Yeah but being Nondual =/= being Abstract.
I did not intend to mean being Nondual = Abstract. That is circular reasoning that I did not intend to at all convey.or put forth as some kind of point. What I was really trying to do was point towards the scans used in the Nonduality justifications themselves. In hindsight I was a bit shortsighted there.
I’ll also cede that the current AE1 justification on our pages isn’t strong, and in general our writeups are missing a lot of detail. I’d be happy to discuss this more with you if you’re open to it. For a starting point, I’d like to direct you towards
Kanako’s page, since a lot of the material I’ll be referencing is collected there with some other documentation. Physiology has been needing a revision for a while.
The latter is completely redundant and should be removed ngl, as it adds basically nothing and is a guesswork at worst.
So, I disagree with the claim that they don’t have it at all, and it’s not as though their having AE1 is based on mere guesswork either. There’s substantial evidence supporting it in ZUN's written works.
For context, in
Curiosities of Lotus Asia (Chapter 15), Rinnosuke discusses the creation of reality and why he’s able to see names within objects (this is Rinnosuke's trademark ability, else he'd be out of buisiness). He explains that in the beginning, everything lacked a name and was “mixed together in chaos.” The gods then gave names to every last thing, and from that act the "orderly world" was born. More importantly (and this becomes relevant later), the named things themselves retain the memory of their names.
Crucially, it’s emphasized that the gods did all the naming; this is how the Eight Million Gods created reality. For important subtext, much of the writing in this chapter is intentionally meant to be analogous to the
Shinto concept of animism, where all things possess a spiritual 'essence', and can embody gods themselves. This isn’t limited to nature or objects either. Virtually everything has an essence, or a “god,” within it.
This is also reinforced in
Strange Creators of Outer Worlds ~ Imperishable Night; Fragment of Phantasy 3:
"
Japan’s view of divinity can be seen in the phrase ‘eight million gods’. This is of course to be read not literally, but as the kanji for ‘Yao-yorozu’, meaning ‘many’, or ‘all things’. In other words, there is a god in everything."
In
Perfect Memento in Strict Sense ~ Eight Million Gods;
"
These are the gods that are found everywhere and have an especially deep relationship with humans. Here, "eight million" is taken in its sense of "myriads"; a true count would probably be much higher. Since they're formless, you can't touch or converse with them. As for what their true forms are, they were in the form of all things before they were given names."
In Gensou Narratograph;
"
Eight Hundred Myriad Gods - 8,000,000. Just a fancy way to say "countless"."
In
Curiosities of Lotus Asia (Chapter 26);
Reimu states "
Well, it's true that nine is a larger digit, but eight and nine are both big numbers. However, nine, read as 'kyuu', is linked to the 'kyuu' in 'eikyuu', or eternity, so it's been linked to the infinite for a long time. After all, if there are a lot of something, there's still a finite amount, so it's obviously less than infinity. That's why eight, the number one less than nine, was given the pronunciation 'ya', I believe." Which, makes sense given that their cannot be an infinite number of gods; but we can infer it is far higher than 8 million.
The general concept of Shintoism has also been a commonplace theme throughout the series and has been a major plotpoint in Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost, Double Dealing Character, and (wouldn't you know it) Subterranean Animism, among others. But I digress. Moving on back to how Gods and Names relate;
Later in the same chapter (referring to the scan above), we are reminded once again that the power of names is fundamentally a god’s power. But just how powerful is it? Well, it is explained that a god's name, as we recognize them, represent only one aspect of it's Nameless state.
For example, Takemikazuchi no Mikoto was originally Mikatsuchi -- a “pot spirit” -- and his nature shifted when renamed: from a god associated with sorcery to one associated with swordsmanship and thunder. This section of the chapter makes a very important distinction as well: a name captures only a single aspect of a god’s broader self. This is of course referring to a god's nameless state.
The text further explains that gods in their original state are ambiguous and nameless. When a god is "lodged in something" already named, it can display one aspect of it's aspects. It goes without saying here that the nameless gods are implied to have many, many possible aspects that their named selves cannot otherwise display. It isn't much of a stretch to say that nameless gods contain a myriad of other possible aspects. But again, the contraints of having a name prevent these possible aspects from being displayed in reality.
This idea that Gods are restricted to a single aspect they can display is brought up again in
Symposium of Post-Mysticism (Part 5);
Interestingly (and looking back at this), even Byakuren points out what seems like a contradiction: If gods are supposed to exist namelessly, then how can Kanako, who clearly has a name, still qualify as one?
Kanako says names restrict a god’s power. But once named, that original existence is lost. Instead, the named god gains identity and myth, becoming more like a youkai as Kanako herself puts it. She even clarifies that, in the Shinto sense, gods are the true nature within all things. This is similar to how names restrict a god to one aspect of itself; which we can infer as being the same in principle.
This circles back to the central idea that named gods represent only a single aspect of their broader, nameless state. Moreover, names are shown to not be fixed either. They can redefine a god entirely, as demonstrated by the renaming of Mikatsuchi into Takemikazuchi. As such, gods are fluid and mutable, with their displayed aspects being determined by their names; whilst also limiting their power.
