "Brahman", ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism'', Vol. 1: A–M, Rosen Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-8239-3179-8}}, p. 122</ref><ref name=ptraju>PT Raju (2006), ''Idealistic Thought of India'', Routledge, {{ISBN|978-1-4067-3262-7}}, p. 426 and Conclusion chapter part XII</ref> The universe, according to Advaita philosophy, does not simply come from Brahman, it ''is'' Brahman. Brahman is the single binding unity behind the diversity in all that exists in the universe.<ref name=james122 /> Brahman is also that which is the cause of all changes.<ref name=james122 /><ref name=jeffreybrodd>Jeffrey Brodd (2009), ''World Religions: A Voyage of Discovery'', Saint Mary's Press, {{ISBN|978-0-88489-997-6}}, pp. 43–47</ref><ref>Mariasusai Dhavamony (2002), ''Hindu-Christian Dialogue: Theological Soundings and Perspectives'', Rodopi Press, {{ISBN|978-9042015104}}, pp. 43–44</ref> Brahman is the "creative principle which lies realized in the whole world".<ref>Paul Deussen, ''Sixty Upanishads of the Veda'', Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, p. 91</ref>
 
The nondualism of Advaita, relies on the Hindu concept of [[Ātman (Hinduism)|Ātman]] which is a Sanskrit word that means "essence"<ref group=web>[http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?script=HK&beginning=0+&tinput=+atman&trans=Translate&direction=AU Sanskrit Dictionary, ''Atman'']</ref> or "real self" of the individual;<ref name=oxfordatmandef /><ref>R Dalal (2011), ''The Religions of India: A Concise Guide to Nine Major Faiths'', Penguin, {{ISBN|978-0-14-341517-6}}, p. 38</ref> it is also appropriated as "[[soul]]".<ref name=oxfordatmandef>'''[a]''' [http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/atman Atman], ''Oxford Dictionaries'', Oxford University Press (2012), '''Quote''': "1. real self of the individual; 2. a person's soul";<br />'''[b]''' John Bowker (2000), ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions'', Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-280094-7}}, See entry for Atman;<br />'''[c]''' WJ Johnson (2009), ''A Dictionary of Hinduism'', Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-861025-0}}, See entry for Atman (self).</ref><ref name=3defsatman>'''[a]''' David Lorenzen (2004), ''The Hindu World'' (Editors: Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby), Routledge, {{ISBN|0-415-21527-7}}, pp. 208–209, '''Quote''': "Advaita and nirguni movements, on the other hand, stress an interior mysticism in which the devotee seeks to discover the identity of individual soul (atman) with the universal ground of being (brahman) or to find god within himself".;<br />'''[b]''' Richard King (1995), Early Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, State University of New York Press, {{ISBN|978-0-7914-2513-8}}, p. 64, '''Quote:''' "Atman as the innermost essence or soul of man, and Brahman as the innermost essence and support of the universe. (...) Thus we can see in the Upanishads, a tendency towards a convergence of microcosm and macrocosm, culminating in the equating of atman with Brahman".<br />'''[c]''' Chad Meister (2010), ''The Oxford Handbook of Religious Diversity'', Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-534013-6}}, p. 63; '''Quote''': "Even though Buddhism explicitly rejected the Hindu ideas of ''Atman'' (soul) and Brahman, Hinduism treats Sakyamuni Buddha as one of the ten avatars of Vishnu."</ref> Ātman is the [[first principle]],<ref>Deussen, Paul and Geden, A. S. The Philosophy of the Upanishads. Cosimo Classics (1 June 2010). P. 86. {{ISBN|1-61640-240-7}}.</ref> the ''true'' self of an individual beyond identification with phenomena, the essence of an individual. Atman is the Universal Principle, one eternal undifferentiated [[self-luminous]] consciousness, asserts Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism.<ref>S Timalsina (2014), Consciousness in Indian Philosophy: The Advaita Doctrine of ‘Awareness Only’, Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0-415-76223-6}}, pp. 3–23</ref><ref>Eliot Deutsch (1980), Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction, University of Hawaii Press, {{ISBN|978-0-8248-0271-4}}, pp. 48-53</ref>
 
Advaita Vedanta philosophy considers Atman as self-existent awareness, limitless, non-dual and same as Brahman.<ref name=aramb>A Rambachan (2006), ''The Advaita Worldview: God, World, and Humanity'', State University of New York Press, {{ISBN|978-0-7914-6852-4}}, pp. 47, 99–103</ref> Advaita school asserts that there is "soul, self" within each living entity which is fully identical with [[Brahman]].<ref name=arvindsharmaintro>Arvind Sharma(2007), Advaita Vedānta: An Introduction, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120820272}}, pp. 19-40, 53–58, 79–86</ref><ref>Edward Roer (Translator), {{Google books|3uwDAAAAMAAJ|Shankara's Introduction|page=2}} to ''Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad'', pp. 2–4</ref> This identity holds that there is One Aawareness that connects and exists in all living beings, regardless of their shapes or forms, there is no distinction, no superior, no inferior, no separate devotee soul (Atman), no separate God soul (Brahman).<ref name=arvindsharmaintro /> The Oneness unifies all beings, there is the divine in every being, and all existence is a single Reality, state the Advaita Vedantins.<ref>Eliot Deutsch (1980), ''Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction'', University of Hawaii Press, {{ISBN|978-0-8248-0271-4}}, pp. 10–13</ref> The nondualism concept of Advaita Vedanta asserts that each soul is non-different from the infinite Brahman.{{sfn|Potter|2008|pp=510–512}}
 
=====Three levels of reality=====
Advaita Vedanta adopts sublation as the criterion to postulate three levels of ontological reality:{{sfn|Puligandla|1997|p=232}}<ref name=asharmapr176>Arvind Sharma (1995), The Philosophy of Religion and Advaita Vedanta, Penn State University Press, {{ISBN|978-0271028323}}, pp. 176–178 with footnotes</ref>
* ''{{IAST|Pāramārthika}}'' (''paramartha'', absolute), the Reality that is metaphysically true and ontologically accurate. It is the state of experiencing that "which is absolutely real and into which both other reality levels can be resolved". This experience can't be sublated (exceeded) by any other experience.{{sfn|Puligandla|1997|p=232}}<ref name=asharmapr176/>
* ''{{IAST|Vyāvahārika}}'' (''vyavahara''), or ''samvriti-saya'',{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=131}} consisting of the empirical or pragmatic reality. It is ever-changing over time, thus empirically true at a given time and context but not [[metaphysics|metaphysically]] true. It is "our world of experience, the phenomenal world that we handle every day when we are awake". It is the level in which both ''[[jiva]]'' (living creatures or individual souls) and ''[[Iswara]]'' are true; here, the material world is also true.<ref name=asharmapr176/>
* ''{{IAST|Prāthibhāsika}}'' (''pratibhasika'', apparent reality, unreality), "reality based on imagination alone". It is the level of experience in which the mind constructs its own reality. A well-known example is the perception of a rope in the dark as being a snake.<ref name=asharmapr176/>
 
=====Similarities and differences with Buddhism=====
Scholars state that Advaita Vedanta was influenced by [[Mahayana|Mahayana Buddhism]], given the common terminology and methodology and some common doctrines.<ref>John Grimes, Review of Richard King's Early Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, Journal of the American Academy of Religion Vol. 66, No. 3 (Autumn, 1998), pp.&nbsp;684–686</ref><ref>S. Mudgal, ''Advaita of Sankara, A Reappraisal, Impact of Buddhism and Samkhya on Sankara's thought'', Delhi 1975, p.187"</ref> [[Eliot Deutsch]] and Rohit Dalvi state:
{{quote|In any event a close relationship between the Mahayana schools and Vedanta did exist, with the latter borrowing some of the dialectical techniques, if not the specific doctrines, of the former.<ref>Eliot Deutsch (1980), Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction, University of Hawaii Press, {{ISBN|978-0824802714}}, pp. 126, 157</ref>}}
 
Advaita Vedanta is related to [[Buddhist philosophy]], which promotes ideas like the [[two truths doctrine]] and the doctrine that [[Yogachara#The doctrine of Vijñapti-mātra|there is only consciousness (''vijñapti-mātra'')]]. It is possible that the Advaita philosopher [[Gaudapada]] was influenced by Buddhist ideas.{{sfn|Raju|1992|p=177}} Shankara harmonised [[Gaudapada]]'s ideas with the Upanishadic texts, and developed a very influential school of orthodox Hinduism.{{sfn|Isaeva|1992|p=240}}{{sfn|Sharma|2000|p=64}}
 
The Buddhist term ''[[Yogachara#The doctrine of Vijñapti-mātra|vijñapti-mātra]]'' is often used interchangeably with the term ''citta-mātra'', but they have different meanings. The standard translation of both terms is "consciousness-only" or "mind-only." Advaita Vedanta has been called "idealistic monism" by scholars, but some disagree with this label.<ref>JN Mohanty (1980), Understanding some Ontological Differences in Indian Philosophy, Journal of Indian Philosophy, Volume 8, Issue 3, p. 205; Quote: "Nyaya-Vaiseshika is realistic; Advaita Vedanta is idealistic. The former is pluralistic, the latter monistic."</ref>{{sfn|Kochumuttom|1999|p=1}} Another concept found in both [[Madhyamaka]] Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta is [[Ajativada]] ("ajāta"), which Gaudapada adopted from [[Nagarjuna]]'s philosophy.{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=157}}{{sfn|Comans|2000|pp=35-36}}{{refn|group=note|"A" means "not", or "non"; "jāti" means "creation" or "origination";{{sfn|Sarma|1996|p=127}} "vāda" means "doctrine"{{sfn|Sarma|1996|p=127}}}} Gaudapada "wove [both doctrines] into a philosophy of the ''Mandukaya Upanisad'', which was further developed by Shankara.{{sfn|Raju|1992|pp=177-178}}{{refn|group=note|The influence of [[Mahayana Buddhism]] on other religions and philosophies was not limited to Advaita Vedanta. Kalupahana notes that the [[Visuddhimagga]] contains "some metaphysical speculations, such as those of the Sarvastivadins, the Sautrantikas, and even the [[Yogacara|Yogacarins]]".{{sfn|Kalupahana|1994|p=206}}}}
 
