Ātman (Hinduism)

Beginning with Vedantic Hindu philosophy, the Ātman (Masculine nominative singular: Ātmā) (Pāli: attā) is regarded as an underlying metaphysical self, comparable in reference to the English word "soul". It is first seen in its current usage in the Upanishads, some of which date back to 1500 BCE. Many believe that individual "personal" souls exist as an illusion only, and think of an ultimate Template:Atman as the all-pervading soul of the universe: the universal life-principle, the animator of all organisms, and the world-soul. This is the monistic Advaita Vedanta position, which is critiqued by dualistic/theistic Dvaita Vedanta (which claims reality for both a God functioning as the ultimate metaphorical "soul" of the universe, and for actual individual "souls" as such) and compromise schools like Vishishtadvaita Vedanta.

By contrast, Jiva is the psychological or phenomenological self, the "I" which appears as the subject of verbs. The jiva is typically regarded as having its freedom limited by the triple bond of anava (ego), karma (action) and maya (illusion).

Jainism also believes in the atman.

Non-Belief In Atman

With the doctrine of anatta (Pāli; Sanskrit: anTemplate:Atman) Buddhism maintains that the concept of an Template:Atman is unnecessary and counterproductive as an explanatory device for analyzing action, causality, karma, and reincarnation. Buddhists account for these and other "self"-related phenomena by other means, such as [[pratitya-samutpada|pratTemplate:Itya-samutpTemplate:Ada]], the skandhas, and, for some schools, a pudgala. Thus it is not necessary for Buddhists to posit an ātman, and they further regard it as undesirable to do so, as they believe it provides the psychological basis for attachment and aversion. Buddhism can analyze the apparent self itself as the very act of grasping after a self--i.e., inasmuch as we have a self, we have it only through a deluded attempt to shore it up.

It should be noted that the critique of the individual self does not differentiate Buddhists from Advaita Vedantists, as they, too, deconstruct the individual self. It is in pushing the critique of the ātman through to the level of metaphysical being in itself, i.e. to Braḥman or Paramatman, that it becomes that Buddhism distinguishes itself from Advaita on this point.

Non-technical uses of Template:Atman

Ātman is also sometimes used non-technically to refer to the commonsense self (i.e., the individual as opposed to other beings or to the environment). It is frequently used to reform compounds in this capacity, both in Hindu and Buddhist writings.