Non-Duality: The Way of Liberation Part 6 By Anthony Court The End of the ‘Spiritual Journey’, or the continuation, it’s up to you. The A-Z or Non-Duality or, 54 “pointers” to help you ‘wake up’! ‘Being Awake’ is the Non-Dual State…“there’s no duality in Non-Duality” The emperor has no clothes, and sooner or later everyone is going to see what’s staring them right in the face. When that happens, perhaps, there will be a major shift—a mass exodus away from the complexity and futility of all spiritual teachings. An exodus not outward toward Japan or India or Tibet, but inward, toward the self—toward selfreliance, toward self-determination, toward a common sense approach to figuring out just what the hell’s going on around here, and start by wiping the slate clean, a complete fresh start. Sincere, intelligent people dispensing with the past and beginning anew, and begin by asking themselves, "Okay, where are we? What do we know for sure? What do we know that’s true?" Here’s a simple test. If it’s soothing or comforting, if it makes you feel warm and fuzzy; if it’s about getting into pleasant emotional or mental states; if it’s about peace, love, tranquillity, silence or bliss; if it’s about a brighter future or a better tomorrow; if it makes you feel good about yourself or boosts your self-esteem, tells you you’re okay, tells you everything’s just fine the way it is; if it offers to improve, benefit or elevate you, or if it suggests that someone else is better or above you; if it’s about belief or faith or worship; if it raises or alters consciousness; if it combats stress or deepens relaxation, or if it’s therapeutic or healing, or if it promises happiness or relief from unhappiness, if it’s about any of these or similar things, then it’s not about waking up. Then it’s about living in the dream state, not smashing out of it. Jed McKenna-‘Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment' There’s a phenomenon happening in the world today. More and more people are waking up—having real, authentic glimpses of reality. By this I mean that people seem to be having moments where they awaken out of their familiar senses of self, and out of their familiar senses of what the world is, into a much greater reality—into something far beyond anything they knew existed. These experiences of awakening differ from person to person. For some, the awakening is sustained over time, while for others the glimpse is momentary—it may last just a split second. But in that instant, the whole sense of “self” disappears. The way they perceive the world suddenly changes and they find themselves without any sense of separation between themselves and the rest of the world. It can be likened to the experience of waking up from a dream—a dream you didn’t even know you were in until you were jolted out of it. In the beginning of my teaching work, most of the people who came to me were seeking these deeper realizations of spirituality. They were seeking to wake up from the limiting
and isolated senses of self they had imagined themselves to be. It’s this yearning that underpins all spiritual seeking: to discover for ourselves what we already intuit to be true —that there is more to life than we currently perceive. ‘The End of Your World’- by Adyashanti O.K., it seems that this idea of a so-called ‘Spiritual Path’ is so ingrained into the psyche of the modern seekers, that to suggest that it’s just a creation of the ego mind, is to invite a great deal of personal abuse, and cries of heresy all-round. Well, sorry folks, but that’s just what I am suggesting. However, if you embark on this so-called (I’m sorry after my little awakening ‘incident’ I can’t bring myself to refer to it any other way) ‘Spiritual Journey’ because you enjoy all the trappings of the modern spiritual movement, you know what I mean….the self-help books, the ‘new age’ gurus, the healers (too many systems to mention) the crystals, the spirit guides, the Mind, Body and Spirit Festivals, the shamans, the gongs, that dreary new age music that we love so much, the power animals, the angels, the tarot cards, the runes, the peace love and light brigade, the various different meditation groups, etc. etc. then by all means please feel free to carry one with your journey……by the way, where to exactly? However, I should just warn you, this so-called spiritual journey never ends. And however entertaining, exciting, and fascinating it seems at this present moment, at some time and at some stage the old familiar habits and feelings of frustrating, inadequacies and a general unsatisfactory feeling about life in general will creep