Across families
Samkhya-Yoga and Theravada Buddhism
Different families with 10 axes in close agreement — the sort of pairing a quiz weighting only the divine axes would never surface. Mean distance across all seventeen axes: 0.14 (0 would be identical).
A dualism of consciousness and nature in which liberation is the disentangling of the two, achieved by a precisely specified discipline. God is an optional element — Samkhya proper does without one — which puts A1 unusually low for the family.
Suffering, its cause, its ending, and a path — worked out without a creator and without a self that survives. The unconditioned is real but is not a god, which is why A1 sits mid-scale rather than at either pole.
Where they agree
A3 Plurality
Both sit at leaning strictly one — a gap of 0.00.
D2 Centrality of ritual
Both sit at between essential and prescribed and optional or absent — a gap of 0.00.
B3 Institutional authority
Both sit at leaning clergy and tradition decide — a gap of 0.02.
D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good
Both sit at achieved by effort or insight — a gap of 0.03.
E4 Standing of nature
Both sit at between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred — a gap of 0.03.
D3 The body
Both sit at to be disciplined — a gap of 0.03.
C2 Shape of time
Both sit at cyclical return — a gap of 0.05.
C3 The human condition
Both sit at ignorant but fundamentally sound and leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound respectively — a gap of 0.06.
E2 Origin of the cosmos
Both sit at beginningless or natural — a gap of 0.07.
E3 Locus of belonging
Both sit at leaning an individual choice — a gap of 0.08.
Where they part company
C1 Survival of the self
Samkhya-Yoga: continues in some form. Theravada Buddhism: leaning ends at death. A gap of 0.67 on an axis running from “ends at death” to “continues in some form”.
All seventeen axes
| Axis | Samkhya-Yoga | Theravada Buddhism | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Divine reality | between nothing beyond the natural and a divine reality certainly exists | leaning nothing beyond the natural | 0.23 |
| A2 Personhood | leaning impersonal principle or order | impersonal principle or order | 0.20 |
| A3 Plurality | leaning strictly one | leaning strictly one | 0.00 |
| A4 Locus | between wholly beyond the world and fully present within it | between wholly beyond the world and fully present within it | 0.22 |
| B1 Source of truth | leaning reason and direct experience | leaning reason and direct experience | 0.14 |
| B2 Reading of sacred text | between literal and binding and metaphorical, or no text at all | leaning literal and binding | 0.18 |
| B3 Institutional authority | leaning clergy and tradition decide | leaning clergy and tradition decide | 0.02 |
| C1 Survival of the self | continues in some form | leaning ends at death | 0.67 |
| C2 Shape of time | cyclical return | cyclical return | 0.05 |
| C3 The human condition | ignorant but fundamentally sound | leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound | 0.06 |
| D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good | achieved by effort or insight | achieved by effort or insight | 0.03 |
| D2 Centrality of ritual | between essential and prescribed and optional or absent | between essential and prescribed and optional or absent | 0.00 |
| D3 The body | to be disciplined | to be disciplined | 0.03 |
| E1 Exclusivity | leaning many valid paths | leaning one true path | 0.33 |
| E2 Origin of the cosmos | beginningless or natural | beginningless or natural | 0.07 |
| E3 Locus of belonging | leaning an individual choice | leaning an individual choice | 0.08 |
| E4 Standing of nature | between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred | between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred | 0.03 |
Positions for Samkhya-Yoga rest principally on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and the Samkhyakarika; for Theravada Buddhism, on Pali Canon (Sutta, Vinaya and Abhidhamma Pitakas). Per-cell sources are listed on each tradition’s own page.
The questionnaire places your answers on these same axes and ranks all 65 traditions by how closely they match. Take it.