non-duality

Whether you have been reading and listening to Dr. Shankar for a while or are have just come upon this amazing body of work, you will find this latest offering, the newly released book “What Am I?” to be simply stunning in its clarity. The deeper, yet somehow even simpler expansion of the explanation of what illusory actually means may grab you and transform you into a steady, joy-filled being capable of enjoying and appreciating the illusory rather than coping and negotiating with it.

The beauty of reading and listening to Dr. Shankar is that it works on you continually and you slowly but steadily notice the changes taking place in your day-to-day life. The understanding that the mind does not control life frees you to enjoy life since you do not control it. Until it really hits you that you do not control life, that life is happening to you, that you are part of the flow of life and not separate from it you will continue to search for methods and practices to help you get to what is already here, closer to you than your own breathing. Reading "What Am I?" a few times will make this abundantly clear for the reader.

Katie Davis

Self-realization is complete and utter fulfillment. It is the end of all suffering and the perception of separation. It is also the conscious beginning of deep, sacred peace and realizing the radiant love that you already are.

However, this is far more than a personal affair. As the consciousness transforms, that is, as the altered states of consciousness fall away, so does the life situation and the world transform. With Self-realization, an enduring world peace is a true possibility.

Everything conceived by the ego is separate and dual in nature. It experiences that it is split from the world and apart from the divine. The psychological self then suffers the alienation of the daytime dream of conceptual reality, its time and negativity.

It creates the delusion of a pain gap between the body’s limitation and the magnificent Heart that we genuinely are. The illusion of division then unconsciously operates in daily living. This subject-object relationship (ego vs. everyone else) is the source of all loneliness, anger, lack, desire, greed, fear, exploitation, guilt, shame, manipulation, control, anxiety, worry and sorrow.

Without an ego-subject, there can be no divided objects and separation is plainly unattainable. This is not to say that we do not honor our diversity. In fact, when we are no longer inhibited by the ego, innate creativity, natural abilities and uniqueness thrive.

I'm doing an internet radio show, and I also use recordings from NNH

The show is on thursdays 20.00-21.00 Cental European Time, which is 13.00-14.00 US central time

You can listen using on of these links:

http://www.ridderradio.com/uitzending.m3u (winamp)

http://www.ridderradio.com/uitzending.asx (windows media player)

There is also a place to chat, you can access it through

- the main site http://www.ridderradio.com

 - IRC on 80.101.177.4:6555/RadioChat

If you get a copy of the newly released documentary, Non-Duality, Life As It Is, written by Dr. Shankar, and watch it several times, the possibility is there for you to be transformed. The documentary goes into why, since there is no time, man cannot be the thinker, speaker or doer, that man does not make his life happen- life happens to him, that life is spontaneous, uncontrollable and unpredictable, that life is a singular flow - it will become clear to you that your mind/thoughts do not control your life and your actions. This understanding, once it takes place (and you cannot bring it about since you are not the doer), transforms the ego into the witness and life becomes effortless. None of this means that you walk slightly off the ground, have a smile on your face always and have beatific spiritual visions. You come to understand that you are being lived by existence and trust happens along with patience. The need to have things be the way you want gives way to celebrating life as it unfolds in its intelligent, mysterious manner, which it was doing all along only now you understand that and so you find yourself steady in life, watching in awe the play of light and sound, as it is.

Unfortunately, as is often the case, what I mean to express gets obscured by too many words. By the “simultaneity of existence” all I meant to convey is my realization there is no path or way for me to find, insofar as I am my own path, in a manner of speaking. And I believe that is how it is for each of “us.” Everything and everyone is a portal to presence. And in this way I discover, recover, remember, or recognize that I am, we are, life itself. There really are no mistakes and no gaps in life. Or so it seems to me. It simply is as it is, and during any given day I experience loss, suffering, grief, confusion, joy, happiness, contentment, anger, disappointment and loving-kindness in varying portions and varying durations. This is it. And accepting or rejecting, embracing or avoiding is it as well. How could it really be otherwise?

I’m still surprised how many times I confuse my pinhole perspective for a view of the entire sky.

I note the problem as soon as I recognize I’ve fallen into third person narrative, i.e. “It’s surprising how many times people confuse their pinhole perspective as a view of the entire sky.”

“As long as individuals are embodied beings they are going to view consciousness from an individual point of view, from their own pinhole perspective . . .” Oooops, did it again!