back (forty years of practice and experience in these matters tell me this) Now if you are on this so-called spiritual journey to acquire powers and abilities….magical, supernatural, clairvoyance, shamanistic, out of body experiences, lucid dreaming skills, powers of prediction etc., when then that’s fine….no problem, no argument, carry on as I know from personal experiments, and experience that, and without doubt, all these abilities are both real and obtainable, that is, if you put enough time, energy, and practice into them, but, (sorry to destroy a little myth here) acquiring these skills does not mean are somehow becoming an ‘enlightened’ being or a ‘wise sage’ with all-knowing powers, ‘Yoda’ like, we could say. So, if you enjoy all of the above…….leave this article, here and move on to someone else’s (probably more informative) views and opinions. If you decide to carry on reading this article…be warned it may annoy the ‘hell out of you’ and ‘quite right’ too! But if you really want to WAKE UP keep reading, forget the way of all the religions, forget the way of all the spiritual systems…..employ instead the way of ‘wisdom’ the way of the ‘natural intelligence’ of the universe. It’s the way of no concepts, imaginations, fantasies, philosophises, ideologies, beliefs, or any conditioned thought processes, it is the ‘way’ of honest, and rigorous us self investigation and may lead you from separateness to wholeness, ‘if’ you can get out of your own way, and see it through….very few will! So here is my A to Z of pointers, some are my own observations, but many are by far more intelligent, and eloquent writers and teachers of Non-Duality (at the end of this article I’ll mention some useful links for those of you who wish to ‘dig deeper’) A-Z OF NON DUAL POINTERS, OR FIFTY FOUR SUGGESTIONS TO DRIVE YOU CRAZY, OR WAKE YOU UP…..SAME THING REALLY!
A. for AWAKENING: this is the natural state of all human beings (potentially) it is reached by understanding the ‘Nature of Mind’ as separate for the ‘conditioned, ego state’ that most human being are presently in. A. for AWARENESS: empty, cogitative, awareness is the natural unconditioned ‘Nature of Mind’ this is the ‘Ground of all Being’ and the ‘Ultimate Reality’ it is in this Ever- present, Infinite, Knowing Spaciousness that all ‘Appearances’ of the ‘Relative World’ are ‘apprehended’. Personal note: I often see advertised ‘Awareness development classes’ this is nonsense….as awareness is the ‘Natural State’ it can neither be added to, nor taken away from. You cannot develop what is beyond conditioned existence. B. for BOUNDLESS: in Non-Duality the mind is said to be ‘Boundless’ this Enlightened Mind is universal; not limited by, and is independent of, any secular or sectarian institutions professing religious or spiritual authority, and is not subject to, or limited by, time and space. ‘Space-like awareness’ is often used to convey the limitless nature of the natural mind. B. for BEYOND: ….beyond ambition, beyond attainment, is home. Contentment, without content; peace, uncaused. A.H. Almaas. C. for CONSIOUSNESS: “objectless consciousness, as awareness” is also used in the Vedanta to describe the state of ‘Non-duality. The seed of non-duality, however often sown, has never found fertile soil in the West, because it has been too antithetical to those other vigorous sprouts that have grown into modern science and technology. In the Eastern tradition...we encounter a different situation. There the seeds of seer-seen nonduality not only sprouted but matured into a variety of impressive philosophical species. By no means do all these Eastern systems assert the non-duality of subject and object, but it is significant that three which do - Buddhism, Vedanta and Taoism - have probably been the most influential. Many who have studied this ‘Way of seeing’ say that ‘Consciousness is all’. C. for CLARITY: to any seeker of the ‘Truth’ (reality) or ‘What is’ clarity must be developed….belief in concepts, ideas and imagination must all take a back-seat, even tradition must be questioned. The ‘seeker’ must think for them selves, as only direct experience has any value whatsoever. The Buddha himself finally rejected all spiritual practice, and systems, before he discovered the ‘Awakened’ state. D. for DUALITY: In the Tao Te Ching it says ‘Yin and Yang’ are the mother of the ‘Ten thousand things’ this means basically ‘everything’ In Non-duality all things that arise based on cause and conditions…and therefore impermanent…are called ‘appearances’, and that includes us. So all these ‘appearances’ belong to the relative world, they appear and disappear into the Empty Nature of the Ultimate Ground beyond all conditioned, and have no inherent nature of their own. D. for DELUDED: The delusion of human beings is to identify with the conditioned mind while ignoring (or being ignorant of) ever-present, non-conceptual awareness.