What is Ultimate Reality?: That which is before and beyond (transcending) the reality of the world we perceive with our senses. That which is the ground, basis and/or origin of reality as we know it. The underlying (immanent) essence of reality. That which remains when all else is gone. That which is eternal, unchanging and all pervading.
Theism generally refers to a belief about some sort of personal deity or deities (i.e., a god or gods who has the qualities of a person e.g., freewill, intention, emotions, desires, gender, etc.). Theism can take any of a number of forms:
Monotheism: There is one unified, perfect being that, although distinguished from the cosmos, is the source of it and continues to sustain it in its forms and powers and, in some sense, providentially guides it. (ex: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baha’i, Sikh)
Deism: God created the cosmos and established its physical and moral order but now exercises no continuing providential guidance or authority over it. God is now totally transcendent (the old "God is dead" belief).
Atheism: There is no God no matter in what sense God is defined. (see "Humanism", below)
Agnosticism: Knowledge of certainty has not been attained about such a question as to whether there is a God or not. There is the possibility that such knowledge may be attainable but, as of now, it is best to remain open-minded.
Pantheism: "God" is the name for the unity of the cosmos taken as a whole. God is everywhere at all times. All things and beings are modes, attributes, or appearances of one single reality or being. God is totally immanent (in the physical world) not transcendent (above and beyond the physical world). (ex: Shinto, Wicca)
Panentheism: The world is included in God’s being something as cells are included in a larger organism although the world does not exhaust God’s being or creativity. God has all of finite being as part of Its being and experience but (unlike the Pantheistic view) transcends it. There is a real freedom and spontaneity in the world, therefore it is impossible even for God to know the future hence God is, in some sense, temporal (limited by time). (ex: Western mysticism)
The subtle difference:
Pantheism sees the world/cosmos as god, while Panentheism sees God in the world/cosmos
Monism: All reality is of a single character. All is one. Unlike pantheism, Monism often denies the reality of the many. The Ultimate Reality of Monism is often not that of a personal superior being but more of an impersonal substance or force. (ex: Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism)
Dualism: There are two basic realms or forces at work in the cosmos: good vs. evil, active vs. passive, light vs. dark, spiritual vs. physical, etc. The goal may be to focus on one force (the good, the light, the spiritual) over the other (ex: Zoroastrianism, Gnosticism) or to maintain a balance or harmony between the forces (ex: Taoism).
Where one is to overpower the other, the forces are usually seen as supernatural. Where the forces are to be in balance, they are usually seen as natural. These realms or forces may or may not be personified (see "Theism") and/or inhabited by personal spirit beings e.g., God and Satan, Angels and Demons (see "Spiritualism", below)
Animism: All natural phenomena are possessed of souls or spirits that animate them and explain their special characteristics. (ex: primal religions, Shinto)
Panpsychism: All reality is composed of beings that possess consciousness ranging from the lowest degree of unity, awareness and purpose to the highest. (a little more sophisticated formulation than Animism) (ex: Jainism)
Spiritualism: There exist non-physical spirit entities which may include spirits of the dead, angels, demons and other such personal (or personified) energies or powers which can be accessed by human beings through various means. (ex: ancient China, Native American, Wicca, Mahayana Buddhism)
Solipsism: Only the self with its perceptions exists. All other entities depend on that self and have no independent reality of their own. Only the ideas within the self constitute the extent of knowledge and the range of reality. In essence: we each exist alone and are our own god and the god of all we perceive around us which is but a manifestation of our own thought. (ex: "Consciousness Only" school of Buddhism)
Naturalism: All actualities that we can know anything about are temporal and spatial. Since nature includes all temporal and spatial reality, together with its possibilities, all that we ever experience is nature. All knowledge of actualities must be gained by empirical methods requiring observation. Human experience is vastly deeper and richer than knowledge. Nature includes far more than our little system of knowledge at any one time can comprehend.
Art and symbols can bring to conscious awareness a depth and fullness of reality far exceeding the abstractions of propositional truth. "God" is the name for that eternal factor in experience which operates to transform us and drive us to realize our potentialities and highest good. (ex: Transpersonal Psychology, Taoism?, Neo-Confucianism, Tantric Buddhism)
Humanism: We are "on our own" in the universe which is essentially indifferent to us. Whatever satisfaction is to be enjoyed must be achieved through humanity’s ability to control the physical world in which it lives and through its understanding and use and/or change of social forces in order to make them better serve humanity. The outlook is entirely this-worldly. Science and the scientific method are the primary keys to the hope for a better world. (ex: Nietzsche, Ethical Humanism, Confucianism?)
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