Our True Nature

Non Duality ++

Non Duality ++ is Non Duality Plus this and Plus that - but more on this and that later....

Non Duality actually means 'One without a Second'. Even the possibility of a "second" is ruled out!

It is Oneness. Just this and nothing else.

There is nothing other than Non duality There cannot be anything other than that.

Ramana Maharshi describes it in these terms

"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."

There are no subdivisions to Non-Duality, there are no component parts. There is nothing that can be added to Non duality There is nothing that can be separate from Non Duality. There is nothing that can be taken away from Non duality

The Christian, Jewish, Islamic traditions and the Advaita schools of Hinduism say there is an intelligence or power that exists which is Omnipresent. Omnipresent means All Present, which means Present in every location possible. No location is excluded and no location is favoured - that is what Omnipresent means.

The ancient traditions also say, that which is Omnipresent is also Omnipotent (all Powerful) and Omniscient (all Knowing). That which is being talked about is Consciousness, Presence, The One Life, Awareness, God, Allah, Intelligence Energy - or whatever you would like to call it.

The Intelligence Energy is that which keeps the planets in their orbits, makes the tides come in and out, grows your hair and fingernails, pumps the blood through your body, animates all living things on the planet from the smallest microbe to the largest blue whale. There is certainly an Intelligence in all that (not to be confused with intellect, though) and a clear and visible energy.

If that Intelligence Energy is Omnipresent - which is Oneness - Non Duality - Is there any room for a separate you and for a separate me?

Is there any way that we could be separate from, or isolated from that Omnipresent Intelligence Energy? Could we exist in any way removed from that?

The answer is that there is no individual 'me' or individual 'you' that could possibly be or have that is separate from Omnipresence/Oneness. There is no entity that could even be a part of Omnipresence/Oneness/NonDuality.

As Eckhart Tolle expresses it "We are Lived", and "Life Lives Us"

As The Buddha expresses it "No Self" (Annata) - which is another way of saying the same thing - not this, not that.... neti, neti. No separate person there at all.

Oneness, Omnipresence, God, Intelligence Energy.

One without a second

As Francis Lucille describes our true nature - it is Eternal, Universal and Non-personal.

One without a Second.

So if that is NonDuality - then what is NonDuality ++ ??

Can you add a 'this' and a 'that' to NonDuality?

Is it possible to have Non Duality and the following?

Non Duality and a separate "me"

A staunch belief that you are a separate person can only appear to be true.

The actuality is that there is nothing separate from Omnipresence/Oneness. There cannot be a separate you or a separate me.

The "me" that is believed to separately exist does not have any substance at all - it is composed only of thoughts that arose in early childhood with the development of conceptual thought. There is no Aliveness there in that thought, no Awareness in the 'me' - it is just a collection of thoughts. Truly a mental construct.

Aliveness / Living / Consciousness continues, but the mind attributes the richness and fullness of life to thought. This is ignorance in the fullest sense of the word - ignoring Life itself and attributing the miracle to a lifeless mental construct. Attributing all the power of Life itself to thought.

Non Duality and varying States of Consciousness

States of Consciousness can only ever be 'had' by a separate entity - and therefore the referral to "states of consciousness" always takes for granted that a separate "me' does exist and is real. This is an illusion, as are the states of consciousness of this fictitious individual.

The separate entity is a mental construct only and has no substance whatsoever. There is no separate personal "soul" as that implies separation and is Dualistic.

Our true nature is Universal, Eternal and Non-Personal. Non Dual.

States of Consciousness only exist in the thought stream, and seem to exist for a person, an individual, who is separate from other individuals that do not have that state.

It is only the "me" that wants a "better state of consciousness" or to become "more conscious".

Consciousness itself not not need any of these and is already our true nature.

Non Duality and the Progressive path

The so called "Progressive Path" implies a separate individual that is gradually moving towards a specific goal.

Our true nature is already free and non personal and does not need to move along a path to achieve liberation. We are already are what we seek.