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj E. for ENLIGHTENMENT: This is an imaginary event that will supposedly happen to an imaginary individual at some point in an imaginary future. E for EGO: The ego cannot die...for the simple reason that anything that isn't real, could never have lived. You cannot kill the ego. Try to smite the air with a stone and you will hit nothing. It all boils down to one unexamined or perhaps cherished assumption - which I am apart from life and death. While labouring under this pretext, it seems that every second brings a new struggle. It feels like being “in the trenches”. What a relief to find this object of crushing gravity to be nothing more than a passing thought - nothing. While assumed to exist, it feels denser and more substantial than a black hole but the ego is simply not real. We believe that we exist in ways at are not possible i.e. fixed, permanent, infinite and unchanging. F for FEAR: The mind fears this message (non-duality). In a sense the message about non-dualism is about no-mind, it’s about moving beyond mind. Then the mind has to take its place in the theme of things and be a tool rather than being the false king. So when the mind hears this it will try any way of compromising it. When anybody comes to a meeting then what they will hear is the mind fighting for self-survival. Most religious approaches to advaita revert back to the mind as a way of self-survival. Transformation is about the death of something, the loss of being separate, the loss of being an individual. When the mind hears this message it will find any way to compromise it so the story of the person can continue. What you hear in these meetings is: ‘I want to go on continuing and the only way I can go on continuing being a person is to seek, so how dare you tell me that there is nothing to seek!’ Tony Parsons F for FANTASY: most modern spiritual ideas are no different so the religious beliefs, that many modern seekers think that they have moved away from.
G for GROUND: The ground of the natural non-dual state is both Empty and Cogitative……. These two aspects are inseparable….my Tibetan teacher was adamant that this point must be understood properly G. for GRASPING: The conditioned/egoic mind cannot grasp the non-dual state…it is in its own way….what you are seeking is what you already are! H for HEAVEN: Heaven and hell are both concepts created out of fear…there is only ever-present, lucid, empty, non conceptual awareness. The rest is fantasy. H. for HOW TO: There is no ‘how to’ no method, no system. There is only ‘seeing’ through the false to the real….or ‘what is’. I. for I AM: The only true statement an individual person can make is I AM because this is clear and obvious. However, as soon as one says I AM THIS, OR I AM THAT…..you immediately go astray. I. for ‘I AM THAT’: This is the classic book on non-duality written by Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj, who was a householder and petty shopkeeper in Bombay where he lived, and died in 1981 at the age of 84. He had not been educated formally, but came to be respected and loved for his insights into the crux of human pain and the extraordinary lucidity of his direct discourse. Hundreds of diverse seekers travelled the globe and sought him out in his unpretentious home to hear him. To all of them he gave hope that "beyond the real experience is not the mind, but the self, the light in which everything appears...the awareness in which everything happens." J. for JOHN WHEELER: A particularly clear and erudite teacher of non-duality. John met Bob Adamson (a student of Nisargadatta Maharaj) on a trip to Australia in 2003. In short order, Bob cleared up John's doubts and questions and pointed out to him the fact of our real nature: self-shining, ever-present awareness. Bob Adamson has encouraged John to share this understanding of ’who’ we really are. He has a very radical and direct approach to self-realisation. J. for JED MCKENNA: Jed McKenna is a spiritual teacher and Author. He plays video games; he rides a mountain bike, skydives and reads Walt Whitman. He has three books to his name: Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing, Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment, and Spiritual Warfare. These books are not everybody’s ‘cup of tea’ they are