Our True Nature

Non-Duality - Unequivocally

As Ramama Maharshi remarked

" there is a single immanent reality, directly experienced by everyone, which is simultaneously the source, the substance and the real nature of everything that exists.... is not the creator of the universe, the universe is merely a manifestation of its inherent power and is inseparable from it."

Non Duality without parallel. One without a Second.

Can there be Duality inside NonDuality. Is that possible? If it appears to be Duality then - is it REAL Duality or is it an appearance only?.

It cannot actually be Duality. Otherwise there would be divisions within NonDuality - which would make it fragmented and Dualistic instead. The One thing about NonDuality is that you cannot divide it up or have aspects to it, or segments of it.

All the world is presently arising - this moment, this moment, this moment - arising, arising, arising. All that is in the world is arising in this instant - all the good and all the bad - from Mugabe and Bush to Mandella and TuTu. This moment, now, now, now - arising from / as consciousness. It cannot be any other way .

The tides do not fight each other, nor do the phases of the moon. They just move. Nor do the hot winds and the cold ones. They just blow. Presently arising. This moment, now, now, now - arising from / as consciousness. Do the planets and suns fight each using gravity ? No - they just have gravity - but to the human mind that it might seem like a fight.

Is there a separation of the observer and the observed - in actuality there is only "observing", which is an action done by no-one - as there is no-one there. The observer and the observed do not exist - they are concepts that are added later. The duality comes in when the action is described or codified by the mind in its attempts to delineate what has occurred. In the observing - the pure seeing - there is no separation, no duality

How about the Duality of Thoughts - when they are in opposition to one another - love/hate, good/bad etc. Is this really Duality ?? Certainly from the perspective inside thought - from the perspective of the 'me' - which is only a thought - it definitely is Duality and it is very serious. But the actuality is that the 'me', although believed in, does not exist. And thought is just thought. Thought is always just thought and it is only the content that is different - and we do not choose our thoughts. But it has to be SEEN that the 'me' has no substantive existence, and not just a belief, or followed, or practiced - as that is just more thought.

When it is seen that the 'me' does not exist - and nor has it ever existed - the thoughts are just not important any more - the power is not there. The 'me' has never existed. The thoughts do not apply to anyone any more. You do not have to "remember" this or work on it, or embody this - it just happens. To nobody. Even thoughts which arise about the 'me' are hollow and have no power.

But while you have to work at it, or have courage, or determination - there is someone there. It is still in the realm of thought - it is time based and there is no resolution from there.

Only SEEing does it - the Flame of Attention. It is the SEEing that ends it - ends Karma - but only because there is no-one to whom the karma applies. It is all a story - a story of a nonexistent 'me'.

All the world is arising consciousness in this moment. This means the bad, the very very bad, the good and the very very good. It cannot be said that only the "good stuff" is consciousness, as that is dividing NonDuality. NonDuality would not longer be nondual - it would be fractured, fragmented. Broken.

Our nature is not the human entity that we call "me" - it is eternal, universal and non personal. It is THAT, as Nisargadatta observed.

There is no 'entity' called 'me' and there never has been. There has only ever been an image in thought. At no time in the past did it actually exist, despite appearances. The only sense of being in individual and separate is conceptual.

So how about functioning in the world? Actions arise, decisions are made, preferences are held, but there is not an entity there. There has never been an entity there at any time. There has never been a 'me'. Functions do not require an entity and what occurs in natural functioning is functioning. It is a 'movement' as Krishnamurti calls it. In our so called lives the actions that arise, the decisions that are made etc are attributed to the mind. The mind is the power in my life.

But the actions, decisions that are presently arising have nothing to do with the mind. They just arise. We do not choose our thoughts. A decision is just a thought. A strong decision is just a thought. Notions about being a person are just thoughts. Ideas about being, or having, a 'separate soul" are just thoughts. All are just presently arising thoughts. Actions we do arise - they are not the product of our mind - although our mind tags along and claims the credit - or the blame. Preferences arise (some like tea and others like coffee) - but they too are just thoughts that are presently arising - thoughts that we did not choose (although the mind claims that it did).

"Everything changes but nothing changes" is often quoted. Life as natural functioning continues, except that there is not a "me" claiming the credit or the blame etc. No-one there at all.
This is not to deny that natural function as humans occurs - it certainly does. Natural functioning is living without the belief in a 'me' - or a 'little me' as Eckhart calls it. Dogs have natural functioning too - after all there is only ever the One Life. But there is nothing there in a cat or a dog screaming "me", 'me', 'me'.