Michael Comans states there is a fundamental difference between Buddhist thought and that of Gaudapada, in that Buddhism has as its philosophical basis the doctrine of [[Dependent Origination]] according to which "everything is without an essential nature (''nissvabhava''), and everything is empty of essential nature (''svabhava-sunya'')", while Gaudapada does not rely on this principle at all. Gaudapada's ''Ajativada'' is an outcome of reasoning applied to an unchanging nondual reality according to which "there exists a Reality (''sat'') that is unborn (''aja'')" that has essential nature (''svabhava''), and this is the "eternal, fearless, undecaying Self (Atman) and Brahman".{{sfn|Comans|2000|pp=88–93}} Thus, Gaudapada differs from Buddhist scholars such as Nagarjuna, states Comans, by accepting the premises and relying on the fundamental teaching of the Upanishads.{{sfn|Comans|2000|pp=88–93}} Among other things, Vedanta school of Hinduism holds the premise, "Atman exists, as self evident truth", a concept it uses in its theory of nondualism. Buddhism, in contrast, holds the premise, "Atman does not exist (or, An-atman) as self evident".<ref>Dae-Sook Suh (1994), Korean Studies: New Pacific Currents, University of Hawaii Press, {{ISBN|978-0824815981}}, pp. 171</ref><ref name=johnplott3>John C. Plott et al (2000), Global History of Philosophy: The Axial Age, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120801585}}, p. 63, Quote: "The Buddhist schools reject any Ātman concept. As we have already observed, this is the basic and ineradicable distinction between Hinduism and Buddhism".</ref><ref name=4sourcesfmt>'''[a]''' KN Jayatilleke (2010), Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge, {{ISBN|978-8120806191}}, pp. 246–249, from note 385 onwards;<br />'''[b]''' Steven Collins (1994), Religion and Practical Reason (Editors: Frank Reynolds, David Tracy), State Univ of New York Press, {{ISBN|978-0791422175}}, p. 64; "Central to Buddhist soteriology is the doctrine of not-self (Pali: anattā, Sanskrit: anātman, the opposed doctrine of ātman is central to Brahmanical thought). Put very briefly, this is the [Buddhist] doctrine that human beings have no soul, no self, no unchanging essence.";<br />'''[c]''' Edward Roer (Translator), {{Google books|3uwDAAAAMAAJ|Shankara's Introduction|page=2}} to ''Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad'', pp. 2–4;<br />'''[d]''' Katie Javanaud (2013), [https://philosophynow.org/issues/97/Is_The_Buddhist_No-Self_Doctrine_Compatible_With_Pursuing_Nirvana Is The Buddhist ‘No-Self’ Doctrine Compatible With Pursuing Nirvana?], Philosophy Now</ref>
 
Mahadevan suggests that Gaudapada adopted Buddhist terminology and adapted its doctrines to his Vedantic goals, much like early Buddhism adopted Upanishadic terminology and adapted its doctrines to Buddhist goals; both used pre-existing concepts and ideas to convey new meanings.<ref name=johnplottghp286>John Plott (2000), Global History of Philosophy: The Patristic-Sutra period (325 – 800 AD), Volume 3, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120805507}}, pp. 285-288</ref> Dasgupta and Mohanta note that Buddhism and Shankara's Advaita Vedanta are not opposing systems, but "different phases of development of the same non-dualistic metaphysics from the Upanishadic period to the time of Sankara."{{sfn|Dasgupta|Mohanta|1998|p=362}}
 
====Vishishtadvaita Vedanta====
[[File:Ramanujacharya.jpg|thumb|[[Ramanuja]], founder of Vishishtadvaita Vedanta, taught 'qualified nondualism' doctrine.]]
{{See also|Bhedabheda}}
[[Vishishtadvaita Vedanta]] is another main school of Vedanta and teaches the nonduality of the qualified whole, in which Brahman alone exists, but is characterized by multiplicity. It can be described as "qualified monism," or "qualified non-dualism," or "attributive [[monism]]."
 
According to this school, the world is real, yet underlying all the differences is an all-embracing unity, of which all "things" are an "attribute." [[Ramanuja]], the main proponent of Vishishtadvaita philosophy contends that the Prasthana Traya ("The three courses") – namely the [[Upanishad]]s, the [[Gita|Bhagavad Gita]], and the [[Brahmasutra|Brahma Sutras]] – are to be interpreted in a way that shows this [[unity in diversity]], for any other way would violate their consistency.
 
[[Vedanta Desika]] defines ''Vishishtadvaita'' using the statement: ''Asesha Chit-Achit Prakaaram Brahmaikameva Tatvam'' – "[[Brahman]], as qualified by the sentient and insentient modes (or attributes), is the only reality."
 
====Neo-Vedanta====
{{Main|Neo-Vedanta|Swami Vivekananda|Ramakrishna Mission}}
Neo-Vedanta, also called "neo-Hinduism"{{sfn|King|2002|p=93}} is a modern interpretation of [[Hinduism]] which developed in response to western [[colonialism]] and [[orientalism]], and aims to present Hinduism as a "homogenized ideal of Hinduism"{{sfn|Yelle|2012|p=338}} with Advaita Vedanta as its central doctrine.{{sfn|King|2002|p=135}}
 
[[Neo-Vedanta]], as represented by [[Vivekananda]] and [[Radhakrishnan]], is indebted to Advaita vedanta, but also reflects Advaya-philosophy. A main influence on neo-Advaita was [[:Ramakrishna]], himself a bhakta and tantrika, and the guru of Vivekananda. According to Michael Taft, Ramakrishna reconciled the dualism of formlessness and form.{{sfn|Taft|2014}} Ramakrishna regarded the Supreme Being to be both Personal and Impersonal, active and inactive:
{{quote|When I think of the Supreme Being as inactive – neither creating nor preserving nor destroying – I call Him Brahman or Purusha, the Impersonal God. When I think of Him as active – creating, preserving and destroying – I call Him Sakti or Maya or Prakriti, the Personal God. But the distinction between them does not mean a difference. The Personal and Impersonal are the same thing, like milk and its whiteness, the diamond and its lustre, the snake and its wriggling motion. It is impossible to conceive of the one without the other. The Divine Mother and Brahman are one.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sri Ramakrisha The Great Master, by Swami Saradananda, (tr.) Swami Jagadananda, 5th ed., v.1, pp. 558–561, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras.|url=http://www.chennaimath.org/istore/product/sri-ramakrishna-the-great-master/}}</ref>}}
 
Radhakrishnan acknowledged the reality and diversity of the world of experience, which he saw as grounded in and supported by the absolute or Brahman.<ref group=web name="IEP" />{{refn|group=note|name="Neo-Vedanta|Neo-Vedanta seems to be closer to [[Bhedabheda]]-Vedanta than to Shankara's Advaita Vedanta, with the acknowledgement of the reality of the world. Nicholas F. Gier: "Ramakrsna, Svami Vivekananda, and Aurobindo (I also include M.K. Gandhi) have been labeled "neo-Vedantists," a philosophy that rejects the Advaitins' claim that the world is illusory. Aurobindo, in his ''The Life Divine'', declares that he has moved from Sankara's  "universal illusionism" to his own "universal realism" (2005: 432), defined as metaphysical realism in the European philosophical sense of the term."{{sfn|Gier|2013}}}} According to Anil Sooklal, Vivekananda's neo-Advaita "reconciles [[Dvaita]] or dualism and Advaita or non-dualism":{{sfn|Sooklal|1993|p=33}}
{{quote|The Neo-Vedanta is also Advaitic inasmuch as it holds that Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, is one without a second, ''ekamevadvitiyam''. But as distinguished from the traditional Advaita of Sankara, it is a synthetic Vedanta which reconciles Dvaita or dualism and Advaita or non-dualism and also other theories of reality. In this sense it may also be called concrete monism in so far as it holds that Brahman is both qualified, ''saguna'', and qualityless, ''nirguna''.{{sfn|Sooklal|1993|p=33}}}}
 
Radhakrishnan also reinterpreted Shankara's notion of ''[[Maya (illusion)|maya]]''. According to Radhakrishnan, maya is not a strict absolute idealism, but "a subjective misperception of the world as ultimately real."<ref group=web name="IEP">[http://www.iep.utm.edu/radhakri/#H2 Michael Hawley, ''Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975)'', Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]</ref> According to Sarma, standing in the tradition of [[Nisargadatta Maharaj]], Advaitavāda means "spiritual non-dualism or absolutism",{{sfn|Sarma|1996|p=1}} in which opposites are ''manifestations'' of the Absolute, which itself is immanent and transcendent:{{sfn|Sarma|1996|pp=1–2}}
{{quote|All opposites like being and non-being, life and death, good and evil, light and darkness, gods and men, soul and nature are viewed as manifestations of the Absolute which is immanent in the universe and yet transcends it.{{sfn|Sarma|1996|pp=1-2}}}}
 
===Kashmir Shaivism===
{{Main|Shaivism|Kashmir Shaivism}}
{{Saivism}}
Advaita is also a central concept in various schools of Shaivism, such as [[Kashmir Shaivism]]{{sfn|Espín|Nickoloff|2007|p=14}} and [[Shiva Advaita]].
 
