This page is consistently updated as Jiayan philosophy continues to evolve.

The Seven Teachings serve as the introductory overview of Jiayan philosophy, providing a high-level view of its most core ideas. They describe the nature of existence and remind practitioners of its core principles. The Teachings are as follows:

1. Ji: the immanent principle underlying the manifested universe. Ji is not a thing or a being but the ground from which relational Reality emerges. Ji describes the pattern of existence, giving rise to all forms, processes, and experiences.
2. Monism: all beings participate in the same reality through a local articulation called pneuma. Each life, form, and mind expresses Ji in a unique configuration of experiential richness, arising interdependently and impermanently.
3. Karma: intent, action, feeling, and sensation shape relational reality, producing consequences that propagate through spacetime and influence future conditions. Skillful actions that reduce harm and strengthen integrative coherence foster flourishing, while actions rooted in ignorance, craving, or aversion amplify fragmentation.
4. Anicca: all manifestations of Ji are transient, conditioned, and in continual change. Therefore, there is no permanent, unchanging self (anattā), for each entity emerges through relational interaction and evolves as part of existence’s eternal pulse (paṭiccasamuppāda).
5. Ten Virtues: the behaviors, habits, and attitudes that naturally follow from recognition of Ji. Cultivating these virtues fosters well-being, clarity, compassion, and the reduction of suffering (dukkha), both for oneself and others, aligning conduct with the integrative flow of Reality.
6. Epektasis: societies that cultivate relational coherence tend to strengthen integrative vitality, while failure to do so allows fragmentation and preventable suffering. Personal and collective development is a continual process, oriented toward realignment with Ji.
7. Apokatastasis: the capacity of Ji to reconcile disharmony. Actions and experiences that generate fragmentation leave patterns within the relational network of existence. Over time, these marks are re-integrated into the ongoing pulse of Ji, allowing for re-articulation. Through this process, dissonance is neither ignored nor eternal.

Consonants

Within all human rests the capacity to intuit Ji’s nature. Across time and culture, countless traditions have arrived at concepts that resonate with concepts described in Jiayan writing, each shaped by its own unique context, history, and symbolic vocabulary.

The Consonants listed herein should be understood as analogical; in other words, they point to something akin to a family resemblance. The concepts share a common heritage, but they are not equivalent. Jiaya affirms that convergence between traditions is to be expected. Ji underlies all things and we see differing articulations of its nature across cultures. As each node in the cosmic web can be perceived as an individual while still being part of the greater whole, the differences between these traditions are as instructive as their similarities.

1. Ji: Asha (Zoroastrianism); ‘Aql (Islam); Brahman (Vedic religion, Hinduism); Deus sive Natura (Spinozism); Gitche Manitou (Anishinaabe culture); Logos (Hellenistic philosophy, Neoplatonism, Hellenistic Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism, Sufism); Orenda (Haudenosaunee peoples); Ṛta (Vedic religion); Tao (Taoism); Wakan Tanka (Lakota religion)
2. Monism: Tat Tvam Asi (Advaita Vedanta); Wahdat al-wujūd (Sufism)
3. Karma: Bàoyìng (Chinese folk religion); Karma (Hinduism, Buddhism); Ubuntu (Bantu philosophy)
4. Anicca: Anicca, Anattā (Buddhism); Mujō (Shinto); Panta rhei (Heraclitus)
5. The Ten Virtues: Akhlaq (Islam); Cardinal Virtues (Hellenistic philosophy); Five Virtues (Sikhism); Fruit of the Holy Spirit (Christianity); Brahmavihārā, Pāramitā (Buddhism), Yama, Niyama (Yoga)
6. Epektasis: Ascent of the soul (Neoplatonism) Boddhisattva ideal (Mahayana); Dàtóng (Chinese philosophy); Lokasamgraha (Hinduism); New World Order (Baháʼí); Theosis (Eastern Christianity); Ummah (Islam)
7. Apokatastasis: Apokatastasis (Patristic Christianity); Frashokereti (Zoroastrianism); Moksha (Hinduism, Jainism); Nirvana (Buddhism)