The Progressive Path implies the existence of a separate individual - this is the "me". It is the apparent 'me' that moves along an apparent 'path'

If there is no person, there could not possibly be a "path". There is no person and there is no path.

Any story about the path has to be just that - a story - a story which at some time has to be seen through.

The starting point is the destination - it is a "path" of no distance, through no time to exactly where you already are.

Already Consciousness / Awareness / Oneness. NonDuality.

As Krishnamurti said "Truth is a pathless land".

Literally.

Non Duality and Awakening / Enlightenment

Awakening and Enlightenment both require that there is a separate "person" who becomes awake or achieves enlightenment.

Our true nature, which it Eternal, Universal and Non-Personal is already free - liberated and does not need any of this. It does not need liberation, awakening or enlightenment.

It is the 'me' that must be believed to exist for the goal or achievement of awakening or enlightenment to appear to occur.

It is only the illusory "me" that believes that it must become awake.

Our true nature already is Universal, Eternal and Non Personal - so how could there be a separate awakening for you and for me. How could consciousness "wake up" - awakeness is its nature. Awareness, Oneness.

Non Duality and Separateness

The sense of separation is entirely derived from the belief in a separate 'me'. This separate 'me' does not have any Aliveness or Awareness of its own. The belief in the 'me' is dualistic.

It can only be an apparency. Separation can only be an apparency.

Life Lives Us. We are Lived, as Eckhart says. Consciousness, or Life Itself lives what we call "us", and that is true in the presence or the absence of a belief in the "me". Live Lives us at all times - and it is Consciousness itself. Oneness. NonDuality.

How then can we suffer? How then can we have feelings of separateness?

The answer is that there can be a belief in the "me" and it is the non-existent "me" that suffers. That would not be much of a problem, except we think that "that one" is the real me!! So there is an identification with the 'me' and with its suffering.

What this is saying is that the suffering is mental - it is in the mind. The definition of suffering is mental pain, mental anguish, mental loss etc. It is all mental.

Bad things happen in life - people have accidents, people leave lovers, people get run over by a truck. This is a normal part of life and as the saying goes "shit happens". Normal - a part of Life. These things happen but they do not have to apply to a "me".

When the "me" comes into the picture and broods on it, harps on it, complains about it, rages about it, etc etc - that is the suffering. At the center of the harping, the brooding and the raging is the "me" - a 'me' that does not exist in actuality.

The mental content, the apparent duality of it all, the suffering is all in the head. Thinking is the only place where duality appears to exist. Thinking is between opposites, opposing poles - and thinking divides, and divides again.

The amazing thing is that Life continues to LIVE 'us' all through all this and is untouched by the pain and the suffering experienced by the 'me'. Aliveness is still there, fully functional and without blemish. Aware of it all. Conscious of all the suffering.

How could it be otherwise - the Aliveness is Life Itself - Eternal, Universal and very definitely nonPersonal.

As the Buddha said "no Self"

NonDual. Oneness. The One Life.

Non Duality and the Evolution of Consciousness.

The so called "Evolution of Consciousness" implies that Consciousness is changing over time, and that it is getting better.

Consciousness, Oneness, Awareness is also NOWness. The immediacy of the present moment is all that exists - it is all that the Ramana Maharshi quote above refers to. Ever present, ever shining. Only ever now.

The future is a mental construct - the "future" is an imagined condition that will occur one day. It is not now - the only thing that exists.

For there to be an "evolution of Consciousness" there has to be a future state (which is not the current state), in a future time (which is not the immediacy of the present moment).

So how could Consciousness be "evolving" into a future state. It is already all that actually is.

Consciousness is stillness - that which never changes - so how can "the unchanging" be evolving?

Consciousness is Omnipotent - all powerful - it is already that so how can it evolve?

Consciousness is Omniscient - all knowing - so how possibly could it evolve into a state higher than that.

Consciousness is Oneness - it already encompasses everything. No enhancement is possible.

The "evolution of consciousness" is actually a story in the human context. It is from the perspective of a separate human being who at a future time will be an improved version and closer to Oneness. Just a story.

The story ends and the seeking ends with the discovery of who/what you are and who/what you are not.

