The Oriental Monistic Theory, with its counterpart, the Western Emanation Theory, can be considered as a perennial philosophy. It is truly the connecting link between religions and philosophies of East and West, serving as foundation to Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism as well as to many Western occult societies and esoteric schools such as Kabbalah, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Alchemy and Theosophy. It can be found complete or incomplete in the writings of past and present mystics of all religions. Narrated in diverse mythologies, it was conveyed in symbols and monuments of past civilizations, suggested in numerology, veiled under allegories and metaphors of diverse literatures.
Though discovered independently, by different peoples living in different geographical, historical, cultural and linguistic contexts, it presents itself majestically identical and unchanged through time and space, as the main tradition of humanity, and as the universal, perennial and unadulterated truth, void of biases and distortions.
An earnest study of this theory will enlighten us about theogony, cosmogony, man's nature and destiny, and the meaning of the universe and human life.
The main features of the Monistic Theory can be presented as follows:
This world is not created "ex nihilo", but emanates from one Principle, from one Essence. In other words, this word proceeds from One Principle, by emanation and by division. This Principle has two aspects:
1. The non-manifest aspect: (The "before the world appearance aspect"), or "Xian tian" (Tiên Thiên), according to Oriental philosophers).
The Principle was then indifferentiated, homogenous, ineffable, infinite. It was then designated under various names: Wu-Ji (Vô Cực), Sunyata, Bhutatathata, the Universal Substance, Parabraham, En-Sof (AinSoph), Nothing, the Void, the Primordial Chaos - not in the sense of disorder, but in the sense of the Cosmic Energy not yet manifested in the myriad of beings.
2. The manifest aspect: (The "after the world appearance aspect") or "Hou tian" (Hậu Thiên), according to Oriental philosophers.)
From this Principle, made manifest, proceeded everything by successive emanations, and division.
After this 'so-called' creation, the Principle, the One, was veiled by the multiplicity of phenomena; but It was and is always pervasive, omnipresent.
It is then designated under various names: It was called Substance, or Natura Naturans by Spinoza, 'Élan Vital' by Bergson, Logos by Heraclitus, Nous by Plotinus, Apeiron by Anaximander, Tai-Ji (Thái Cực) by theYi-Ching (Dịch Kinh), Tagatha or Butatathata (Zhen Ru, Chân Như) by Buddhists, The Tao by Taoists, the Over Soul, the Cosmic Mind, the World Stuff, the Neutral Stuff, the Self, the Ultimate Reality, the True Self, the Supra-Essence, the All- Pervasive, the Mysterium tremendum and fascinosum, the Summum Bonum, the Coincidentia Oppositorum, the Godhead by Western philosophers and mystics, God, Brahman, Atman, Osiris, Ammon-Ra, Ahura-Mazda, Jehovah, Zeus, Jupiter,Allah, etc. As Pitirim A. Sorokin pointed out, these names and the visible symbols of the mainly invisible Ultimate Reality or of the Supreme Value are but a mere"finger pointing at it", in no way identical with it. Nor can any of these names or symbols claim monopolistic privilege of being the true name or symbol of the true Reality-Value. They are not God's own names but our human terms superimposed upon the Ultimate Reality, each term coined in accordance with the linguistic, social, cultural and personal properties of a respective social group or person. [1]
Two aspects of the world
The monistic theory sustains that the world is a whole which has two aspects:
The Eternal aspect (Sub specie aeternitatis). This aspect shows the One, the Essence, the Unchanginess, the Eternal, the Immortal.
The Temporal aspect (Sub specie temporis). This aspect shows the Multiple, the Differentiated, the Phenomenal, the Ever-changing, the Temporal, the Transient and the Mortal.
As the One is above all the opposites, all the polar diversities, it is the Absolute, the Imperishable, the Immortal, the Eternal.
As for the myriad external forms of this One, they are only transitory modes of this Principle, subject to the rhythmical law of appearance and disappearance, of birth and death. Oriental philosophers assert that everything that has names, forms, colors is transitory and perishable.
The following diagram best illustrates these two aspects, or realms, or kingdoms: