Advaita Vedanta

1. Brahman: The Experience of Timeless Plenitude

Brahman is ultimately a name for the experience of the timeless plenitude of being.

Beyond Definition. Brahman is not a personal being or an impersonal concept, but a state of being experienced when subject/object distinctions vanish. It's designated as saccidananda: being (sat), consciousness (cit), and bliss (ananda), which are not attributes but terms expressing the apprehension of Brahman.

Phenomenological Basis. Brahman is experienced as pure, unqualified being, the ontological principle of unity. Consciousness (cit) points to the principle of awareness, an unchanging witness. Bliss (ananda) signifies the principle of value, an ecstatic state annulling all partial values.

Via Negativa. Brahman defies description, characterized by "neti neti" (not this, not this). Language, rooted in phenomenal experience, is limited in expressing states beyond that experience. Logic, grounded in the mind's relation to the phenomenal order, cannot affirm what extends beyond it.

2. Subration: Disvaluing Experience Through Contradiction

Subration is the mental process whereby one disvalues some previously appraised object or content of consciousness because of its being contradicted by a new experience.

Rectifying Errors. Subration is the mental process of rectifying errors by disvaluing a previously appraised object or content of consciousness due to contradiction by a new experience. It involves rejecting an initial judgment and replacing it with a new one believed to conform with reality.

Axiological and Noetic Dimensions. Subration involves a judgment, recognition of its faultiness, and acceptance of a new judgment. It's an axio-noetic process, revising judgment so that the former is radically denied by a new one based on fresh insight or experience.

Ontological Distinctions. Subration serves as a criterion for making ontological distinctions. When something is subrated, it's believed to have a lesser degree or kind of "reality" than what takes its place. The more something can be subrated, the less reality it has.

3. Reality, Appearance, and Unreality: A Hierarchy of Being

Reality is that which cannot be subrated by any other experience.

Non-Subratable Content. Reality is that which cannot be disvaluated, denied, or contradicted by anything else. It's the "content" disclosed in the highest form of human experience, transcending the "human" in any narrow sense.

Spiritual Identity. The only experience whose content cannot be subrated is pure spiritual identity, where the separation of self and non-self is transcended. This experience is celebrated as one of perfect insight, bliss, and power.

Appearance and Unreality. Appearance comprises experiences that can be subrated, while unreality is that which neither can nor cannot be subrated. This creates a hierarchy where Reality is incommensurable with Appearance and Unreality, valid only from the standpoint of rational-sense consciousness.

4. Maya: The World as a Pervasive Error

Whenever the "I," "me," or "mine" is present, according to Advaita, there also is maya.

Grounding in Error. The existence of an independent, substantial world of real objects, persons, and processes must be grounded in some pervasive error. We take the unreal for the real and the real for the unreal, which is maya.

Subject/Object Distinction. Maya is all experience constituted by and following from the distinction between subject and object, self and non-self. It's the ontic-noetic state where limitations are imposed upon Reality.

Beginningless and Indescribable. Maya is beginningless, unthinkable, and indescribable. It has the power of concealing reality and also of misrepresenting or distorting reality. The phenomenal world is maya, produced by maya, but not merely a figment of imagination.

5. Satkaryavada and Vivartavada: Cause and Manifestation

Those who think about creation . . . think that creation is the expansion of Isvara.

Effect in Cause. Advaita explains the relation between Brahman and the world in terms of satkaryavada, the theory that the effect pre-exists in its cause, with Brahman as the material and efficient cause. It also uses vivartavada, the theory that the effect is only an apparent manifestation of its cause.

Isvara's Sportive Activity. Isvara creates, sustains, and destroys worlds out of the sheer joy of doing so, a concept known as lila. This creative act is spontaneous, without any purpose, and removes all motive, purpose, and responsibility from Isvara.

Apparent Change. Creation is only apparent change, not a modification of Brahman in reality, hence vivartavada. From the standpoint of Brahman-experience, there is no creation; Reality is non-dual. The whole import of vivartavada is to bring the mind away from its involvement in maya.