Kashmir Shaivism is a school of [[Śaivism]], described by [[Abhinavagupta]]{{refn|group=note|Abhinavgupta (between 10th – 11th century AD) who summarized the view points of all previous thinkers and presented the philosophy in a logical way along with his own thoughts in his treatise Tantraloka.<ref group=web name="Kashmir" />}} as "paradvaita", meaning "the supreme and absolute non-dualism".<ref group=web name="Kashmir">[http://www.shaivism.net/articles/11.html Piyaray L. Raina, ''Kashmir Shaivism versus Vedanta – A Synopsis'']</ref> It is categorized by various scholars as [[monistic]]<ref>Kashmir Shaivism: The Secret Supreme, Swami Lakshman Jee, pp. 103</ref> [[idealism]] ([[absolute idealism]], theistic monism,<ref>The Trika Śaivism of Kashmir, Moti Lal Pandit</ref> realistic idealism,<ref name="Vibration pp. 51">The Doctrine of Vibration: An Analysis of Doctrines and Practices of Kashmir Shaivism, Mark S. G. Dyczkowski, pp. 51</ref> transcendental physicalism or concrete monism<ref name="Vibration pp. 51"/>).
 
Kashmir Saivism is based on a strong monistic interpretation of the ''[[Bhairava]] Tantras'' and its subcategory the ''[[Kaula (Hinduism)|Kaula Tantras]]'', which were tantras written by the [[Kapalikas]].<ref name="Flood, Gavin 1996. P.164-167">Flood, Gavin. D. 1996. An Introduction to Hinduism. pp. 164–167</ref> There was additionally a revelation of the ''[[Shiva Sutras|Siva Sutras]]'' to [[Vasugupta]].<ref name="Flood, Gavin 1996. P.164-167"/> Kashmir Saivism claimed to supersede the dualistic [[Shaiva Siddhanta]].<ref>Flood, Gavin. D. 2006. The Tantric Body. P.61</ref> [[Somananda]], the first theologian of monistic Saivism, was the teacher of [[Utpaladeva]], who was the grand-teacher of [[Abhinavagupta]], who in turn was the teacher of [[Kshemaraja|Ksemaraja]].<ref name="Flood, Gavin 1996. P.164-167"/><ref>Flood, Gavin. D. 2006. The Tantric Body. p. 66</ref>
 
The philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism can be seen in contrast to Shankara's Advaita.<ref>Consciousness is Everything, The Yoga of Kashmir Shaivism, Swami Shankarananda pp. 56-59</ref> Advaita Vedanta holds that Brahman is inactive (''niṣkriya'') and the phenomenal world is a false appearance (''māyā'') of Brahman, like snake seen in semi-darkness is a false appearance of Rope lying there. In Kashmir Shavisim, all things are a manifestation of the Universal Consciousness, ''[[Chit (Shaivism)|Chit]]'' or ''[[Brahman]]''.<ref>Pratyãbhijñahṛdayam, Jaideva Singh, Moltilal Banarsidass, 2008 p.24-26</ref><ref>The Doctrine of Vibration: An Analysis of Doctrines and Practices of Kashmir Shaivism, By Mark S. G. Dyczkowski, p.44</ref> Kashmir Shavisim sees the phenomenal world (''[[Shakti|Śakti]]'') as real: it exists, and has its being in Consciousness (''Chit'').<ref>Ksemaraja, trans. by Jaidev Singh, Spanda Karikas: The Divine Creative Pulsation, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, p. 119</ref>
 
Kashmir Shaivism was influenced by, and took over doctrines from, several orthodox and heterodox Indian religious and philosophical traditions.{{sfn|Muller-Ortega|2010|p=25}} These include Vedanta, Samkhya, Patanjali Yoga and Nyayas, and various Buddhist schools, including Yogacara and Madhyamika,{{sfn|Muller-Ortega|2010|p=25}} but also Tantra and the Nath-tradition.{{sfn|Muller-Ortega|2010|p=26}}
 
===Contemporary vernacular traditions===
Primal awareness is also part of other Indian traditions, which are less strongly, or not all, organised in monastic and institutional organisations. Although often called "Advaita Vedanta," these traditions have their origins in vernacular movements and "householder" traditions, and have close ties to the [[Nath]], [[Nayanars]] and [[Sant Mat]] traditions.
 
====Ramana Maharshi====
[[File:Ramana 3 sw.jpg|thumb|right|[[Ramana Maharshi]] (1879–1950) explained his insight using [[Shaiva Siddhanta]], [[Advaita Vedanta]] and [[Yoga]] teachings.]]
{{Main|Ramana Maharshi}}
 
Ramana Maharshi (30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) is widely acknowledged as one of the outstanding Indian [[guru]]s of modern times.{{sfn|Godman|1994}} Ramana's teachings are often interpreted as Advaita Vedanta, though Ramana Maharshi never "received [[diksha]] (initiation) from any recognised authority".<ref group=web name="Lineage">[http://bhagavan-ramana.org/ramanamaharshilineage.html Sri Ramanasramam, "A lineage of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi?"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113112549/http://bhagavan-ramana.org/ramanamaharshilineage.html |date=13 January 2012 }}</ref> Ramana himself did not call his insights advaita:
{{quote|D. Does Sri Bhagavan advocate ''advaita''?<br />
M. ''Dvaita'' and ''advaita'' are relative terms. They are based on the sense of duality. The Self is as it is. There is neither ''dvaita'' nor ''advaita''. "[[I Am that I Am]]."{{refn|group=note|A Christian reference. See <ref group=web>[http://davidgodman.org/rteach/fnofgod1.shtml David Godman (1992), ''I am – The First Name of God''. The Mountain Path, 1992, pp. 26–35 and pp. 126–42]</ref> and <ref group=web name="I-I">[http://www.davidgodman.org/rteach/iandii1.shtml David Godman (1991), ''{{'}}I' and 'I-I' – A Reader's Query''. The Mountain Path, 1991, pp. 79–88. Part one]</ref> Ramana was taught at Christian schools.{{sfn|Ebert|2006|p=18}}}} Simple Being is the Self.{{sfn|Venkataramiah|2000|pp=328-329}}}}
 
====Neo-Advaita====
{{Main|Neo-Advaita}}
 
''Neo-Advaita'' is a [[New religious movement|New Religious Movement]] based on a modern, western interpretation of [[Advaita Vedanta]], especially the teachings of [[Ramana Maharshi]].{{sfn|Lucas|2011}} According to [[Arthur Versluis]], neo-Advaita is part of a larger religious current which he calls [[Immediatism (spirituality)|immediatism]],{{sfn|Versluis|2014}}<ref group=web name="AV-7Q">[https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/sacredmatters/2015/01/12/seven-questions-for-arthur-versluis/ ''American Gurus: Seven Questions for Arthur Versluis''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160417164207/https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/sacredmatters/2015/01/12/seven-questions-for-arthur-versluis/ |date=17 April 2016 }}</ref> "the assertion of immediate spiritual illumination without much if any preparatory practice within a particular religious tradition."<ref group=web name="AV-7Q"/> Neo-Advaita is criticized for this immediatism and its lack of preparatory practices.{{sfn|Marek|2008|p=10, note 6}}{{refn|group=note|Marek: "Wobei der Begriff Neo-Advaita darauf hinweist, dass sich die traditionelle Advaita von dieser Strömung zunehmend distanziert, da sie die Bedeutung der übenden Vorbereitung nach wie vor als unumgänglich ansieht. (The term Neo-Advaita indicating that the traditional Advaita increasingly distances itself from this movement, as they regard preparational practicing still as inevitable){{sfn|Marek|2008|p=10, note 6}}}}{{sfn|Jacobs|2004|p=82}}{{refn|group=note|Alan Jacobs: "Many firm devotees of Sri Ramana Maharshi now rightly term this western phenomenon as 'Neo-Advaita'. The term is carefully selected because 'neo' means 'a new or revived form'. And this new form is not the Classical Advaita which we understand to have been taught by both of the Great Self Realised Sages, Adi Shankara and Ramana Maharshi. It can even be termed 'pseudo' because, by presenting the teaching in a highly attenuated form, it might be described as purporting to be Advaita, but not in effect actually being so, in the fullest sense of the word. In this watering down of the essential truths in a palatable style made acceptable and attractive to the contemporary western mind, their teaching is misleading."{{sfn|Jacobs|2004|p=82}}}} Although this state of consciousness may seem to appear spontaneous,{{refn|group=note|See ''Cosmic Consciousness'', by Richard Bucke}} it usually follows prolonged preparation through ascetic or meditative/contemplative practice, which may include ethical injunctions.  Notable neo-advaita teachers are [[H. W. L. Poonja]]{{sfn|Caplan|2009|pp=16-17}}{{sfn|Lucas|2011}} and his students [[Gangaji]],{{sfn|Lucas|2011|pp=102-105}} [[Andrew Cohen (spiritual teacher)|Andrew Cohen]],{{refn|group=note|Presently Cohen has distanced himself from Poonja, and calls his teachings "Evolutionary Enlightenment".{{sfn|Gleig|2011|p=10}} ''What Is Enlightenment'', the magazine published by Choen's organisation, has been critical of neo-Advaita several times, as early as 2001. See.<ref group=web>[https://archive.today/20130414172435/http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/j22/stacey.asp?page=1 What is Enlightenment? 1 September 2006]</ref><ref group=web>[http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/j20/editorial.asp What is Enlightenment? 31 December 2001] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310124030/http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/j20/editorial.asp |date=10 March 2013 }}</ref><ref group=web>[https://archive.today/20130414151819/http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/j31/translucent.asp?page=1 What is Enlightenment? 1 December 2005]</ref>}}, and [[Eckhart Tolle]].{{sfn|Lucas|2011}}
 