As long as I am an expression of embodied awareness, all I can know is how the world appears to me and all I can express is how it appears to me. Not how it actually is.

“So I am surprised how often people try to persuade each other that their pinhole perspective is either the only perspective or is the correct perspective or . . . .” Drat! There I go again!

I guess I’m learning to live with the fact all I’m ever going to know of Absolute Reality is my pinhole perspective of IT even as I know I am a manifestation of Absolute Reality. And it’s a given that you don’t have to take my word or anybody else’s word for it.

And in the course of this embodied journey I really am interested in hearing how things look, feel, smell, and sound like from your embodied pinhole perspective.

Hey friends,

These days there the amount of teachings on offer is so great that I lose the overview sometimes. On one hand it's great, of course, that there are so many different pathways compared to the past. On the other hand: it can be an overload without a clear solution to the problems we face as individuals and as society.

Recently I've become interested in integral theory of Ken Wilber, an reading his works is really refreshing to me. He shows a map of all of the phases humans go through in their growth from childhood, to ego and then to awakening. And please remember that it's not a hierarchy, because lower levels are included in higher ones. For me, this really helps to see where different teachings and practices are at, and what is a healthy practice for my organism. Please check out a diagram and some examples I will give.

I want to say first that I'm just mentioning one aspect of integral theory. It also covers areas like biology, medicine, sociology and many others. So one aspect of the theory is our growth as a human and it easily relates to the many teachings we see on NNH.

Please view the following diagram of human growth stages:
http://www.cosmicwindow.com/wilber.gif

I will explain the diagram very briefly, please note that over-summarized a lot. The 'outward arc' is like growing up as a child. Most people on todays world stop at the egoic stages and never grow further. But, if they do, they'll go to the 'inward arc', which goes all the way to ultimate awakening which is called atman on this circle.

What this exploration of life means I haven't found out yet. Maybe it doesn't mean anything. Along the way it appears like consciousness (which is us) becomes very skilled with tools.

1) The axe. I use this as a metaphor for the question 'who am I'. Is it always appropriate? Can it be used in an unskillful way?

2) The mind itself is a tool when we question our believes. If we're smart we can question a lot, but then our believes are also more sophisticated. tricky...

3) The body itself is a tool. It can be used in a clumsy or a sensitive way.

4) A teacher is also a tool or instrument. In a meeting there can be authenticity or dependency.

5) Our mouth is also a tool, it can express authenticity. (or not) This is also true when we put stuff in it.

6) Yoga is also a tool, which can be very gentle

7) We could expand this to nature, music, art, etc.

What's really interesting to me is: say I'm using a tool, like a scissor. When I'm stressed, or hasty, the cutting will be less beautiful. The most important part of the tool is how it's handled. (the quality of how it's handled)

Say I want to build a house. When I'm stressed, with the best tools in the world I could easily make something terrible. Also, in a very good mood, with some mediocre tools I could make a beautiful house.

Also, say I'm still building the house. I need to have some skills. For example: using a hammer, saw etc. But there's no need learn more skills forever. There's no need to know how to use a saw in 20 different ways.

Let's look at healing, in a broad sense. On first sight it looks so opposed to non-duality. Healing can contain
- healing from pain
- It takes time
- The personal
- practices
- becoming healthy
- a rawness that doesn't look spiritual

Or is it just the healing concept that differs from the non-duality concept? Maybe healing is a process that we all share as humans. Then it's impersonal and only in this moment.

What's your feedback? Do we need to reconcile concepts? Or is it just the mind that seeks coherence?

In physics, if you want to come up with a theory, there's a simple measure to know how well you're on your way. Physicists have come up with a lot of theories and are always looking for new ones. When a physicist is trying to invent a theory, he/she is looking for a description that accounts for all his experiments. He/she will try out different ideas that fit with the experiment. The way to know how well he/she is doing, is: the more simple the theory is, the better.

For example, some physics: velocity equals distance over time

Now, why am I bothering you with all this on a non-duality forum? I want to compare this to non-dual pointers. For example: consciousness is. The pointer also works because it is simple, just like in physics.

I want to go one step further. In physics, the velocity theory only works in a certain 'domain'. When you approach light speed, it's not true anymore. Likewise, a non-dual pointer only works in a certain (sub)culture, language, a certain point in history, a certain state of consciousness even. (all of this we could call domain)

Anyway, maybe this will look like nonsense.. Am I on to something or is this just my scientific mind going wild? Let me know what your insight is.