What remains then is natural functioning - the activity of living without the belief in the conceptual self called "me" - the 'one' who apparently suffered is seen to be a fiction.

Non Duality and Losing and Gaining Oneness

This is the same as asking "Can NonDuality lose NonDuality?"

You cannot "lose Oneness or Non duality" , nor can you "regain Oneness".

The apparency of " Losing Oneness" would be the apparency that Intelligence Energy is everywhere except where you are. That is not possible - Intelligence Energy is Omnipresent. In actuality it can never be lost.

You can never regain "Oneness" as it was never lost. It cannot be lost - but it can appear to be so as long as the belief in a separate entity called 'me' is held.

There is only ever apparent separation and the appearance of loss of Oneness from the perspective of the "me". It is only ever the 'me" that searches for and wants "Oneness" and the 'me" is the only thing that can never get it.

Oneness is ever present - it is Omnipresent. Always.

The End of Seeking

The End of Seeking is the non conceptual re-cognition ( a SEEing) of who/what you are and who/what you are not.

Your, and my, true nature is Universal, Eternal and non Personal. It is NonDual. It is Consciousness - Awareness - Presence Awareness - Aliveness. Oneness. It is beyond thought. Beyond words, literally.

What we are NOT is the conceptual sense of self - the 'me', the Ego, or as Bob Adamson calls it - 'the reference point'. The Ego is actually composed of thought. It's very nature is thought. It is wall-to-wall thought. It requires continuous reinforcement from the though-stream to maintain the apparent 'me'. It is an illusion. It does not exist. It is false. It is a fiction.

Nisargadatta said

"The way to truth lies through the destruction of the false".

"It is useless to search for the truth, when the mind is blind to the false. It must be purged of the false completely before truth can dawn on it."

The primary barrier to the recognition of your true nature is the belief in the 'me' - the conceptual image that we erroneously refer to as "ourselves".

Each of the so called "additions" (Joking additions) to NonDuality contain an implicit belief in the 'me'. The separate person.

It is only an apparently separate individual that can "awaken" or "become enlightened". Our true nature is already complete and pristine and does not need to become enlightened.

It is only a seeming separate individual that can apparently move along a progressive path that apparently has varying states of consciousness. Our true nature is already what "we" are seeking and does not need a path or various states which can come and go.

It is only the illusory sense of self who can feel separate and feel that they have lost Oneness - and try and regain it. In actually our true nature never left Oneness.

It is only a separate person whose "personal" consciousness can apparently evolve. This is just a story of "me" and "mine" .

Each of the above reinforce the belief in the 'me'.

That is the trap.

As Ramana Maharshi said

"Because every kind of Practice except that of Self-enquiry presupposes the retention of the mind as the instrument for carrying on the Practice, and without the mind it cannot be practiced.

The ego may take different and subtler forms at the different stages of one’s practice, but is itself never destroyed.

The attempt to destroy the ego or the mind through Practices other than Self-Inquiry is just like the thief pretending to be a policeman to catch the thief, that is, himself. "

Finally, there cannot be Duality inside NonDuality.

If that is the case then how come there can be a separate person (which is dualistic)?

The answer is that the separation is apparent separation. It looks like separation, feels like separation, even smells like separation - but it is all conceptual. All in the mind which divides and divides - a mind that operates between the opposites (good/ bad, happy/sad etc)

Thoughts themselves are not dualistic - they are just thoughts. They exist in consciousness.

The content of thought is just the content of thought. It is all concepts, ideas, imagination. There is nothing actually there at all.

The apparent duality of the mind does not have any actuality - except to an apparent entity that is also a part of the mind and based on the same dividing nature of the mind.

It is only from the perspective of the illusory (meaning the"illusion of") "me" that duality exists. Only in the mind. Only in concepts. Not in actuality.

Duality only appears to exist. It is an apparency.

The person who we think we are, the 'me', only appears to exist.

It is an apparency and does not exist - in fact it has never existed.

Written by Mike Graham 9 Nov 2008, last modified 13 Nov 2008