Atman
Also known as: The Self, True Self, Pure Awareness
Sanskrit: atman, meaning self, breath, or essence.
Atman is the Sanskrit term for the true Self, the innermost witnessing awareness that Advaita Vedanta holds to be identical with Brahman, the universal reality. It is distinguished from the ego or personality, which is considered a changing, constructed sense of I rather than the unchanging awareness in which all experience appears.
Advaita Vedanta's central claim is captured in the Mahavakya, or great sayings, of the Upanishads, most famously Tat Tvam Asi, identifying the individual Atman with universal Brahman. Self-inquiry, the practice of asking Who am I, popularized by Ramana Maharshi, is a traditional method for distinguishing Atman from the body, thoughts, and personality ordinarily mistaken for the self.
Advaita Vedanta asserts that Atman is identical with Brahman, ultimate reality itself, an equation expressed in the Chandogya Upanishad's great saying (Mahavakya) 'Tat Tvam Asi', 'That Thou Art'. This differs from the Western philosophical idea of a personal soul that is created at birth and belongs to an individual; Atman is instead described as unborn and unchanging, something to be directly recognized rather than acquired or improved.
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Related Terms
Nonduality
Nonduality (or non-duality) is the direct recognition that awareness and its contents, such as thoughts, sensations, and the sense of being a separate self, are not two separate things but a single, seamless reality. It is a description of direct experience, central to Advaita Vedanta and related contemplative traditions.
Brahman
Brahman is the Advaita Vedanta term for the single, unchanging, limitless reality underlying and pervading all existence. It is described as without form and without a second, the ground of being from which the entire universe of names and forms appears, and is held to be identical with the individual self, Atman.
The Witness (Sakshi)
The Witness, or Sakshi in Sanskrit, refers to the unchanging awareness that observes thoughts, emotions, and sensations without itself being altered by them. Meditation and self-inquiry traditions point to this witnessing presence as closer to one's true identity than the constantly changing content it observes.