Tag Archives: Saguna Brahman

The Sacred Doctrine of Brahman and Absolute Nothingness in Advaita Vedānta (Part One)

Posted on October 9, 2025 by Vajragoni
  1. Setting the Stage: Advaita’s Vision of Reality

If Unborn Mind Zen offers us the language of Suchness and the Unborn, Advaita Vedānta offers us a parallel but distinct vocabulary: Brahman, the Absolute. For Advaita, the ultimate aim of human life is not simply liberation from suffering, but the realization that one’s deepest Self (Ātman) is identical with Brahman, the unconditioned ground of being. read more

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Brahman and Absolute Nothingness in Advaita

Posted on October 3, 2025 by Vajragoni

The Opening Invocation of Brahman

To speak of Brahman is already to fall short. In the Advaita Vedānta tradition, Brahman is the infinite, eternal, unchanging reality that underlies and transcends all phenomena. The Upaniṣads describe it not as an object of thought, not as something to be grasped through senses or concepts, but as pure being-consciousness-bliss (sat–cit–ānanda). Yet even these words are provisional; the sages warn that Brahman is beyond predicate, beyond category, beyond affirmation, and even beyond negation. read more

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Śaṅkara

Posted on March 3, 2023 by Vajragoni

Before the continuation of our series, reference needs to be made to the most renowned exponent of the Advaita Vedanta school of philosophy, Adi Śaṅkara (700-750 CE), since we shall be utilizing from time to time his commentary on the Māṇḍukya Kārikā. Some have placed his death at 32 years of age but the dates, 700-750, grounded in modern scholarship, are more widely acceptable. He wrote numerous works during his brief stay on this earth, but his monumental work, Brahmasūtrabhāṣya , is considered to be second to none in Indian metaphysics. His teacher was Govinda, who in turn was originally taught by Gauḍapāda. His primary assent to truth is psychological and religious rather than logical; thus, he is perhaps best known as a prominent religious teacher rather than a philosopher in today’s modern terminology. read more

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