Skip to content
Unitive Knowledge Society
Search

Accents are optional; quotes find an exact phrase.
Menu

Concept

Nonduality

The claim that reality is ultimately not two.
Sanskrit, Advaita Vedānta
advaita अद्वैत
Sanskrit
advaya अद्वय

Definition

Nonduality names a family of views on which the apparent division between self and world, or knower and known, is not ultimate. The English word translates the Sanskrit advaita, “not two”, and the related advaya, which Buddhist texts use for the non-duality of opposites. The negative form matters: the claim is not that reality is one thing among many, but that the division into two is not final.

Nondual views differ in what they deny. Advaita Vedānta denies that the self is other than Brahman, and affirms Brahman as the one reality. Madhyamaka Buddhism denies that conventional and ultimate truth are two separate realms, without affirming any underlying substance. Christian and Islamic mystics sometimes speak of a union in which the distinction between soul and God is no longer experienced, while their theologies keep the distinction between creature and Creator.

Because these views differ in this way, Metanoia treats “nonduality” as the name of a question rather than of a single doctrine: in each case, what exactly is said to be not two, and in what sense?

In the traditions

Advaita Vedānta

The self and Brahman are not two. Difference is real for practical purposes and unreal in the last analysis.

Madhyamaka

Conventional and ultimate truth are not two separate realms; the ultimate is the emptiness of the conventional, not a substance behind it.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

There is one reality, Brahman, but it is internally differentiated: non-dual in that nothing exists apart from it, qualified in that selves and matter are real modes of it.

Questions

Authors

Cite this entry
Chicago (bibliography)

“Nonduality.” Concept. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/concepts/nonduality.

Chicago (note)

“Nonduality,” concept, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/concepts/nonduality.

MLA

“Nonduality.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/concepts/nonduality.

BibTeX
@misc{concepts-nonduality,
  title = {{Nonduality}},
  howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society},
  note = {Concept. Last modified November 7, 2026},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/concepts/nonduality}
}

Related concepts

Related

Parallels

Continue the inquiry