Nondualism

AntiquityIranVedic philosophyPersonsTopicsShaivism/Tantra/NathKashmir ShaivismKashmir ShaivismModern Advaita VedantaHinduismModern Advaita VedantaAn ocean is that one seer, without any duality ; 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.... teaches that the multiplicity of the universe is reducible to one essential reality.'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.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.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.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.SaiddhantikaD. Does Sri Bhagavan advocate advaita?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.It is in all beings wordless, speechless, shows no signs, is not possible of cognizance, and is above all questioning and answering. 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.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.The limit (koti) of nirvāṇa is that of saṃsāraThe subtlest difference is not found between the two.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.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).With respect to its having a name, the various names that are applied to it are inconceivable (in their numbers).Some call it 'the nature of the mind' or 'mind itself.'Some Tirthikas call it by the name Atman or 'the Self.'The Sravakas call it the doctrine of Anatman or 'the absence of a self.'The Chittamatrins call it by the name Chitta or 'the Mind.'Some call it the Prajnaparamita or 'the Perfection of Wisdom.'Some call it the name Tathagata-garbha or 'the embryo of Buddhahood.'Some call it by the name Mahamudra or 'the Great Symbol.'Some call it by the name 'the Unique Sphere.'Some call it by the name Dharmadhatu or 'the dimension of Reality.'Some call it by the name Alaya or 'the basis of everything.'And some simply call it by the name 'ordinary awareness.'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.ondual awareness, pure awareness, open awareness, presence-awareness, unconditioned mind, rigpa, primordial experience, This, the basic state, the sublime, buddhanature, original nature, spontaneous presence, the oneness of being, the ground of being, the Real, clarity, God-consciousness, divine light, the clear light, illumination, realization and enlightenment.o unmediated experience is possible, and that in the extreme, language is not simply used to interpret experience but in fact constitutes experience.Various...when you realize that the nature of your mind and the niverse are nondual, you are enlightened. In spirituality, nondualism, also called non-duality, means 'not two' or 'one undivided without a second'. Nondualism primarily refers to a mature state of consciousness, in which the dichotomy of I-other is 'transcended', and awareness is described as 'centerless' and 'without dichotomies'. Although this state of consciousness may seem to appear spontaneous, it usually follows prolonged preparation through ascetic or meditative/contemplative practice, which may include ethical injunctions. While the term 'nondualism' is derived from Advaita Vedanta, descriptions of nondual consciousness can be found within Hinduism (Turiya, sahaja), Buddhism (emptiness, pariniṣpanna, rigpa), Islam (Wahdat al Wujud, Fanaa, and Haqiqah) and western Christian and neo-Platonic traditions (henosis, mystical union). The Asian idea of nondualism is developed in the Vedic and post-Vedic Hindu philosophies, as well as in the Buddhist traditions. The oldest traces of nondualism in Indian thought are found in the earlier Hindu Upanishads such as Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, as well as other pre-Buddhist Upanishads such as the Chandogya Upanishad, which emphasizes the unity of individual soul called Atman and the Supreme called Brahman. In Hinduism, nondualism has more commonly become associated with the Advaita Vedanta tradition of Adi Shankara. In the Buddhist tradition non-duality is associated with the teachings of emptiness (śūnyatā) and the two truths doctrine, particularly the Madhyamaka teaching of the non-duality of absolute and relative truth, and the Yogachara notion of 'mind/thought only' (citta-matra) or 'representation-only' (vijñaptimātra). These teachings, coupled with the doctrine of Buddha-nature have been influential concepts in the subsequent development of Mahayana Buddhism, not only in India, but also in East Asian and Tibetan Buddhism, most notably in Chán (Zen) and Vajrayana. Western Neo-Platonism is an essential element of both Christian contemplation and mysticism, and of Western esotericism and modern spirituality, especially Unitarianism, Transcendentalism, Universalism and Perennialism. When referring to nondualism, Hinduism generally uses the Sanskrit term Advaita, while Buddhism uses Advaya (Tibetan: gNis-med, Chinese: pu-erh, Japanese: fu-ni). 'Advaita' (अद्वैत) is from Sanskrit roots a, not; dvaita, dual, and is usually translated as 'nondualism', 'nonduality' and 'nondual'. The term 'nondualism' and the term 'advaita' from which it originates are polyvalent terms. The English word's origin is the Latin duo meaning 'two' prefixed with 'non-' meaning 'not'. '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 Buddhism, especially Madhyamaka. 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 CE). The term appears in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad in the section with a discourse of the oneness of Atman (individual soul) and Brahman (universal consciousness), as follows: