Advaita Vedanta

Although I'm a Buddhist and don't see things in a theistic way, the teachings of Advaita Vedanta still resonate deeply with me. A very useful philosophy that can incorporate Christian and Eastern ideals without surrendering your existing beliefs.


Excerpts from: Realization.org: Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta

An introduction to Hinduism's most influential philosophy, with recommendations for further reading and links.

ADVAITA VEDANTA is the most influential Hindu philosophy. Like all forms of Vedanta, it attempts to synthesize the teachings of the Upanishads into a single coherent doctrine. Unlike other forms of Vedanta, it teaches that there is only one real thing in the universe and that everything else is illusory.

Advaita Vedanta is closely associated with Jñana Yoga, the yoga of knowledge.

People sometimes refer to Advaita Vedanta by other names including nondualism, nonduality, monism, Mayavada, or the Sankara School. People also sometimes abbreviate the name to "Advaita" or "Vedanta."
In this article, we'll call it Advaita.

The Main Ideas of Advaita Vedanta
According to Advaita, only the innermost part of you is aware or conscious. No other part of you can feel or see or know anything. The name in Sanskrit for this awareness is atman. It's the part of you that's really you, and it corresponds to the soul in Western philosophy.

Now here's where it gets interesting. According to Advaita, your atman (and mine and everybody's) is the same as the underlying absolute reality of the whole universe, which is called Brahman. Brahman corresponds to the Western idea of God, except that it isn't a a super-powerful person. It's impersonal; it's the source of everything; it's what the universe really is.

In short, your inner self â?? the true "me" â?? is God.

This idea, which is the fundamental idea of the Upanishads on which Advaita is based, can be expressed in the form of an equation:
Atman = Brahman

Or, in Western terms:

Soul = God.

What distinguishes Advaita from other interpretations of the Upanishads is this: Advaita asserts that since there is only one Brahman, there is only one Atman. There's only one "me" and we all share it. We're all one "thing" â?? Brahman.

Moreover, only Brahman is real. The other things in the universe, like bicycles and umbrellas and our bodies, are maya. Maya is illusory because it seems to be different from Brahman but it's not. Since maya misleads us in this way, and because it's impermanent, Advaita says that maya is unreal.

The most important way that maya fools us is with regard to our selves. We think we are our bodies, our thoughts, our desires, and so forth. But those things are maya. They seem to be "me" but this is an illusion. Actually, our awareness (the part that is really "me") is something else: Brahman.

This is an enormously strange and radical idea. It means that you aren't you; you aren't any kind of person, really. You are the supreme reality that underlies the entire universe. The person who seems to be in your head, the person you believe yourself to be, is merely a psychological illusion.

Why Does This Matter?
Advaita Vedanta is important because by understanding it, you may be able to come closer to self-realization. In fact, by making the effort to understand it, you are engaging in Jñana Yoga, the yoga of knowledge, one of the traditional methods of attaining enlightenment.

Worth visiting the site for more links on the subject.

MelT