funny, irreverent, outrageous and threatening to the so-called spiritual seeker. I thoroughly recommend these books. Not for the faint hearted. L. for LUMINOSITY: In the great non-dual teaching of Tibet called Dzogchen, (the great perfection, or great completion) Luminosity is another word for the awareness or knowing quality of ‘Ultimate Reality’. L. for LIFE AS IT IS: Humans perceive their daily life in the world as a reality. This is due to the belief of cause and effect. This belief creates thoughts of actions which convince man that his day is filled with events and situations. Conclusions about these make way for emotions which include feelings such as misery and the quest for happiness that man experiences. ‘Life as it is’ is documentary based on the books written by Dr. Vijai S. Shankar crosses the boundaries of mind by stripping away beginnings and endings and the concept of time thereby exposing the reality of doership as illusory. The documentary unveils time and reality for what they really are which is an optical and auditory illusion of light and sound. DVD "Non-duality life as it is" will be available in June 2011 on website www.acadun.com
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu (Tibetan is a Dzogchen master) M. for MAKYO: The term ‘makyo’ means “ghost cave” or “devil’s cave.” It is employed in Zen as figurative reference to the kind of self-delusion that results from clinging to an experience and making a conceptual “nest” out of it for oneself. Makyo is, in other words, essentially synonymous with illusion, but the word is used especially in reference to experiences that can occur within meditation practice. M for MEDITATION: From the awake perspective, there is nothing to do, and no effort you can make to gain the state of Enlightenment, Wakefulness, Self Realization, etc. (whatever you want to call “IT”), because that already is the reality. It is just a matter of experience and realizing the Truth. And this comes about unbidden and unprecedented by any cause and effect. But yet, there is a multi-thousand year old tradition that says that meditation is a valuable tool and has preceded their Enlightenment by virtually every awaked being. Reality can only take place NOW, so any event that doesn’t take place in the now can be excluded in any discussion about reality. As an example, most people spend about 99% of their mental time fantasizing about the future or rehashing the past, so all of these thoughts have nothing to do with reality. Similarly, because of how we are wired neurologically, all sense data we receive is always late in arriving, and thus can’t be relied on to give us a true picture of the now/reality. For instance, as you read these words, the image of the words that are on the page take time to reach your eye, and then the image is sent along your vision nerve path and transmitted to various parts of your brain where their significance is received, analyzed as to relevance, and stored. This takes time, and just as when we see stars in the sky and are told that their light has taken many years to reach us, all visual images have also taken time, and what we see is actually what has past, and not what is. This is also the same for what we hear, taste, smell, and touch. Similarly, our emotions and thoughts are merely reactive messages from the past. There is only one constant thing that has always been operating in the present for our entire life, and it is still available to us now. In the Dzogchen tradition, contemplation is as important as meditation, and should be practiced also. N. for NON-DUALITY: Advaita Vedanta the ancient Indian non-dual teachings… means “NOT TWO”….this may initially sound a strange way of stating oneness….but it is said with the purpose of emphasizing …there is only “THIS” and nothing else.
N. for NON DUALITY NETWORK: a few minutes at the computer can reveal the richness of the available teachings….the Urban Guru Café Podcast is particularly informative, while being very entertaining. O. for ONENESS: As Non dual consciousness is the natural state, it is sometimes referred to as ‘oneness’ this has often been thought of as something hidden or difficult to experience, when it is quite ordinary and available in every moment. Non dual consciousness is the natural state. Of course, a dramatic experience of oneness is a rare event. But why wait for something so rare when this sweet and satisfying oneness is right here, right now? O. for OPENESS: The natural state is right here, right now…..for most people this is too simple to comprehend. P. for PUBLISHERS: Non-Duality Press is the leading