6. Atman: The Pure, Undifferentiated Self

Silence is the Atman.

Beyond Labels. Atman is that pure, undifferentiated self-shining consciousness, timeless, spaceless, and unthinkable, that is not-different from Brahman and that underlies and supports the individual human person. It is a supreme power of awareness, transcendent to ordinary sense-mental consciousness, aware only of the Oneness of being.

Timeless and Spaceless. Atman is timeless, not subject to a "present" or an end in time. It is spaceless, as spatial relations hold only between objects of the empirical order. It is unthinkable, as thought functions only with forms, in multiplicity.

Not-Different from Brahman. Identity judgments such as "thou art that" (tat tvam asi) are not mere tautologies but concrete representations of a movement of thought from particularity to universality to unity. In the depth of my being, I am not-different from Reality.

7. Jiva: The Individual as a Combination of Reality and Appearance

We may call the jiva as a mere reflection of the Atman.

Reflection or Limitation. The individual human person, the jiva, is a combination of reality and appearance. It is "reality" so far as Atman is its ground; it is "appearance" so far as it is identified as finite, conditioned, relative.

Theories of Appearance. Two theories explain the status of the jiva: pratibimba-vada, the theory of reflection, where the jiva is a reflection of Atman on the mirror of avidya; and avaccheda-vada, the theory of limitation, where the jiva is a limitation of consciousness constituted by the upadhi of ignorance.

Phenomenology of Consciousness. The Advaitic analysis of the empirical self is primarily a "phenomenology" of consciousness, describing how we come to believe in the reality of an illusory appearance. It identifies states of consciousness from waking to deep sleep, each with its corresponding mis-identifications.

8. Karma: A Convenient Fiction for Moral Understanding

According as one acts, according as one conducts himself, so does he become.

Action and Consequence. According to the doctrine of karma, everyone is conditioned by their conduct over innumerable births, deaths, and rebirths. Every deed has its effect and forms a tendency that becomes the basis for future deeds.

Undemonstrable Law. For Advaita Vedanta, karma is a "convenient fiction," a theory that is undemonstrable but useful in interpreting experience. It cannot be secured by any of the pramanas or "means of valid knowledge."

Moral Preparation. Karma provides a ready means for instilling an awareness of being in bondage, which is necessary to inspire the quest for freedom. It persuades men to live a moral life by attaching tremendous importance to every moral act and decision.

9. Vidya and Avidya: The Higher and Lower Knowledge

There are two kinds of knowledge . . . the higher and the lower.

Incommensurable Knowledge. There are two kinds of knowledge: para vidya, the higher knowledge of the Absolute, and apara vidya, the lower knowledge of the world. These are incommensurable, as the higher knowledge is sui generis, reached intuitively and immediately.

Self-Certifying Insight. Para vidya possesses a unique quality of ultimacy that annuls any supposed ultimacy attached to other forms of knowledge. It is self-certifying, with no other form of lower knowledge capable of demonstrating or refuting it.

Justified Means. Until spiritual wisdom is attained, the lower hierarchy of knowledge holds good. The pramanas are justified as valid means of knowledge as long as they do not claim ultimacy for themselves.

10. Jnana-Yoga: The Path to Freedom Through Self-Knowledge

I teach you, but you understand not: silence is the Atman.

Positive Goal. Moksa, or freedom, is attained through the mental-spiritual discipline of jñana-yoga. It means attaining a state of "at-onement" with Reality and realizing the potentialities of man as a spiritual being.

Four Qualifications. The aspirant must possess the ability to discriminate, disregard sensuous pleasures, acquire mental tranquility, and have a positive longing for freedom and wisdom. These qualifications require a radical change in the natural direction of consciousness.

Three Stages. The three stages of jñana-yoga are "hearing," which involves acquaintance with the teachings of Advaita; "reflection," which involves rational reflection on these teachings; and "meditation," which involves the attainment of direct, intuitive insight into the nature of Reality.

Last updated: March 6, 2025