Limitationism

Theory explaining diversity used by later
branches of the Advaita Vedanta philosophical school, one of the “six schools”
of classical Hindu philosophy. This
school of thought upholds monism—
the belief that a single Ultimate Reality
known as Brahman lies behind all
things, and that all things are merely differing forms of that reality. Proponents
claim that reality is non-dual (advaita),
that is, all things are nothing but the
formless, unqualified Brahman, despite
the appearance of difference and diversity. For the Advaitins, the assumption of
diversity is a fundamental misunderstanding of the ultimate nature of
things, and therefore is a manifestation
of avidya. Although often translated as
“ignorance,” avidya is better understood
as the lack of genuine understanding,
ultimately causing human beings to be
trapped in karmic bondage, reincarnation (samsara), and suffering.
Theoretically, if avidya is a defect that
resides within an individual, and if
many individuals can be afflicted with
avidya at once, is there one avidya that
afflicts everyone, or are there many separate avidyas? Limitationism asserts
that there is a single avidya, afflicting
many people at once. The theory proposes that avidya, in a person, is like the
quality of color in an object. The color
blue may be a single property of two
coexisting objects; each instance of the
color blue does not use up a finite “blueness” in the world. In the same way,
many people may possess the single
property of avidya.
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Limitationism