Natural functioning as a human includes all of Life - as it must. All the good and all the bad. It includes sickness and dying as well as joy and happiness. But we are not the human, we are not the natural functioning, we are not the body. What we call "we" is Lived. Life Lives Us. Life is a movement that arises in the present - it is Aliveness itself. That is us.

There never has been anyone there - that is the joke of it all. Life has always been lived as and from consciousness - in all its diversity - and despite the apparent existence of the illusion called "me".

People love the 'story" - the story of 'me'. They are fascinated with their own story, and also the stories of others. Stories of enlightenment, stories of suffering. As Eckhart humorously describes it " I have really suffered - let me tell you about it - how long have you got."..

But the story is the separate person. The story of 'me'. Seeing that the story is just a story - thoughts - sees through the story and the "one" who has the story, and which, as Eckhart points, can often occur as a person approaches death. The story crumbles. The belief in the "me' crumbles. There never was a me there at all. That is SEEN. It is seen that there there never was a 'me' at all. Only Life. Only Aliveness. Only Awareness.

As Eckhart and many others have said "Die before you Die". What else could it be pointing to if not that ?? It is the "death" (seeing through, actually) of the apparent 'me' - the common or everyday 'me' that we regard as Truth. There goes one of the Two Truths. Gone! Exposed as a falsity. Finished. Eckhart has said many times that the teaching moves through him - as there is "no-one here". Krishnamurti has said exactly the same thing.

The fact is that our essential nature is NonDual, and there is no separation between "it" and what some called "Unconditioned consciousness" or God. But the cascades of "Yes ... But...." occurs there too - and out comes the paradoxes. "Yes - we ARE that' , it is said, " but also we are exactly the human that we appear to be." Can we really know that this is true?

Who is the "we" that is referred to when that is said? It appears that we are a separate human, and that must be true - so it is taken as TRUTH. But there is no 'we' to which we refer. We accept as TRUTH that the mental image that we have of ourselves - the cerebral construct is in fact "me" - as that is the everyday appearance.

That construct which is believed to be something that is real has to "wake up", "become more present". But who or what are we talking about? It is thought. Only thought - a mental construct. We accept that thought "runs our lives" and so we must be morally courageous, and have determination. All of that is thought - striving to achieve something in the future. We accept that 'we', or thought can play a part in waking up consciousness. Is that really true - can we know that this is true?

It all goes back to actually accepting NonDuality without the caveats, the hidden clauses and the fine print. Non Duality without being nondual. Emasculated NonDuality. There is no fine print - there are no caveats - except in the mind. The only apparent divisions are in the mind "for purposes of analytical discussion" as Ramana Maharshi puts it, pointing to the Hindu scholars.

Consciousness is not Unconscious, Awareness is not asleep or unaware. It does not need to be more Present or to wake up. These are only possible if it is held that there a separate person here, or that there is a separate Awareness that is "mine". It does not work like that - it is dividing the undividable - and that apparent division can only ever be conceptual. It cannot be in actuality. There is no such thing as Local consciousness except in appearance only and even then it can only appear to be so from the perspective of an apparent separate person.

Seeing through the person finishes that. Die Before you Die.

And are the paradoxes? There are none. They are finished. All the questions have dissolved, or are currently dissolving. Being the "doer" and having "will" are completely resolved/dissolved. Non issues. There are no incompatible identities.

It all dissolves on

1. We are not the one we think we are - which is a product of thought. The false is seen to be false.

2. Our nature is Universal, Eternal and non personal (There is no separate entity called "me") Literally No Self. But what IS there is "directly experienced by everyone" - Aliveness, Presence-Awareness, Consciousness. There is only One, so how can _that _One be unconscious - except only as an appearance (just like the sea appears to be blue)?

3. All is NonDual. All is NonDuality. This means everything. No exceptions - we cannot be a separate person as that is separate. We cannot be an entity that in any way can say "this is me". There is literally no-one there. God is not an entity, is not separate or distant. There cannot be a worshiper or the worshiped without conceptually splitting the Omnipresent Unsplittable - and even then it only appears conceptually as a thought object.

NonDual is NonDual. Only the appearances say otherwise.

All is resolved in the Unborn (Bankei)

Written by Mike Graham, 2 October 2009

Written by Mike Graham, 12 September 2009.