Dualism, Monism, and the Logos Doctrine

In contrast to Dualism, Monism says that there is only Reality, either God or an Absolute that includes both God and the world. But these monistic philosophies create a chasm between  the Absolute and the phenomenal world almost as bad as that made by the religious dualists.  The Indian monist Shankara for example, distinguishes between the sole and absolute Reality, which he calls Nirguna Brahman or the "Godhead without qualities", and  the unreal world-appearance which is Maya, or relative Reality.   And although ontologically (in terms of absolute being) the relative is ultimately the same as the Absolute ("this world is Brahman"), there is no actual connection or gradation between the two.  Maya, the finite reality, is simply an indeterminate  "superimposition" over Brahman, the infinite reality.

In the Emanationist position however, each level shades into  the level above and below it.  So the duality between finite and infinite, or relative and Absolute reality, is linked by an in-termediate principle, or a series of intermediate principles.   Thus the Shaivite and Shakta tantrics took Shankara's duality of Absolute and Infinite Nirguna Brahman and finite relative world-appearance or Maya, and inserted between these two a series of  intermediate evolutes, the "pure tattwas", tracing the stages  whereby the Absolute gradually limits itself and becomes the  relative.  Likewise Ibn 'Arabi distinguishes between Haqq and Khalq; the Real and the Appearance, the Godhead and the external  world, One and Many, Unity and diversity, Essence and phenomena,  Creator and creature; and like Shankara asserts that only the Absolute (Haqq) is Real, the many (Khalq) being merely the attributes thereof; still he nevertheless posits an intermediate  stage linking the two.  This is the Logos, the "reality of  realities"; or alternatively it is the al-ayan thabitah, the  "eternal prototypes" or "unchanging essences"; which in both cases  mediate between the One and the phenomenal world.  This principle  is passive or receptive in relation to the Divine, but active in  relation to the world [A. E. Affifi, The Mystical Philosophy of  Muyid Din Ibnul Arabi, p.53].

 Ibn Arabi's Logos Doctrine

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