A
Foundational Grounds
12 filed · tier complete
The non-dual ground — the x₀ anchor from which the whole architecture departs and to which it returns.
Adi Shankara
Advaita Vedanta (Hindu non-dual)
Hermes Trismegistus
Hermetic philosophical tradition
Huineng (Sixth Patriarch)
Chan / Zen (sudden-awakening school)
Ibn Arabi
Sufi metaphysics (waḥdat al-wujūd)
Isaac Luria
Lurianic Kabbalah (Jewish mystical)
Laozi
Taoist philosophical foundation
Longchenpa (Longchen Rabjam)
Dzogchen (Nyingma Vajrayana Buddhism)
Nagarjuna
Madhyamaka Buddhism (Mahayana)
Olodumare (Yoruba Ifá tradition)
West African Yoruba cosmology
Plato
Classical Greek philosophical idealism
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
Christian apophatic (Eastern Orthodox / Western mystical)
Pythagoras
Pre-Socratic mathematical mysticism
B
Operational Frameworks
18 filed · tier complete
The practice grammars — how the ground becomes daily discipline, rhythmic community, and relational ethics on the y-axis.
Benedictine Rule (Ora et Labora)
Western Christian monasticism
Brahmaviharas (Four Immeasurables)
Early Buddhist contemplative practice
Confucian Relational Ethics (Li / Ren)
Classical Confucianism
Four Noble Truths / Noble Eightfold Path
Early Buddhism (Theravada canon)
Hegelian Dialectic
German idealism
Hesychasm (Prayer of the Heart)
Eastern Orthodox contemplative
Ignatian Discernment of Spirits
Jesuit / Ignatian spirituality
Kabbalistic Tree of Life (Sephiroth)
Lurianic / Hermetic Kabbalah
Law of Three (Gurdjieff / Bourgeault)
Fourth Way / Esoteric Christianity
Lectio Divina
Benedictine / Monastic Christian tradition
Madhyamaka Dialectic (Prasanga)
Mahayana Madhyamaka (Chandrakirti lineage)
Pāṇinian Grammar (Ashtadhyayi)
Classical Sanskrit grammatical tradition
Patanjali Yoga Sutras
Classical Yoga (Hindu)
Scholastic Method (Disputatio)
Medieval Christian philosophy
Sufi Dhikr (Remembrance of God)
Sufi Tariqas (all orders)
Taoist Internal Alchemy (Neidan)
Esoteric Daoism
Vedic Yajña (Sacrificial Protocol)
Vedic / Śrauta ritual tradition
Zen Koan Tradition
Rinzai / Soto Zen pedagogy
C
Diagnostic Filters
12 filed · tier complete
The critical scalpels — frameworks that unmask ideological possession, unconscious drives, and the hidden grammar of modern collapse.
Carl Gustav Jung
Analytical / depth psychology
Friedrich Nietzsche
Post-metaphysical critical philosophy
Iain McGilchrist
Neuroscience / cultural philosophy
Ivan Illich
Catholic social criticism / radical philosophy
James Baldwin
African-American diagnostic social witness
Marcus Aurelius
Roman Stoic philosophy
Mircea Eliade
Comparative religion / history of religions
Neil Postman
Media ecology / technology criticism
René Girard
Literary anthropology / mimetic theory
René Guénon
Traditionalist / perennial philosophy
Simone Weil
Christian mystical / political philosophy
Wolfgang Smith
Catholic traditionalist / philosophy of physics
D
Contemporary Synthesis
8 filed · tier complete
Twentieth- and twenty-first-century articulations that bridge the classical grounds to living contemplative practice.
Cynthia Bourgeault
Christian Wisdom tradition / Centering Prayer / Law of Three
Eknath Easwaran
Perennial contemplative pedagogy (passage meditation / eight-point program)
Nisargadatta Maharaj
Nath Sampradaya / Advaita (householder transmission)
Raimon Panikkar
Interreligious contemplative theology (cosmotheandric)
Ramana Maharshi
Advaita Vedanta (modern self-inquiry transmission)
Rupert Spira
Direct Path non-duality (modern Western transmission)
Sri Aurobindo
Integral Yoga (Vedantic-evolutionary synthesis)
Thich Nhat Hanh
Engaged Buddhism (Vietnamese Zen / Plum Village)
E
Mythopoetic Carriers
6 filed · tier complete
The great poems and narratives that carry the vertical architecture in image and story — the mythic shape of ascent.
Dante Alighieri
Medieval Christian cosmological poetry
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Russian Orthodox psychological novel
Jalal al-Din Rumi
Mevlevi Sufi devotional poetry
J.R.R. Tolkien
English Catholic mythopoetic fantasy
Robertson Davies
Canadian mythopoetic realism (Jungian depth-literature)
William Blake
Visionary Christian mysticism / prophetic poetry