Adhyasa — Superimposition
Adhyasa (superimposition) is Shankara's technical term for the primal error — the mutual superimposition of Atman and Anatman that generates the apparent bondage of the individual.
Shankara's commentary on the Brahmasutras opens with the concept of Adhyasa (superimposition) as the foundation of all his subsequent argument. Adhyasa is the perceptual error by which properties of one thing are wrongly attributed to another: seeing a snake when there is only a rope; seeing silver when there is only mother-of-pearl. The human situation involves mutual Adhyasa: we attribute the properties of the Atman (consciousness, awareness) to the body-mind ('I am conscious' — the body becomes the subject), and we attribute the properties of the body-mind (pain, pleasure, limitation, mortality) to the Atman ('I am suffering,' 'I will die' — the Atman seems limited). The result is the confused, suffering individual who experiences themselves as a mortal, limited being rather than as the infinite consciousness that they actually are. All of Shankara's philosophical project is aimed at dismantling this Adhyasa through the triple process of Shravana (hearing the teaching), Manana (reflecting on it), and Nididhyasana (meditating on it until it becomes direct experience).
Adhyasa is the appearing of something that has previously been experienced, in the form of a recollection, in something else.
Cognitive psychologist Daniel Kahneman's concept of cognitive biases — systematic patterns of misattribution and perceptual error that distort our understanding of reality — is the secular psychological version of Adhyasa: both describe how the mind consistently misidentifies, projects, and superimposes, generating a distorted picture of reality.
Brahmasutra Bhashya
Written about in
- What Advaita Vedanta says about the self
Superimposition is Shankara's word for two things being confused: a rope taken for a snake, a self taken for a body and mind. His commentary on the Brahmasutras opens on this point.