NONDUALITY: A LIVING TEACHING Nonduality is not ‘anti-duality’ – how dualistic that would be! It does not reject or deny the astonishing diversity of appearances within manifestation – it embraces totally those myriad appearances, just as the Ocean does not reject its waves, but loves them to death, so they are no longer waves; in their infinite, beautiful, intimate, intricate manifestations, they are none other than the Ocean itself. And so this spiritual awakening we speak of is not a special state detached from the world, it is not some life-denying philosophy, no, it is fully engaged with the world, even if ultimately that ‘world’ is dream and appearance. Grounded in the deep knowing of who you really are, you are free, finally free, to plunge fearlessly into this awake dream, this mysterious, transparent world, free-falling head-first into the relative realities of life, this precious gift of a life – into rich, intimate relationships, into work, art, family, friendship, love, adventure, sacrifice, exploration, into the mysteries of the body, and the mysteries of death itself – until there is no longer any division between ‘real’ and ‘unreal’, ‘world’ and ‘absence of world’, ‘person’ and ‘absence of person’, ‘duality’ and ‘nonduality’, even ‘life’ and ‘death’. Until there is only One, and Advaita (not-two) is a living, breathing, reality, not an abstract philosophy or clever, comforting word-game for the already-comfortable. I know no other Advaita but the Advaita inseparable from the living of daily life, from the chopping of wood and the carrying of water. I know no other Advaita but the Advaita that holds my dear father’s trembling hand as he tries to cross an icy patch of road. It is contact. It is being here. It is open. Connected, always connected, forever connected. And ready. The nondual fundamentalist mind retorts, “Who is open? Who is ready? Whose father? What road? Who cares? Everything is a concept!”, and misses the whole point. And yet even that is embraced in this unspeakable love...
Posted on: Tue, 22 Apr 2014 08:26:06 +0000
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