Absolute (philosophy) and Related Topics

The School of Athens (1509–1511) by Raphael, depicting famous classical Greek philosophers in an idealized setting inspired by ancient Greek architecture.

Transcendence (philosophy)

Basic ground concept from the word's literal meaning , of climbing or going beyond, albeit with varying connotations in its different historical and cultural stages.

It is affirmed in various religious traditions' concept of the divine, which contrasts with the notion of a god (or, the Absolute) that exists exclusively in the physical order (immanentism), or indistinguishable from it (pantheism).

Nondualism

The layman Vimalakīrti Debates Manjusri, Dunhuang Mogao Caves

Nagarjuna (right), Aryadeva (middle) and the Tenth Karmapa (left).

Asaṅga (fl. 4th century C.E.), a Mahayana scholar who wrote numerous works which discuss the Yogacara view and practice.

Saṃvara with Vajravārāhī in Yab-Yum. These tantric Buddhist depictions of sexual union symbolize the non-dual union of compassion and emptiness.

A 3D rendering of Indra's net, an illustration of the Huayan concept of interpenetration.

Ramanuja, founder of Vishishtadvaita Vedanta, taught 'qualified nondualism' doctrine.

Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) explained his insight using Shaiva Siddhanta, Advaita Vedanta and Yoga teachings.

The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine, St John the Baptist, St Antony Abbot

In spirituality, nondualism, also called nonduality and interconnectedness; and nondual awareness, is a fuzzy concept for which many definitions can be found, including: a rejection of dualistic thinking originating in Indian philosophy; the nondifference of subject and object; the common identity of metaphysical phenomena and the Absolute; the "nonduality of duality and nonduality"; the unity of God and man; or simply monism, the nonplurality of the world, or double-aspect theory.

Brahman

In Hinduism, Brahman (ब्रह्मन्) connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality in the universe.

A drop in the ocean: an analogy for Ātman merging into Brahman.

Swan (Hansa, हंस) is the symbol for Brahman-Atman in Hindu iconography.

Brahman is discussed in Hindu texts with the concept of Atman (आत्मन्), (Self), personal, impersonal or Para Brahman, or in various combinations of these qualities depending on the philosophical school.

Parmenides was among the first to propose an ontological characterization of the fundamental nature of reality.

Absolute idealism

Ontologically monistic philosophy chiefly associated with G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Schelling, both of whom were German idealist philosophers in the 19th century.

A form of idealism, absolute idealism is Hegel's account of how being is ultimately comprehensible as an all-inclusive whole (das Absolute).

F. H. Bradley, the most famous British idealist

British idealism

Philosophical movement that was influential in Britain from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century.

British idealism was generally marked by several broad tendencies: a belief in an Absolute (a single all-encompassing reality that in some sense formed a coherent and all-inclusive system); the assignment of a high place to reason as both the faculty by which the Absolute's structure is grasped and as that structure itself; and a fundamental unwillingness to accept a dichotomy between thought and object, reality consisting of thought-and-object together in a strongly coherent unity.

The hand symbolizes Ahiṃsā, the wheel dharmachakra, the resolve to halt saṃsāra (transmigration).

Jainism

Ancient Indian religion.

Classification of Saṃsāri Jīvas (transmigrating souls) in Jainism

Lord Neminatha, Akota Bronzes (7th century)

Jain miniature painting of 24 tirthankaras, Jaipur, c. 1850

Jain temple painting explaining Anekantavada with Blind men and an elephant

A Jain monk in meditation, wearing the characteristic white robe and face covering

Nishidhi stone, depicting the vow of sallekhana, 14th century, Karnataka

Praying at the feet of a statue of Bahubali

Jain worship may include ritual offerings and recitals.

Celebrating Das Lakshana (Paryushana), Jain Center of America, New York City

The birth of Mahavira, from the Kalpa Sūtra (c.1375–1400 CE)

A symbol to represent the Jain community was chosen in 1975 as part of the commemoration of the 2,500th anniversary of Mahavira’s nirvana.

Rishabhdev, believed to have lived over 592.704×1018 years ago, is considered the traditional founder of Jainism.

The ruins of Gori Jain temples in Nagarparkar, Pakistan, a pilgrimage site before 1947.

Saavira Kambada Basadi, Moodbidri, Karnataka

According to him, the "many pointedness, multiple perspective" teachings of the Mahāvīra is about the nature of absolute reality and human existence.

Nāgārjuna (right) and Āryadeva (middle).

Madhyamaka

Madhyamaka ("middle way" or "centrism"; ; Tibetan: དབུ་མ་པ ; dbu ma pa) also known as śūnyavāda (the emptiness doctrine) and niḥsvabhāvavāda (the no svabhāva doctrine) refers to a tradition of Buddhist philosophy and practice founded by the Indian philosopher Nāgārjuna (c.

Thangkha with Jonang lama Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292–1361)

Gorampa Sonam Senge, the most important madhyamaka philosopher in Sakya

Jamgön Ju Mipham Gyatso (1846–1912), a key exponent of madhyamaka thought in the Nyingma school, known for harmonizing madhyamaka with the dzogchen view.

A painting of Kumārajīva at White Horse Pagoda, Dunhuang

According to Paul Williams, Nāgārjuna associates emptiness with the ultimate truth but his conception of emptiness is not some kind of Absolute, but rather it is the very absence of true existence with regards to the conventional reality of things and events in the world.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

German philosopher.

The birthplace of Hegel in Stuttgart, which now houses the Hegel Museum

"Hegel and Napoleon in Jena" (illustration from Harper's Magazine, 1895), whose meeting became proverbial due to Hegel's notable use of Weltseele ("world-soul") in reference to Napoleon ("the world-soul on horseback", die Weltseele zu Pferde)

Hegel with his Berlin students Sketch by Franz Kugler

Hegel understood the history of philosophy to be a trans-historical Socratic argument concerning the identity of the Absolute.

The tree of life as represented in the Kabbalah, containing the Sephiroth.

Perennial philosophy

Perspective in philosophy and spirituality that views all of the world's religious traditions as sharing a single, metaphysical truth or origin from which all esoteric and exoteric knowledge and doctrine has grown.

The Traditionalist School discerns a transcendent and an immanent dimension, namely the discernment of the Real or Absolute, c.q. that which is permanent; and the intentional "mystical concentration on the Real".

Moses Indignant at the Golden Calf by William Blake, 1799–1800

Idolatry

Worship of a cult image or "idol" as though it were god.

Moses breaks the Ten Commandments in response to the golden calf worship in this 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld.

A 1768 synagogue parchment with the Ten Commandments by Jekuthiel Sofer. Among other things, it prohibits idolatry

St. Benedict destroying a pagan idol, by Juan Rizi (1600–1681)

Pope Pius V praying with a crucifix, painting by August Kraus

The veneration of images of Mary is called Marian devotion (above: Lithuania), a practice questioned in the majority of Protestant Christianity.

Altar with Christian Bible and crucifix on it, in a Lutheran Protestant church

An expression of reverence to Gomateshwara statue in Jainism.

Inti Raymi, a winter solstice festival of the Inca people, reveres Inti – the sun deity. Offerings include round bread and maize beer.

The Aztec Tula Atlantean statues (above) have been called as symbols of idolatry, but may have just been stone images of warriors.

In many Indian religions, such as theistic and non-theistic forms of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, idols (murti) are considered as symbolism for the absolute but not The Absolute, or icons of spiritual ideas, or the embodiment of the divine.