According to a modern western spiritual teacher of nonduality, [[Jeff Foster (spiritual teacher)|Jeff Foster]], nonduality is: <blockquote>the essential oneness (wholeness, completeness, unity) of life, a wholeness which exists here and now, prior to any apparent separation [...] despite the compelling appearance of separation and diversity there is only one universal essence, one reality. Oneness is all there is – and we are included.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lifewithoutacentre.com/writings/what-is-nonduality/|title=What is Non-Duality?}}</ref></blockquote>
 
====Natha Sampradaya and Inchegeri Sampradaya====
{{Main|Nath|Sahaja|Inchegeri Sampradaya}}
 
The Natha Sampradaya, with [[Nath]] yogis such as [[Gorakhnath]], introduced [[Sahaja]], the concept of a spontaneous spirituality. Sahaja means "spontaneous, natural, simple, or easy".<ref group=web>[http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/monier/serveimg.pl?file=/scans/MWScan/MWScanjpg/mw1193-sah.jpg] (accessed: Friday 6 November 2009)</ref> According to Ken Wilber, this state reflects nonduality.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ken Wilber |title=One Taste: Daily Reflections on Integral Spirituality |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YhbLjCH9aFMC&pg=PA294 |year=2000|publisher=Shambhala Publications|isbn=978-0-8348-2270-2 |pages=294–295 with footnotes 33–34 }}</ref>
 
==Other eastern religions==
 
===Sikhism===
Sikh theology suggests human souls and the monotheistic God are two different realities (dualism),<ref>{{cite book|author=Nirmal Kumar |title=Sikh Philosophy and Religion: 11th Guru Nanak Memorial Lectures |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xh69K5Ilm3EC |year=2006|publisher=Sterling Publishers |isbn=978-1-932705-68-3 |pages=89–92 }}</ref> distinguishing it from the monistic and various shades of nondualistic philosophies of other Indian religions.<ref>{{cite book|author=Arvind-pal Singh Mandair|title=Religion and the Specter of the West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality, and the Politics of Translation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dzeCy_zL0Q8C |year=2013|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-51980-9|pages=76, 430–432 }}</ref> However, Sikh scholars have attempted to explore nondualism exegesis of Sikh scriptures, such as during the neocolonial reformist movement by Bhai Vir Singh of the Singh Sabha. According to Mandair, Singh interprets the Sikh scriptures as teaching nonduality.<ref name="The Politics of Nonduality: Reasses">{{cite journal | last1 = Mandair | first1 = Arvind | year = 2005 | title = The Politics of Nonduality: Reassessing the Work of Transcendence in Modern Sikh Theology | journal = Journal of the American Academy of Religion | volume = 74 | issue = 3| pages = 646–673 | doi=10.1093/jaarel/lfj002| s2cid = 154558545 }}</ref>
 
Others maintain that Sikh theology suggests human souls and the monotheistic God are the same reality (non-dualism). Sikh scholars have even been exploring nondualism exegesis of Sikh scriptures, such as during the neocolonial reformist movement by Bhai Vir Singh of the Singh Sabha. According to Arvind Mandair, Singh interprets the Sikh scriptures as teaching nonduality.<ref name="The Politics of Nonduality: Reasses"/>
 
===Taoism===
{{Main|Taoism}}
[[File:Yin yang.svg|thumb|right|150px|[[Taijitu]]]]
 
Taoism's ''[[wu wei]]'' (Chinese ''wu'', not; ''wei'', doing) is a term with various translations{{refn|group=note|Inaction, non-action, nothing doing, without ado}} and interpretations designed to distinguish it from passivity. The concept of [[Yin and Yang]], often mistakenly conceived of as a symbol of dualism, is actually meant to convey the notion that all apparent opposites are complementary parts of a non-dual whole.<ref>Paul A. Erickson, Liam D. Murphy. ''A History of Anthropological Theory''. 2013. p. 486</ref>
 
==Western traditions==
{{See also|Spirituality|New Age|Syncretism|Neo-Advaita|Western esotericism|Perennial philosophy{{!}}Perennialism|Syncretism}}
 
A modern strand of thought sees "nondual consciousness" as a universal psychological state, which is a common stratum and of the same essence in different spiritual traditions.{{sfn|Katz|2007}} It is derived from [[Neo-Vedanta]] and [[neo-Advaita]], but has historical roots in [[neo-Platonism]], [[Western esotericism]], and [[Perennial philosophy|Perennialism]]. The idea of nondual consciousness as "the central essence"{{sfn|Wolfe|2009|p=iii}} is a [[Universalism|universalistic]] and [[Perennial philosophy|perennialist]] idea, which is part of a modern mutual exchange and synthesis of ideas between western spiritual and [[Western esotericism|esoteric traditions]] and Asian religious revival and reform movements.{{refn|group=note|See McMahan, "The making of Buddhist modernity"{{sfn|McMahan|2008}} and [[Richard E. King]], "Orientalism and Religion"{{sfn|King|2002}} for descriptions of this mutual exchange.}}
 
Central elements in the western traditions are [[Neo-Platonism]], which had a strong influence on [[Christian contemplation]] or [[Christian mysticism|mysticism]], and its accompanying [[apophatic theology]]; and [[Western esotericism]], which also incorporated Neo-Platonism and [[Gnosticism|Gnostic elements]] including [[Hermeticism]]. Western traditions are, among others, the idea of a [[Perennial Philosophy]], [[Swedenborgianism]], [[Unitarianism]], [[Orientalism]], [[Transcendentalism]], [[Theosophy (Blavatskian)|Theosophy]], and [[New Age]].{{sfn|Hanegraaff|1996}}
 
Eastern movements are the [[Hindu reform movements]] such as [[Swami Vivekananda|Vivekananda's]] [[Neo-Vedanta]] and [[Shri Aurobindo|Aurobindo's]] Integral Yoga, the [[Vipassana movement]], and [[Buddhist modernism]].{{refn|group=note|The awareness of historical precedents seems to be lacking in nonduality-adherents, just as the subjective perception of [[Parallelomania|parallels]] between a wide variety of religious traditions lacks a rigorous philosophical or theoretical underpinning.}}
 
===Roman world===
 
====Gnosticism====
{{Main|Gnosticism}}
 
Since its beginning, Gnosticism has been characterized by many dualisms and dualities, including the [[doctrine]] of a separate God and [[Manichaean]] (good/evil) dualism.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Richard T. Wallis|author2=Jay Bregman|title=Neoplatonism and Gnosticism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSbrLPup7wYC&pg=PA33 |year=1992|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-7914-1337-1|pages=33–44}}</ref> Ronald Miller interprets the [[Gospel of Thomas]] as a teaching of "nondualistic consciousness".<ref name="Miller">{{cite book|last=Miller|first=Ronald|author-link=Ronald H. Miller|title=The Gospel of Thomas: A Guidebook for Spiritual Practice}} pp. 29, 63</ref>
 
====Neoplatonism====
{{Main|Neoplatonism}}
 
The precepts of [[Neoplatonism]] of [[Plotinus]] (2nd century) assert nondualism.<ref name="Michaelson, Jay 2009 p.130">Michaelson, Jay (2009). ''Everything Is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism''. Shambhala Publications. {{ISBN|1-59030-671-6}}, {{ISBN|978-1-59030-671-0}}. Source: [https://books.google.com/books?id=jmrgoeaQvlwC&pg=PA130&dq=i+and+thou+martin+buber+nondual&hl=en&ei=0I3iS_jIFdGgkQX50dHtDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=i%20and%20thou%20martin%20buber%20nondual&f=false] (accessed: Thursday 6 May 2010), p.130</ref> Neoplatonism had a strong influence on Christian mysticism.
 
Some scholars suggest a possible link of more ancient Indian philosophies on Neoplatonism, while other scholars consider these claims as unjustified and extravagant with the counter hypothesis that nondualism developed independently in ancient India and Greece.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Lawrence Hatab|author2=Albert Wolters|editor=R Baine Harris|title=Neoplatonism and Indian Thought|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ghCE3mBlb30C |year=1982|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-1-4384-0587-2 |pages=27–44, 293–308  }}</ref> The nondualism of Advaita Vedanta and Neoplatonism have been compared by various scholars,<ref>{{cite book|author=R Baine Harris|title=Neoplatonism and Indian Thought|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ghCE3mBlb30C |year=1982|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-1-4384-0587-2 }}</ref> such as [[Frits Staal|J. F. Staal]],<ref>J. F. Staal (1961), ''Advaita and Neoplatonism: A critical study in comparative philosophy'', Madras: University of Madras</ref> [[Frederick Copleston]],<ref>{{cite web|author=Frederick Charles Copleston |url=http://www.giffordlectures.org/Browse.asp?PubID=TPRATO&Cover=TRUE |title=Religion and the One 1979–1981 |publisher=Giffordlectures.org |access-date=2010-01-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100409195724/http://www.giffordlectures.org/Browse.asp?PubID=TPRATO&Cover=TRUE |archive-date=9 April 2010 }}</ref> Aldo Magris and Mario Piantelli,<ref>Special section "Fra Oriente e Occidente" in ''Annuario filosofico'' No. 6 (1990), including the articles "Plotino e l'India" by Aldo Magris and "L'India e Plotino" by Mario Piantelli</ref> Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan,<ref>Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (ed.)(1952), ''History of Philosophy Eastern and Western'', Vol.2. London: George Allen & Unwin. p.&nbsp;114</ref> Gwen Griffith-Dickson,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?PageId=39&EventId=157 |title=''Creator'' (or not?) |publisher=Gresham.ac.uk |access-date=2010-01-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214002122/http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?PageId=39&EventId=157 |archive-date=14 February 2009 }}</ref> John Y. Fenton<ref>John Y. Fenton (1981), "Mystical Experience as a Bridge for Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion: A Critique", Journal of the American Academy of Religion, p.&nbsp;55</ref> and Dale Riepe.<ref>Dale Riepe (1967), "Emerson and Indian Philosophy", Journal of the History of Ideas</ref>
 