publisher of books on the contemporary expression of Advaita by mostly western authors and communicators. Direct, clear and free from the arcane language of the past, we feel these books represent a contribution to the understanding of Liberation. These books are a good resource for those that are familiar with the subject and an inspiration for those in the process of discovery. P. for PHILOSOPHY: This is how the non-dual teaching of Indian was originally presented: Vedanta as a philosophy of non-duality has no place for an extra-cosmic God or for anything supernatural. Close your eyes, you see Brahmn; open your eyes, you see the same Brahmn in names and forms around you. The Upanishads offer this as the highest truth. Nothing higher than that can be, when you come to unity. That universal unity is what the Indian sages discovered, by investigating the depth dimension of the human being and discovering the infinite, imperishable, and non-dual dimension of what we experience as our Self. Viewed by the senses, it is finite; on penetrating deeper, it reveals its infinite dimension; above the water level, we see the tip of a rock; but below, we realise its immense dimension. That is what you find in the Upanishads as a momentous search and discovery, conveyed in a few crisp and 'great utterances', known as mahavakyas. Q. for QUESTIONS: Upon ‘awakening’ it will be found that ALL questions will be made redundant. In oneness….there is nothing to ask, and no one to answer. Q. for QUANTUM: There are many shades of meaning to the word non-duality. As an introduction, we might say that non-duality is the philosophical, spiritual, and scientific understanding of non-separation and fundamental oneness. Our starting point is the statement “we are all one,” and this is meant not in some abstract sense but at the deepest level of existence. Duality, or separation between the observer and the observed, is an illusion that the Eastern mystics have long recognized and Western science has more recently come to understand through quantum mechanics. Dualities are usually seen in terms of opposites: Mind/Matter, Self/Other, Conscious/Unconscious, Illusion/Reality, Quantum/Classical, Wave/Particle, Spiritual/Material, Beginning/End, Male/Female, Living/Dead and Good/Evil. Nonduality is the understanding that identification with common dualisms avoids recognition of a deeper reality. SO HOW CAN WE BETTER UNDERSTAND NONDUALITY?
There are two aspects to this question, and at first glance they appear to be mutually exclusive, although they may be considered two representations of a single underlying reality. The first aspect is our understanding of external reality, and for this we turn to science. The word science comes from the Latin ‘scientia’, which means knowledge. The beauty and usefulness of science is that it seeks to measure and describe reality without personal, religious, or cultural bias. For something to be considered scientifically proven, it has to pass exhaustive scrutiny, and even then is always subject to future revision. Inevitably human biases creep in, but the pursuit of science itself is intrinsically an evolving quest for truth. But then quantum mechanics turned much of this lauded objectivity on its head, as the role of the observer became inseparable from the observed quantum effect. It is as if consciousness itself plays a role in creating reality. Indeed, the two may be the same thing, and as quantum pioneer Niels Bohr once put it: “A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself!” The second aspect is our inner, personal experience of consciousness, our “awareness of awareness.” We have our senses to perceive the world, but “behind” all perception, memory, identification and thought is simply pure awareness itself. Eastern mystics have described this undifferentiated consciousness for thousands of years as being the ultimate state of bliss, or nirvana. Seekers have attempted to experience it for themselves through countless rituals and practices, although the state itself can be quite simply described. As Indian advaita teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj said: “The trinity: mind, self and spirit, when looked into, becomes unity.” The central challenge to understanding non-duality may be that it exists beyond language, because once it has been named, by definition -- and paradoxically -- a duality has been created. Even the statement “all things are one” creates a distinction between “one” and “notone”! Hardly any wonder that non-duality has been misunderstood, particularly in the West. From the Science and Non-Duality Website.
