Theologies of Mind: Eriugena and Pratyabhijñā Śaivism

Abstract Though Eriugena's affinities with several Hindu traditions are clear, this article offers to my knowledge the first detailed discussion of Eriugena's theology in relation to any Indic theological school, here, the nondualist Śaiva tradition known as the Pratyabhijñā (“Recognition”) lineage. Rereading Eriugena in light of Pratyabhijñā theology helps meet an interpretive challenge in Eriugena: clearly articulating in what sense Eriugena thinks the lowest order of nature (the order of temporal‐spatial‐material bodies) is an illusory appearance confected by fallen minds, and how its being an artifact of created minds’ ignorance reconciles with its also being God's good creation. The Pratyabhijñā Śaivas’ error theory—whereby the error founding saṃsāra is one of “incomplete appearance” ( apūrṇakhyāti ), or “considering [oneself] as limited” ( apūrṇaṃmanyatā )—provides such a striking parallel to Eriugena that it helps his solution snap into clearer relief. The eschatological resumption of lower orders into their primordial causes, and of all creation into God, is not the passing out of being of any order of creatures, but only their newly being known as primordially always already resumed into the superessential unity of all things. The illusion is not the lower orders proceeding, but fallen minds’ projected sense of them as cut‐off fragments to be cognized and enjoyed for their own sake, rather than as limited manifestations of the great wholeness of things.