===Medieval Abrahamic religions===
 
====Christian contemplation and mysticism====
[[File:Mystic m.jpg|thumb|right|The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine, St John the Baptist, St Antony Abbot]]
{{Main|Christian contemplation|Christian Mysticism|Apophatic theology}}
{{See also|Henosis}}
 
In Christian mysticism, [[contemplative prayer]] and [[Apophatic theology]] are central elements. In contemplative prayer, the mind is focused by constant repetition a phrase or word. Saint [[John Cassian]] recommended use of the phrase "O God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help me".<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/350810.htm John Cassian, ''Conferences'', 10, chapters 10-11]</ref><ref name=Freeman>[http://www.meditatio.ca/Transcripts/Meditatio%20Talks%20Series%20D%202005.pdf Laurence Freeman 1992]</ref> Another formula for repetition is the name of Jesus.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=iE45LzrfZuwC&pg=PA32&dq=repetition+of+the+name+of+Jesus&hl=en&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 Nicholas Cabasilas, ''The Life in Christ'' (St Vladimir's Seminary Press 19740-913836-12-5), p. 32]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=xXRMGv9UfBEC&pg=PA89&dq=repetition+of+the+name+of+Jesus&hl=en&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3 James W. Skehan, ''Place Me with Your Son'' (Georgetown University Press 1991] {{ISBN|0-87840-525-9}}), p. 89</ref> or the [[Jesus Prayer]], which has been called "the mantra of the Orthodox Church",<ref name=Freeman/> although the term "Jesus Prayer" is not found in the Fathers of the Church.<ref>[http://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.00.en.some_underlying_positions_of_this_website.htm John S. Romanides, ''Some Underlying Positions of This Website'', 11, note]</ref> The author of ''[[The Cloud of Unknowing]]'' recommended use of a monosyllabic word, such as "God" or "Love".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=VFBg1J0MQ84C&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=%22Cloud+of+Unknowing%22+monosyllabic&source=bl&hl=en&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 ''The Cloud of Unknowing'' (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature 2005] {{ISBN|1-84022-126-7}}), p. 18</ref>
 
Apophatic theology is derived from [[Neo-Platonism]] via [[Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite]]. In this approach, the notion of God is stripped from all positive qualifications, leaving a "darkness" or "unground." It had a strong influence on western mysticism. A notable example is [[Meister Eckhart]], who also attracted attention from Zen-Buddhists like [[D.T. Suzuki]] in modern times, due to the similarities between Buddhist thought and Neo-Platonism.
 
[[The Cloud of Unknowing]] – an anonymous work of [[Christian mysticism]] written in [[Middle English]] in the latter half of the 14th century – advocates a mystic relationship with God. The text describes a [[spirtuality|spiritual]] union with God through the heart. The author of the text advocates [[centering prayer]], a form of inner silence. According to the text, God can not be known through knowledge or from intellection. It is only by emptying the mind of all created images and thoughts that we can arrive to experience God. Continuing on this line of thought, God is completely unknowable by the mind. God is not known through the intellect but through intense [[contemplation]], motivated by love, and stripped of all thought.<ref>Paul de Jaegher ''Christian Mystics of the Middle Ages: An Anthology of Writings'', translated by [[Donald Attwater]] 2004, p. 86</ref>
 
[[Thomism]], though not non-dual in the ordinary sense, considers the unity of God so absolute that even the duality of [[Subject (grammar)|subject]] and [[Predicate (grammar)|predicate]], to describe him, can be true only by [[analogy]]. In Thomist thought, even the [[Tetragrammaton]] is only an approximate name, since "I am" involves a predicate whose own essence is its subject.<ref>Koren, Henry J (1955). ''An Introduction to the Science of Metaphysics''. B. Herder Book Co. {{ISBN|1258017857}}, {{ISBN|978-1258017859}}</ref>
 
The former nun and contemplative [[Bernadette Roberts]] is considered a nondualist by Jerry Katz.{{sfn|Katz|2007}}
 
====Jewish Hasidism and Kabbalism====
{{Main|Judaism|Hasidism|Kabbalah}}
 
According to [[Jay Michaelson]], nonduality begins to appear in the medieval Jewish textual tradition which peaked in [[Hasidism]].<ref name="Michaelson, Jay 2009 p.130"/> According to Michaelson:
{{quote|''Judaism'' has within it a strong and very ancient mystical tradition that is deeply nondualistic. "[[Ein Sof]]"  or infinite nothingness is considered the ground face of all that is. God is considered beyond all proposition or preconception. The physical world is seen as emanating from the nothingness as the many faces "partsufim" of god that are all a part of the sacred nothingness.<ref>Michaelson, Jay (2009). ''Everything Is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism.'' Shambhala Publications. {{ISBN|1-59030-671-6}}, {{ISBN|978-1-59030-671-0}}. Source: [https://books.google.com/books?id=jmrgoeaQvlwC&dq=i+and+thou+martin+buber+nondual&source=gbs_navlinks_s] (accessed: Saturday May 8, 2010)</ref>}}
 
One of the most striking contributions of the Kabbalah, which became a central idea in Chasidic thought, was a highly innovative reading of the monotheistic idea. The belief in "one G-d" is no longer perceived as the mere rejection of other deities or intermediaries, but a denial of any existence outside of G-d.{{refn|group=note|As Rabbi Moshe Cordovero explains: "Before anything was emanated, there was only the Infinite One (Ein Sof), which was all that existed. And even after He brought into being everything which exists, there is nothing but Him, and you cannot find anything that existed apart from Him, G-d forbid. For nothing existed devoid of G-d's power, for if there were, He would be limited and subject to duality, G-d forbid. Rather, G-d is everything that exists, but everything that exists is not G-d... Nothing is devoid of His G-dliness: everything is within it... There is nothing but it" (Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, ''Elimah Rabasi'', p. 24d-25a; for sources in early Chasidism see: Rabbi Ya'akov Yosef of Polonne, ''Ben Poras Yosef'' (Piotrków 1884), pp. 140, 168; ''Keser Shem Tov'' (Brooklyn: Kehos 2004) pp. 237-8; Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, ''Pri Ha-Aretz'', (Kopust 1884), p. 21.). See ''The Practical Tanya, Part One, The Book for Inbetweeners, Schneur Zalman of Liadi'', adapted by Chaim Miller, Gutnick Library of Jewish Classics, p. 232-233}}
 
====Neoplatonism in Islam====
{{Main|Platonism in Islamic Philosophy}}
 
===Western esotericism===
{{Main|Western esotericism}}
 
Western esotericism (also called esotericism and esoterism) is a scholarly term for a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements which have developed within [[Western society]]. They are largely distinct both from orthodox [[Judeo-Christian|Judeo-Christian religion]] and from [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] [[rationalism]]. The earliest traditions which later analysis would label as forms of Western esotericism emerged in the [[Eastern Mediterranean]] during [[Late Antiquity]], where [[Hermetism]], [[Gnosticism]], and [[Neoplatonism]] developed as schools of thought distinct from what became mainstream Christianity. In [[Renaissance]] Europe, interest in many of these older ideas increased, with various intellectuals seeking to combine "[[pagan]]" philosophies with the [[Kabbalah]] and with Christian philosophy, resulting in the emergence of esoteric movements like [[Christian theosophy]].
 
====Perennial philosophy====
{{Main|Perennial philosophy}}
 
The Perennial philosophy has its roots in the Renaissance interest in [[neo-Platonism]] and its [[Theory of Forms|idea]] of [[Neo-Platonism#The One|The One]], from which all existence emanates. [[Marsilio Ficino]] (1433–1499) sought to integrate ''[[Corpus Hermeticum|Hermeticism]]'' with Greek and Jewish-Christian thought,{{sfn|Slavenburg|Glaudemans|1994|p=395}} discerning a [[Prisca theologia]] which could be found in all ages.{{sfn|Schmitt|1966|p=508}} [[Giovanni Pico della Mirandola]] (1463–94) suggested that truth could be found in many, rather than just two, traditions. He proposed a harmony between the thought of Plato and Aristotle, and saw aspects of the ''Prisca theologia'' in [[Averroes]], the [[Koran]], the [[Kabbalah|Cabala]] and other sources.{{sfn|Schmitt|1966|p=513}} [[Agostino Steuco]] (1497–1548) coined the term ''philosophia perennis''.{{sfn|Schmitt|1966}}
 
====Orientalism====
{{Main|Orientalism}}
 
The western world has been exposed to Indian religions since the late 18th century.{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=176}} The first western translation of a Sanskrit text was made in 1785.{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=176}} It marked a growing interest in Indian culture and languages.{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=177}} The first translation of the dualism and nondualism discussing Upanishads appeared in two parts in 1801 and 1802{{sfn|Renard|2010|pp=177-184}} and influenced [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], who called them "the consolation of my life".{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=178}} Early translations also appeared in other European languages.{{sfn|Renard|2010|pp=183-184}}
 