Ramana Maharshi R. for REALITY: There is only THIS REALITY, formless, shapeless, colourless, soundless, stateless, YET paradoxically and simultaneously PLAYING AS all forms, shapes, colours, sounds and states of the myriad worlds and billions of beings populating these worlds. This Unborn, Infinite-Eternal Divine Reality is in fact YOUR REAL SELF
and EVERYONE'S REAL SELF... the True Self of all selves.... Right HERE (closer than the mind, closer than the eyeballs, closer than close) and right NOW (before one can even think about THIS Self). You cannot and need not make an object, a perceptible or knowable "thing" out of THIS FORMLESS SELF, just as the fingertip need not touch itself and the eyeball need not see itself to function splendidly. You simply and nonobjectively ARE the Non-dual Self, no need to make an object-like "thing" out of your essential "no-thing-ness" Nature as the Source of all things, beings, processes. You are Open, Absolute Awareness. R for REALISATION: Realisation or self-realisation, awakening, enlightenment, or truth realised…are all names for the same thing….a radical shift in consciousness, resulting is a movement from the small restricted view (mind) to the view of unbounded wholeness, perfection and unity. S. for SEEKING & SEEKERS: This is an impossible task, to seek the natural state with the mind. The mind its-self must ‘see’ its own falseness, resulting in the collapses of structure (conditioning) which keeps it from endlessly moving, seeking. When this structure falls away…the original mind is revealed. S. for SIMPLE: The simplicity of Non-duality evades many who are looking for experiences, and adventure of the mystical or psychic kind…these have nothing to do with awakening. T. for TEACHINGS: Emptiness for example is another kind of non-dual teaching. Emptiness teachings demonstrate that the "I," as well as everything else, lacks inherent existence. The notion of lacking inherent existence has several senses. In one sense, empty things lack essence, which means that there is no intrinsic quality that makes a thing what it is. In another sense, empty things lack independence, which means that a thing does not exist on its own, apart from conditions, relations or cognition. A great deal of what one studies in the emptiness teachings demonstrates the relations between these two senses, and heightens one's sensitivity to their ramifications. Emptiness teachings are found mainly in Buddhism, but there are some surprising parallels in the work of Western thinkers such as Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 535–475 BCE) Protagoras of Abdera (480-411 BCE), Gorgias of Leontini, Sicily (485-380 BCE), Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360-270 BCE), Sextus Empiricus (c. 160-210 AD), Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE), Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (c. 35-100 AD), Michel de Montaigne, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, Jacques Derrida, W.V.O. Quine, Wilfred Sellars, Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, Donald Davidson, Richard Rorty, Nelson Goodman, Richard Lanham, John D. Caputo, Richard Bernstein and many others. According to Buddhism, when emptiness is realized, peace ensues. One's experience is transformed so that the self, other beings and the world no longer seem like intrinsically compartmentalized objects, distinct and separate from each other. The self and all things are experienced as free. If the selflessness of phenomena is analyzed and if this analysis is cultivated, it causes the effect of attaining nirvana. Through no other cause does one come to peace. (The Samadhiraja Sutra)
One who is in harmony with emptiness is in harmony with all things. (Nagarjuna, Treatise on the Middle Way) T. for TIME: In non-duality there is only the eternal NOW…all reference to time is conceptual. At the time of writing this article in the Tibetan calendar the year is 2139 U. for UNITY: Non-duality means UNITY in the ultimate sense…one without a second. U. for UNCONDITIONED: The ultimate reality is unconditioned, and is beyond all things. It is the original MIND, prior to consciousness. V. for VARIETY: the variety of ‘appearances’ that apprehended by the senses, are infinite, but all ‘appearances’ are seen only by the one original mind. V. for VASTNESS: The natural state is vast, unbounded and beyond all concepts and restrictions, while the conditioned mind is always in turmoil be it noticed, or unnoticed. X. for X FACTOR: the ‘New Age’ spiritual scene is very much like the television show X factor, it’s full of wannbe mystics, who think that if you attend a few weekend workshops, you are now qualify as a ‘spiritual’ being, or even worse a ‘spiritual’ being with a certificate that confirms it. Y for YOU: Ultimately, the YOU that YOU think YOU are does not exist. Z for ZEN: Not the showy, modern Zen of incense, robes and safus, where one endlessly contemplates one’s navel……but the good old fashion Zen where a good whack with a bamboo stick may ‘wake’ you up from the dazzling array of spiritual goodies on offer. Finally, and I almost forgot to mention the following, should you happen to ‘get this’ and awaken to your true nature, your original mind, then the UNIVERSE presents you with a ‘free gift’ its called a ‘B.S. DETECTOR’ it allows you to ‘know’ instantly those who are genuinely awake, and those just playing the ‘game’ Good luck! Remember the old ZEN saying….”when you reach the top of the mountain…. keep on climbing!” Resources: www.non-dualitypress.com/ http://www.stillnessspeaks.com/ http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/conscioustv http://thenaturalstate.net/ Finally highly recommended Jed McKenna’s highly thoughtful and entertaining books: Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing- Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment and, Spiritual Warfare also available: McKenna's Notebook: All Bonus Content from The Enlightenment Trilogy A.Court