Nondualism

Nondualism, also called non-duality, ""points to the idea that the universe and all its multiplicity are ultimately expressions or appearances of one essential reality."" It is a term and concept used to define various strands of religious and spiritual thought. It is found in a variety of Asian religious traditions and modern western spirituality, but with a variety of meanings and uses. The term may refer to: advaya, the nonduality of conventional and ultimate truth in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition; it says that there is no difference between the relative world and ""absolute"" reality; advaita, the non-difference of Ātman and Brahman or the Absolute; it is best known from Advaita Vedanta, but can also be found in Kashmir Shaivism, popular teachers like Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj, and in the Buddha-nature of the Buddhist tradition; ""nondual consciousness"", the non-duality of subject and object; this can be found in modern spirituality.Its Asian origins are situated within both the Vedic and the Buddhist tradition and developed from the Upanishadic period onward. The oldest traces of nondualism in Indian thought may be found in the Chandogya Upanishad, which pre-dates the earliest Buddhism, while the Buddhist tradition added the highly influential teachings of śūnyatā; the two truths doctrine, the nonduality of the absolute and the relative truth; and the Yogacara notion of ""pure consciousness"" or ""representation-only"" (vijñaptimātra).The term has more commonly become associated with the Advaita Vedanta tradition of Adi Shankara, which took over the Buddhist notions of anutpada and pure consciousness but gave it an ontological interpretation, and provided an orthodox hermeneutical basis for heterodox Buddhist phenomology. Advaita Vedanta states that there is no difference between Brahman and Ātman, and that Brahman is ajativada, ""unborn,"" a stance which is also reflected in other Indian traditions, such as Shiva Advaita and Kashmir Shaivism.Vijñapti-mātra and the two truths doctrine, coupled with the concept of Buddha-nature, have also been influential concepts in the subsequent development of Mahayana Buddhism, not only in India, but also in China and Tibet, most notably the Chán (Zen) and Dzogchen traditions.The western origins are situated within Western esotericism, especially Swedenborgianism, Unitarianism, Transcendentalism and the idea of religious experience as a valid means of knowledge of a transcendental reality. Universalism and Perennialism are another important strand of thought, as reflected in various strands of modern spirituality, New Age and Neo-Advaita, where the ""primordial, natural awareness without subject or object"" is seen as the essence of a variety of religious traditions.