====Transcendentalism and Unitarian Universalism====
{{Main|Transcendentalism}}
 
Transcendentalism was an early 19th-century [[Liberal Christianity|liberal Protestant]] movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the Eastern region of the [[United States]]. It was rooted in English and German [[Romanticism]], the Biblical criticism of Herder and [[Schleiermacher]], and the [[skepticism]] of [[David Hume|Hume]].<ref group=web name="Stanford">[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/transcendentalism/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ''Transcendentalism'']</ref>
 
The Transcendentalists emphasised an intuitive, experiential approach of religion.<ref group=web name="Lewis">{{Cite web |url=http://www.transcendentalists.com/what.htm |title=Jone John Lewis, "What is Transcendentalism?" |access-date=24 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131209161406/http://transcendentalists.com/what.htm |archive-date=9 December 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Following Schleiermacher,{{sfn|Sharf|1995}} an individual's intuition of truth was taken as the criterion for truth.<ref group=web name="Lewis" /> In the late 18th and early 19th century, the first translations of [[Hindu]] texts appeared, which were read by the Transcendentalists and influenced their thinking.<ref group=web name="Lewis" /> The Transcendentalists also endorsed [[Universalism|universalist]] and [[Unitarianism|Unitarianist]] ideas, leading to [[Unitarian Universalism]], the idea that there must be truth in other religions as well, since a loving God would redeem all living beings, not just Christians.<ref group=web name="Lewis" /><ref group=web name="Andrews">[http://archive.uua.org/re/other/andrews.html Barry Andrews, ''THE ROOTS OF UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SPIRITUALITY IN NEW ENGLAND TRANSCENDENTALISM ''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054734/http://archive.uua.org/re/other/andrews.html |date=21 September 2013 }}</ref>
 
Among the transcendentalists' core beliefs was the inherent goodness of both people and nature. Transcendentalists believed that society and its institutions&mdash;particularly organized religion and political parties&mdash;ultimately corrupted the purity of the individual. They had faith that people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. It is only from such real individuals that true community could be formed.
 
The major figures in the movement were [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], [[Henry David Thoreau]], [[John Muir]], [[Margaret Fuller]] and [[Amos Bronson Alcott]].
 
====Neo-Vedanta====
Unitarian Universalism had a strong impact on Ram Mohan Roy and the Brahmo Samaj, and subsequently on Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda was one of the main representatives of [[Neo-Vedanta]], a modern interpretation of Hinduism in line with [[Western esotericism|western esoteric traditions]], especially [[Transcendentalism]], [[New Thought]] and [[Theosophy (Blavatskian)|Theosophy]].{{sfn|Michelis|2005}} His reinterpretation was, and is, very successful, creating a new understanding and appreciation of Hinduism within and outside India,{{sfn|Michelis|2005}} and was the principal reason for the enthusiastic reception of yoga, transcendental meditation and other forms of Indian spiritual self-improvement in the West.{{Sfn|Dutta|2003|p=110}}
 
Narendranath Datta (Swami Vivekananda) became a member of a [[Freemasonry]] lodge "at some point before 1884"{{sfn|Michelis|2005|p=100}} and of the [[Sadharan Brahmo Samaj]] in his twenties, a breakaway faction of the [[Brahmo Samaj]] led by [[Keshab Chandra Sen]] and [[Debendranath Tagore]].{{sfn|Michelis|2005|p=99}} Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833), the founder of the Brahmo Samaj, had a strong sympathy for the Unitarians,{{sfn|Kipf|1979|p=3}} who were closely connected to the [[Transcendentalists]], who in turn were interested in and influenced by Indian religions early on.{{sfn|Versluis|1993}} It was in this [[cult]]ic{{sfn|Michelis|2005|pp=31-35}} milieu that Narendra became acquainted with Western [[esotericism]].{{sfn|Michelis|2005|pp=19-90, 97-100}} [[Debendranath Tagore]] brought this "neo-Hinduism" closer in line with western [[esotericism]], a development which was furthered by Keshubchandra Sen,{{sfn|Michelis|2005|p=47}} who was also influenced by [[transcendentalism]], which emphasised personal [[religious experience]] over mere reasoning and theology.{{sfn|Michelis|2005|p=81}} Sen's influence brought Vivekananda fully into contact with western esotericism, and it was also via Sen that he met Ramakrishna.{{sfn|Michelis|2005|p=50}}
 
Vivekananda's acquaintance with western esotericism made him very successful in western esoteric circles, beginning with his speech in 1893 at the Parliament of Religions. Vivekananda adapted traditional Hindu ideas and religiosity to suit the needs and understandings of his western audiences, who were especially attracted by and familiar with western esoteric traditions and movements like [[Transcendentalism]] and [[New thought]].{{sfn|Michelis|2004|pp=119-123}}
 
In 1897 he founded the [[Ramakrishna Mission]], which was instrumental in the spread of Neo-Vedanta in the west, and attracted people like Alan Watts. Aldous Huxley, author of ''[[The Perennial Philosophy (book)|The Perennial Philosophy]]'', was associated with another neo-Vedanta organisation, the [[Vedanta Society of Southern California]], founded and headed by [[Swami Prabhavananda]]. Together with [[Gerald Heard]], [[Christopher Isherwood]], and other followers he was initiated by the Swami and was taught meditation and spiritual practices.{{sfn|Roy|2003}}
 
Neo-Vedanta was well-received among Theosophists, [[Christian Science]], and the [[New Thought]] movement;{{sfn|Miller|1995|p=174}}{{sfn|Swartz|loc=p. 210: "certainly familiar with nondual thought"}} Christian Science in turn influenced the self-study teaching [[A Course in Miracles]].{{sfn|Taves|2016|p=185}}
 
====Theosophical Society====
{{Main|Theosophical Society}}
 
A major force in the mutual influence of eastern and western ideas and religiosity was the [[Theosophical Society]].{{sfn|Renard|2010|pp=185–188}}{{sfn|Sinari|2000}} It searched for ancient wisdom in the east, spreading eastern religious ideas in the west.{{sfn|Lavoie|2012}} One of its salient features was the belief in [[Masters of the Ancient Wisdom (Theosophy)|"Masters of Wisdom"]],{{sfn|Gilchrist|1996|p=32}}{{refn|group=note|See also [[Ascended Master Teachings]]}} "beings, human or once human, who have transcended the normal frontiers of knowledge, and who make their wisdom available to others".{{sfn|Gilchrist|1996|p=32}} The Theosophical Society also spread western ideas in the east, aiding a modernisation of eastern traditions, and contributing to a growing nationalism in the Asian colonies.{{sfn|McMahan|2008}}{{refn|group=note|The Theosophical Society had a major influence on [[Buddhist modernism]]{{sfn|McMahan|2008}} and [[Hindu reform movements]],{{sfn|Sinari|2000}} and the spread of those modernised versions in the west.{{sfn|McMahan|2008}} The [[Theosophical Society]] and the [[Arya Samaj]] were united from 1878 to 1882, as the [[Theosophical Society of the Arya Samaj]].{{sfn|Johnson|1994|p=107}} Along with [[Henry Steel Olcott|H. S. Olcott]] and [[Anagarika Dharmapala]], [[Blavatsky]] was instrumental in the Western transmission and revival of [[Theravada Buddhism]].{{sfn|McMahan|2008|p=98}}{{sfn|Gombrich|1996|pp=185–188}}{{sfn|Fields|1992|pp=83–118}}}}
 
====New Age====
{{Main|New Age}}
 
The ''New Age movement'' is a [[Western culture|Western]] [[spirituality|spiritual]] movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and [[metaphysics|metaphysical]] traditions and infusing them with influences from [[self-help]] and motivational [[psychology]], [[holistic health]], [[parapsychology]], consciousness research and [[quantum physics]]".{{sfn|Drury|2004|p=12}}
The New Age aims to create "a spirituality without borders or confining dogmas" that is inclusive and [[religious pluralism|pluralistic]].{{sfn|Drury|2004|p=8}} It holds to "a holistic worldview",{{sfn|Drury|2004|p=11}} emphasising that the [[dialectical monism|Mind, Body and Spirit]] are interrelated<ref name="JGMelton">Melton, J. Gordon – Director Institute for the Study of American Religion. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060614001357/http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/newage.html New Age Transformed], retrieved 2006-06</ref> and that there is a form of [[monism]] and unity throughout the universe.<ref group=web name="Langone">Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. Cult Observer, 1993, Volume 10, No. 1. [http://www.csj.org/rg/rgessays/rgessay_newage.htm What Is "New Age"?], retrieved 2006-07</ref> It attempts to create "a worldview that includes both science and spirituality"{{sfn|Drury|2004|p=10}} and embraces a number of forms of [[mainstream science]] as well as other forms of science that are considered [[Fringe science|fringe]].{{citation needed|date=April 2013}}
 
==Scholarly debates==
 
===Nondual consciousness and mystical experience===
{{Main|Religious experience|Mystical experience|Altered states of consciousness|Ego-death}}
 
Insight (''[[Prajñā (Buddhism)|prajna]]'', ''[[kensho]]'', ''[[satori]]'', ''[[gnosis]]'', ''[[theoria]]'', ''[[Divine illumination|illumination]]''), especially ''[[Enlightenment (spiritual)|enlightenment]]'' or the realization of the illusory nature of the autonomous "I" or self, is a key element in modern western nondual thought. It is the personal realization that ultimate reality is nondual, and is thought to be a validating means of knowledge of this nondual reality. This insight is interpreted as a psychological state, and labeled as religious or mystical experience.
 
