/lit/ - Literature

>>11604232
In Advaita Vedanta at least this is the wrong understanding. There is only the infinite Brahman which is undivided in an absolute sense, although it can conventionally be separated into the manifest and the unmanifest. All states of manifestation and all possible distinctions exist only conventionally/as illusions within It, and all manifestation is considered as nil in comparision to the infinite nature of the unmanifest (while Brahman in its entirety includes and is beyond both). Brahman is made of pure awareness, but not the kind that engages in discursive thought, simply pure awareness without any distinction of subject-object, a helpful symbol for picturing it is the ouroboros. The mind, memory, thoughts, the body etc are all regarded as being part of manifestation and are all equally as illusionary as the rest of it. The only real aspect of beings is the Atma residing at the heart of them, observing them without being affected by anything (Atma, being the same as Brahman is also pure unchanging awareness).

>If monism was correct then there is only one soul, and every realization and thought belongs to it.

Atma does not engage in realization or thought, but rather it is the multiplicity of minds existing conventionally within Brahman that do. One text uses the metaphor of the moon (Atma) causing in the water (manifestation) a reflected image of the moon in the water (mind) which is dependent on the moon for its illusionary existence and which does not affect the moon at all, and just as the moon can cause many separate reflections while remaining unchanged and One, so the one Atma can cause a multitude of separate and illusionary minds.

>If delusions/evil/ego didn't actually exist in this soul then there would be no need for anything or anyone to engage in any "realizations"

Just because manifestation is not strictly real does not mean that it is not a greatly-degraded state of being compared to the One remaining as itself. The knowledge that we are part of the all-pervading whole and not really separate does not change that we seem to experience suffering and decay. Though only existing conventionally the illusion of individuality is self-perpetuating in how it leads from one life to another and it's incumbent upon the conventionally-existing 'individual' to attain liberation. The mind itself does not attain knowledge of the complete truth (which is beyond the subject-object distinction) but rather there is a process of destroying illusion until all everything is perceived as just transient superimpositions of form upon Atma, which as well as animating the being is the substratum of everything. The self-perpetuating illusion destroys the root of its continued existence so that only the Atma giving a (conventional) reality to this illusion remains. One metaphor used to illustrate how an illusion can end itself is how the grating togather of bamboo trees in the wind can cause a spark which then burns down the forest.