The superimposition in Advaita refers to a defective worldview. That is to say, instead of perceiving what exactly is present out there, we have a mistaken view of what is there. The famous example is the mistaken view of a rope to be a snake in DIM LIGHT. What is there is only a rope. Rope is what it is. However, we see a snake, which is illusory, which truly does not exist. Advaitins explain this as the superimposition of a snake on the rope. What truly ontologically exists there is Brahman, or nameless “TAT”, but we see a world. Whereas Quantum Physics has no clue how to find out what exactly is there when an electron appears to be in several superimposed states, Advaita offers a way to arrive at the Truth of what exactly exists, i.e. to see the rope instead of the snake. The technique offered by Advaita is step-by-step negation , through repeated questioning and negating each stage as neti, neti, not this, not this, until no more negation is possible. Whatever is the remnant, the residual, That is Brahman.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 01:56:10 +0000