====Development====
According to Hori, the notion of "religious experience" can be traced back to [[William James]], who used the term "religious experience" in his book, ''[[The Varieties of Religious Experience]]''.{{sfn|Hori|1999|p=47}} The origins of the use of this term can be dated further back.{{sfn|Sharf|2000}}
 
In the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, several historical figures put forth very influential views that religion and its beliefs can be grounded in experience itself. While [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]] held that [[Moral obligation|moral experience]] justified [[religious belief]]s, [[John Wesley]] in addition to stressing individual moral exertion thought that the religious experiences in the [[Methodist movement]] (paralleling the [[Romantic Movement]]) were foundational to religious commitment as a way of life.<ref>''[[Issues in Science and Religion]]'', [[Ian Barbour]], [[Prentice-Hall]], 1966, pp. 68, 79</ref>
 
[[Wayne Proudfoot]] traces the roots of the notion of "religious experience" to the German theologian [[Friedrich Schleiermacher]] (1768–1834), who argued that religion is based on a feeling of the infinite. The notion of "religious experience" was used by Schleiermacher and [[Albrecht Ritschl|Albert Ritschl]] to defend religion against the growing scientific and secular critique, and defend the view that human (moral and religious) experience justifies [[religious belief]]s.{{sfn|Sharf|2000}}
 
Such religious empiricism would be later seen as highly problematic and was&nbsp;– during the period in-between world wars&nbsp;– famously rejected by [[Karl Barth]].<ref>''[[Issues in Science and Religion]]'', [[Ian Barbour]], [[Prentice-Hall]], 1966, pp. 114, 116–119</ref> In the 20th century, religious as well as moral experience as justification for religious beliefs still holds sway. Some influential modern scholars holding this [[Liberal Christianity|liberal theological]] view are [[Charles E. Raven|Charles Raven]] and the Oxford physicist/theologian [[Charles Coulson]].<ref>''[[Issues in Science and Religion]]'', [[Ian Barbour]], [[Prentice-Hall]], 1966, p. 126–127</ref>
 
The notion of "religious experience" was adopted by many scholars of religion, of which William James was the most influential.{{sfn|Sharf|2000|p=271}}{{refn|group=note|James also gives descriptions of conversion experiences. The Christian model of dramatic conversions, based on the role-model of Paul's conversion, may also have served as a model for Western interpretations and expectations regarding "enlightenment", similar to Protestant influences on Theravada Buddhism, as described by Carrithers: "It rests upon the notion of the primacy of religious experiences, preferably spectacular ones, as the origin and legitimation of religious action. But this presupposition has a natural home, not in Buddhism, but in Christian and especially Protestant Christian movements which prescribe a radical conversion."{{sfn|Carrithers|1983|p=18}} See Sekida for an example of this influence of William James and Christian conversion stories, mentioning Luther{{sfn|Sekida|1985|pp=196–197}} and St. Paul.{{sfn|Sekida|1985|p=251}} See also McMahan for the influence of Christian thought on Buddhism.{{sfn|McMahan|2008}}}}
 
====Criticism====
The notion of "experience" has been criticised.{{sfn|Sharf|1995a}}{{sfn|Mohr|2000|pp=282-286}}{{sfn|Low|2006|p=12}} Robert Sharf points out that "experience" is a typical Western term, which has found its way into Asian religiosity via western influences.{{sfn|Sharf|1995a}}{{refn|group=note|Robert Sharf: "[T]he role of experience in the history of Buddhism has been greatly exaggerated in contemporary scholarship. Both historical and ethnographic evidence suggests that the privileging of experience may well be traced to certain twentieth-century reform movements, notably those that urge a return to ''[[zazen]]'' or ''[[vipassana]]'' meditation, and these reforms were profoundly influenced by religious developments in the west [...] While some adepts may indeed experience "altered states" in the course of their training, critical analysis shows that such states do not constitute the reference point for the elaborate Buddhist discourse pertaining to the "path".{{sfn|Sharf|1995b|p=1}}}}
 
Insight is not the "experience" of some transcendental reality, but is a cognitive event, the (intuitive) understanding or "grasping" of some specific understanding of reality, as in [[kensho]]{{sfn|Hori|2000}} or [[anubhava]].{{sfn|Comans|1993}}
 
"Pure experience" does not exist; all experience is mediated by intellectual and cognitive activity.{{sfn|Mohr|2000|p=282}}{{sfn|Samy|1998|pp=80-82}} A pure consciousness without concepts, reached by "cleaning the doors of perception",{{refn|group=note|[[William Blake]]: "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thru' narrow chinks of his cavern."<ref group=web>[http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/2653 Quote DB]</ref>}} would be an overwhelming chaos of sensory input without coherence.{{sfn|Mohr|2000|p=284}}
 
===Nondual consciousness as common essence===
 
====Common essence====
A main modern proponent of perennialism was [[Aldous Huxley]], who was influenced by [[Swami Vivekananda|Vivekanda's]] [[Neo-Vedanta]] and [[Universalism]].{{sfn|Roy|2003}} This popular approach finds supports in the "common-core thesis". According to the "common-core thesis",{{sfn|Spilka e.a.|2003|pp=321–325}} different descriptions can mask quite similar if not identical experiences:{{sfn|Spilka e.a.|2003|p=321}}
 
According to Elias Amidon there is an "indescribable, but definitely recognizable, reality that is the ground of all being."{{sfn|Amidon|2012|p=4}} According to Renard, these are based on an experience or intuition of "the Real".{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=59}} According to Amidon, this reality is signified by "many names" from "spiritual traditions throughout the world":{{sfn|Amidon|2012|p=4}}
{{quote|[N]ondual awareness, pure awareness, open awareness, presence-awareness, unconditioned mind, [[rigpa]], primordial experience, This, the basic state, the sublime, [[buddhanature]], original nature, [[Sahaja|spontaneous presence]], the oneness of being, the ground of being, the Real, clarity, God-consciousness, divine light, the clear light, illumination, realization and enlightenment.{{sfn|Amidon|2012|p=4}}}}
 
According to Renard, nondualism as common essence prefers the term "nondualism", instead of [[monism]], because this understanding is "nonconceptual", "not graspapable in an idea".{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=59}}{{refn|group=note|In Dutch: "Niet in een denkbeeld te vatten".{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=59}}}} Even to call this "ground of reality", "One", or "Oneness" is attributing a characteristic to that ground of reality. [[Apophasis|The only thing that can be said]] is that it is "not two" or "non-dual":<ref group=web>[http://www.swamij.com/pdf/nondualism-paper-101105.pdf Swami Jnaneshvara, ''Faces of Nondualism'']</ref>{{sfn|Anderson|2009|p=xvi}} According to Renard, [[Alan Watts]] has been one of the main contributors to the popularisation of the non-monistic understanding of "nondualism".{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=59}}{{refn|group=note|According to Renard, [[Alan Watts]] has explained the difference between "non-dualism" and "monism" in ''The Supreme Identity'', Faber and Faber 1950, pp. 69, 95; ''The Way of Zen'', Pelican-edition 1976, pp. 59-60.{{sfn|Renard|2010|pp=59, 285 note 17}}}}
 
====Criticism====
The "common-core thesis" is criticised by "diversity theorists" such as S.T Katz and W. Proudfoot.{{sfn|Spilka e.a.|2003|p=321}} They argue that
{{quote|[N]o unmediated experience is possible, and that in the extreme, language is not simply used to interpret experience but in fact constitutes experience.{{sfn|Spilka e.a.|2003|p=321}}}}
 
The idea of a common essence has been questioned by Yandell, who discerns various "religious experiences" and their corresponding doctrinal settings, which differ in structure and phenomenological content, and in the "evidential value" they present.{{sfn|Yandell|1994|pp=19–23}} Yandell discerns five sorts:{{sfn|Yandell|1994|pp=23–31}}
# [[Numinous]] experiences – [[Monotheism]] (Jewish, Christian, Vedantic){{sfn|Yandell|1994|pp=24–26}}
# [[Nirvana|Nirvanic]] experiences – [[Buddhism]],{{sfn|Yandell|1994|pp=24–25, 26–27}} "according to which one sees that the self is but [[Anatta|a bundle of fleeting states]]"{{sfn|Yandell|1994|pp=24–25}}
# [[Kevala Jnana|Kevala]] experiences{{sfn|Yandell|1994|p=30}} – [[Jainism]],{{sfn|Yandell|1994|p=25}} "according to which one sees the self as an indestructible subject of experience"{{sfn|Yandell|1994|p=25}}
# [[Moksha]] experiences{{sfn|Yandell|1994|p=29}} – Hinduism,{{sfn|Yandell|1994|p=25}} Brahman "either as a cosmic person, or, quite differently, as qualityless"{{sfn|Yandell|1994|p=25}}
# Nature mystical experience{{sfn|Yandell|1994|p=30}}
 
The specific teachings and practices of a specific tradition may determine what "experience" someone has, which means that this "experience" is not the ''proof'' of the teaching, but a ''result'' of the teaching.{{sfn|Samy|1998|p=80}} The notion of what exactly constitutes "liberating insight" varies between the various traditions, and even within the traditions. Bronkhorst for example notices that the conception of what exactly "liberating insight" is in Buddhism was developed over time. Whereas originally it may not have been specified, later on the Four Truths served as such, to be superseded by ''pratityasamutpada'', and still later, in the Hinayana schools, by the doctrine of the non-existence of a substantial self or person.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|pp=100-101}} And Schmithausen notices that still other descriptions of this "liberating insight" exist in the Buddhist canon.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|p=101}}
 
