Advaita Vedanta

===Three levels of Reality/truth===
{{See also|Three Bodies Doctrine (Vedanta)|Two truths doctrine}}

Shankara proposes three levels of reality, using sublation as the ontological criterion:{{sfn|Puligandla|1997|p=232}}{{sfn|Sharma|1995|pp=174–178}}{{sfn|Fowler|2002|pp=246–247}}
* ''{{IAST|Pāramārthika}}'' (''paramartha'', absolute), the Reality that is metaphysically true and ontologically accurate. It is the state of experiencing that "which is absolutely real and into which both other reality levels can be resolved". This reality is the highest; it can't be sublated (assimilated) by any other.{{sfn|Puligandla|1997|p=232}}{{sfn|Sharma|1995|pp=176–178}}
* ''{{IAST|Vyāvahārika}}'' (''vyavahara''), or ''samvriti-saya'',{{sfn|Renard|2010|p=131}} consisting of the empirical or pragmatical reality. It is ever changing over time, thus empirically true at a given time and context but not [[metaphysics|metaphysically]] true. It is "our world of experience, the phenomenal world that we handle every day when we are awake". It is the level in which both ''[[jiva]]'' (living creatures or individual Selfs) and ''[[Iswara]]'' are true; here, the material world is also true but this is incomplete reality and is sublatable.{{sfn|Sharma|1995|pp=176–178}}{{sfn|Malkovsky|2001|p=42–44}}
* ''{{IAST|Prātibhāsika}}'' (''pratibhasika'', apparent reality, unreality), "reality based on imagination alone". It is the level of experience in which the mind constructs its own reality. Well-known examples of ''pratibhasika'' is the imaginary reality such as the "roaring of a lion" fabricated in dreams during one's sleep, and the perception of a rope in the dark as being a snake.{{sfn|Sharma|1995|pp=176–178}}{{sfn|Hiriyanna|1993|p=359–363}}{{sfn|Sharma|1997|p=1–16}}

Absolute and relative reality are valid and true in their respective contexts, but only from their respective particular perspectives.{{sfn|Nicholson, Hugh|2011|pp=171–172, 191}}{{sfn|Grimes|2004|pp=31–33}}{{sfn|Murti|1996|p=294–296, 194–195}} John Grimes explains this Advaita doctrine of absolute and relative truth with the example of light and darkness.{{sfn|Grimes|2004|pp=31–33}} From the sun's perspective, it neither rises nor sets, there is no darkness, and "all is light". From the perspective of a person on earth, sun does rise and set, there is both light and darkness, not "all is light", there are relative shades of light and darkness. Both are valid realities and truths, given their perspectives. Yet, they are contradictory. What is true from one point of view, states Grimes, is not from another. To Advaita Vedānta, this does not mean there are two truths and two realities, but it only means that the same one Reality and one Truth is explained or experienced from two different perspectives.{{sfn|Grimes|2004|pp=31–33}}{{sfnp|Grimes|1994|pp=35–38}}

As they developed these theories, Advaita Vedānta scholars were influenced by some ideas from the [[Nyaya]], [[Samkhya]] and [[Yoga]] schools of Hindu philosophy.{{sfnp|Sinha|2013|pp=306–314}}{{sfn|Fowler|2002|pp=246–247}} These theories have not enjoyed universal consensus among Advaitins, and various competing ontological interpretations have flowered within the Advaita tradition.{{sfn|Menon|2012}}{{sfnp|Ram-Prasad|2013a|pp=190–194}}{{refn|group=note|{{harvnb|Timalsina|2008|p=xvii}}: "Advaita can be approached from various angles. Not only are there multiple interpretations of Advaita, there are different starting points from which one can arrive at the conclusion of non-duality".}}