Core tenet of Advaita Vedānta
Only Brahman is finally real.
The world is appearance; the innermost self is not like Brahman — it is Brahman.
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held
Advaita Vedanta's claim is the most radical in Indian philosophy: only Brahman exists, the world of multiplicity is real only provisionally (vyavaharika), and the individual self is not similar to Brahman but identical with it. Shankara systematized it in the eighth century, and its influence on how Hinduism is presented globally is enormous — Vivekananda took it to the 1893 Parliament of Religions, and it has been the default Western picture of Hindu philosophy ever since, to the frustration of the other schools.
The same ground, other faiths
claims that share this one's ideas
Atman and Brahman are one — the self is the absolute.
Hinduism
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All things arise dependently.
Buddhism
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Syadvada — the sevenfold answer.
Jainism
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God contracted to make room for the world.
Judaism
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Fana.
Islam · the interior
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Sahaj — the state that holds by itself.
Sikhism · the interior
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