===Phenomenology===
Nondual awareness, also called pure consciousness or awareness,{{sfn|Gamma|Metzinger|2021}} contentless consciousness,{{sfn|Srinivasan|2020}} consciousness-as-such,{{sfn|Josipovic|2018}} and Minimal Phenomenal Experience,{{sfn|Gamma|Metzinger|2021}} is a topic of phenomenological research. As described in Samkhya-Yoga and other systems of meditation, and referred to as, for example, Turya and Atman,{{sfn|Fasching|2008}}{{sfn|Srinivasan|2020}} pure awareness manifests in advanced states of meditation.{{sfn|Fasching|2008}}{{sfn|Gamma|Metzinger|2021}} Pure consciousness is distinguished from the workings of the mind, and "consists in nothing but the being seen of what is seen."{{sfn|Fasching|2008}} Gamma & Metzinger (2021) present twelve factors in their phenomenological analysis of pure awareness experienced by meditators, including luminosity; emptiness and non-egoic self-awareness; and witness-consciousness.{{sfn|Gamma|Metzinger|2021}}
 
==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
'''Various'''
* [[Abheda]]
* [[Acosmism]] (belief that the world is illusory)
* [[Anatta]] (Belief that there is no self)
* [[Cosmic Consciousness]]
* [[Emanationism]]
* [[Henosis]] (Union with the absolute)
* [[Deconstruction]], which may oppose binary pairs of opposed opposites
* [[Holism]]
* [[Kenosis]] (Self-emptying)
* [[Maya (illusion)]] (Cosmic illusion)
* [[Monad (philosophy)]]
* [[Monism]]
* [[Neo-Advaita]]
* [[Nihilism]]
* [[Nirguna Brahman]]
* [[Oceanic feeling]]
* [[Open individualism]]
* [[Panentheism]]
* [[Pantheism]] (Belief that God and the world are identical)
* [[Pluralism (metaphysics)]]
* [[Process Psychology]]
* [[Radical orthodoxy]], a postmodern theological school in [[Anglo-Catholic]] circles that "resists any neat dualism between the sacred and the secular"
* [[Rigpa]]
* [[Shuddhadvaita]]
* [[Solipsism]]
* [[Sunyata]] (Emptiness).
* [[Turiya]]
* [[Yanantin]] (Complementary dualism in Native South American culture)
'''Metaphors for nondualisms'''
* [[Indra's net|Jewel Net of Indra]], ''[[Avatamsaka Sutra]]''
* [[Blind men and an elephant]]
* [[Eclipse]]
* [[Garden of Eden]]
* [[Hermaphrodite]], e.g. [[Ardhanārīśvara]]
* [[Mirror]] and [[Reflection (physics)|reflections]], as a metaphor for the continuum of the subject-object in the mirror-the-mind and the interiority of perception and its illusion of projected exteriority
* [[Great Rite]]
* [[Sacred marriage]]
{{div col end}}
 
== Notes ==
{{reflist|group=note|2}}
 
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{{div col end}}
{{refend}}
 
;Web-sources
{{reflist|group=web| refs=
<!-- Bryant2010_IEP -->
<ref group=web name=Bryant2010_IEP>Edwin Bryant (2011, Rutgers University), [http://www.iep.utm.edu/yoga/ ''The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali''] IEP</ref>
<!-- "Undivided" -->
<ref group=web name="Undivided">{{Cite web |url=http://undividedjournal.com/about-the-journal/ |title=Undivided Journal, ''About the Journal'' |access-date=30 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823200254/http://undividedjournal.com/about-the-journal/ |archive-date=23 August 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
}}
 
==Further reading==
'''General'''
* {{Citation | last =Katz | first =Jerry | year =2007 | title =One: Essential Writings on Nonduality | publisher =Sentient Publications | ref = {{sfnref|Katz|2007a}}}}
* {{Citation | last =Loy | first =David | year =1988 | title =Nonduality: A Study in Comparative Philosophy | place =New Haven, Conn | publisher =Yale University Press | isbn =1-57392-359-1 | ref = {{sfnref|Loy|1988a}}}}
* {{Citation | last =Renard | first =Philip | year =2010 | title =Non-Dualisme. De directe bevrijdingsweg | place =Cothen | publisher =Uitgeverij Juwelenschip |ref={{sfnref|Renard|2010a}}}}
* {{Citation | last =Taft | first =Michael | year =2014 | title =Nondualism: A Brief History of a Timeless Concept | publisher =Cephalopod Rex | ref = {{sfnref|Taft|2014a}}}}
 
'''Orientalism'''
* {{Citation | last =King | first =Richard | year =2002 | title =Orientalism and Religion: Post-Colonial Theory, India and "The Mystic East" | publisher =Routledge | ref = {{sfnref|King|2002a}}}}
 
'''Buddhism'''
* {{Citation | last =Kalupahana | first =David J. | year =1994 | title =A history of Buddhist philosophy | place =Delhi | publisher =Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited | ref = {{sfnref|Kalupahana|1994a}}}}
* {{Citation | last =Newland | first =Guy | year =2008 | title =Introduction to Emptiness: As Taught in Tsong-kha-pa's Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path | publisher =Ithaca}}
 
'''Advaita Vedanta'''
* {{Citation | last =Sarma | first =Chandradhar | year =1996 | title =The Advaita Tradition in Indian Philosophy | place =Delhi | publisher =Motilal Banarsidass | ref = {{sfnref|Sarma|1996a}}}}
 
==External links==
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;Madhyamaka
* Susan Kahn, ''[http://emptinessteachings.com/2014/09/11/the-two-truths-of-buddhism-and-the-emptiness-of-emptiness/ The Two Truths of Buddhism and The Emptiness of Emptiness]''
* Patrick Jennings, ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20150518074106/http://thenonbuddhist.com/2014/01/12/tsongkhapa-in-praise-of-relativity-the-essence-of-eloquence/ Tsongkhapa: In Praise of Relativity; The Essence of Eloquence]''
* [http://www.emptiness.co/ Emptiness, Buddhist and Beyond]
 
;Rangtong-shentong
* {{cite web |first=Nigel |last=Wellings |year=2009 |title=Is there anything there? – the Tibetan Rangtong Shentong debate |url=https://bath-bristol-mindfulness-courses.co.uk/is-there-anything-there-the-tibetan-rangtong-shentong-debate/}}
* Acharya Mahayogi Sridhar Rana Rinpoche, [https://web.archive.org/web/20150311142817/http://www.byomakusuma.org/Teachings/VedantaVisAVisShentong.aspx Vedanta vis-a-vis Shentong]
* Alexander Berin, [https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/lam-rim/vipashyana/self-voidness-and-other-voidness ''Self-Voidness and Other Voidness'']
 
;Advaita Vedanta
* {{curlie|Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Advaita_Vedanta/|Advaita Vedanta}}
* [http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-AN/26715.htm David Loy, ''Enlightenment in Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta: Are Nirvana and Moksha the Same?'']
* [http://vedantahub.org Vedanta Hub] – resources to help with the Study and Practice of Advaita Vedanta
 
;Comparison of Advaita and Buddhism
* [http://studybuddhism.com/web/en/archives/study/asian_non-buddhist_traditions/indian_non-buddhist_traditions/nonduality_buddhism_advaita_vedanta.html Alexander Berzin, Study Buddhism, ''Nonduality in Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta'']
* [http://davidpaulboaz.org/wordpress/unbounded-wholeness-dzogchen-and-advaita-vedanta-in-a-postmodern-world/ David Paul Boaz, ''Unbounded Wholeness: Dzogchen and Advaita Vedanta in a Postmodern World'']
* [https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/19643 Eric T. Reynolds, ''On the relationship of Advaita Vedānta and Mādhyamika Buddhism'']
 
;Hesychasm
* [http://nondualcafe.blogspot.nl/2014/02/on-hesychasm-and-eastern-christian.html On Hesychasm and Eastern Christian mysticism]
 
;Nondual consciousness
* [http://nonduality.com/index.html nonduality.com]
* [http://www.nondualitymagazine.org/nondualitymagazine.2/index.htm Non-duality Magazine]
* [http://undividedjournal.com/ Undivided. The Online Journal of Nonduality and Psychology]
* [http://www3.telus.net/public/sarlo/RatingsN.htm Sarlo's Guru Rating Service: list of nondual teachers]
* [http://www.advaita.org.uk/resources/western.htm advaita.org.uk, ''Western Teachers and Writers'']
* [http://www.swamij.com/pdf/nondualism-paper-101105.pdf Swami Jnaneshvara, ''Faces of Nondualism'']
 
;Criticism
* [http://afternonduality.com/ After Non Duality]
* [http://jedmckenna.wordpress.com/non-dualist-fundamentalism/ Jed McKenna, ''Non-Dualist Fundamentalism'']
* [http://www.integralworld.net/desilet2.html Gregory Desilet, ''Derrida and Nonduality'']
 
{{belief systems}}
{{philosophy of religion}}
{{Philosophy topics}}
{{Universalism footer}}
 
[[Category:Nondualism| ]]
[[Category:Advaita]]
[[Category:Neo-Vedanta]]
[[Category:Eastern philosophy]]
[[Category:Buddha-nature]]
[[Category:Philosophy of religion]]
[[Category:Monism]]
[[Category:Pluralism (philosophy)]]
[[Category:Postmodern theory]]

Latest revision as of 13:37, 9 August 2023

Nondualism refers to any kind of thought or philosophy that claims to transcend various forms of dualism, the major one being nonduality.

Eastern traditions[edit | edit source]

In the context of Hindu Vedanta philosophy, "non-dualism" (Sanskrit: advaita) refers to various traditions, including:

In the context of other Hindu traditions, it may also refer to:

In the context of Mahayana Buddhism, non-duality (Sanskrit: advaya) can refer to various views on the nature of reality, such as:

In the context of East Asian religion, non-dualism may refer to some Daoist philosophical views which hold that everything partakes of the Dao

Western traditions[edit | edit source]

In the context of Abrahamic religions, "non-duality" may refer to some views such as:

In the context of Western philosophy, the term may refer to:

In the context of modern spirituality, it may refer to:

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