Adi Shankara · Theology

That Thou Art: The Self Is Brahman

The most radical claim in Advaita is that your innermost self (Atman) is identical with the infinite (Brahman) - ‘Tat tvam asi,’ That thou art. Shankara shows this is not arrogance but the discovery of who, beneath the layers, you always were.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that for Shankara the Atman - your true self, the witnessing consciousness behind all experience - is identical with Brahman, the infinite reality, and that ‘Tat tvam asi’ declares this. Reconstruct how Shankara distinguishes the witness-self from the body, mind, and ego, and why ‘I am Br…

Leads to Plotinus.

epoché — a humanities education that remembers you.