Originally Posted by Moondance

Hi JASG

I’m enjoying many of your posts here. But I would take issue with the statement that ‘consciousness is fundamental’ is the core tenet of non-dualism. True enough, it IS the core of Advaita Vedanta. Understandably people often assume that Advaita and non-duality are synonyms (a-dvaita literally means non-duality.) Yet although Advaita certainly IS non-dualism, non-dualism is not necessarily Advaita Vedanta. The term (non-duality) can be applied to a wider domain of traditions, sub-traditions and philosophical perspectives.

A nondualist/absolute monist outlook is simply to attribute Oneness/not-two-ness or singleness to reality (it’s not necessarily to formulate what the ’substance’ or essence of that Oneness is.) Pantheism, for instance, is the view that everything is God/Nature. Buddhist, Madhyamaka describes the nature of reality as Emptiness - which is inseparable from all conceivable forms and conditions. This is sometimes interpreted as a monist view although Buddhist deny any form of ultimate reality. Taoism is similar to Pantheism in that it describes the primacy of a singular unifying force. Nondualistic thought can be found in much Christian mysticism and Neoplatonism. Even materialism can be described in nondualistic (or absolute monist - ultimately the same thing) terms:

“Materialism is a form of philosophical monism that holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materialism, mind and consciousness are by-products or epiphenomena of material processes (such as the biochemistry of the human brain and nervous system), without which they cannot exist. This concept directly contrasts with idealism, where mind and consciousness are first-order realities to which matter is subject and material interactions are secondary.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materialism