The Tao of Advaita

In the Tao of Advaita, there is no discrimination or judgment of any experience, as being inherently more or less valid than any other experience, such as: reality vs. illusion, good vs. bad, fortunate vs. unfortunate, awakened vs. unawakened, free vs not-free (yes, you have to pay! There's still no free lunch), or any other of the seemingly, infinite diverse dualistic experiences one can possibly imagine. The Tao is all of those dualistic experiences, simultaneously. They are all equal as the Tao. No experience can ever not be anything other than of the Tao. Believe it or not, the Tao is all one can know, ever has known, or ever will know. But it's infinitely creative and sneaky, and keeps coming up with new schemes to keep your mind busy and fool you into spending your money, so that's a lot to know, or not know, as the case may be.

And so likewise, there is no discrimination between what you ‘think’ you are, and what you ‘think’ you are not -- for example, the ‘human’ self and the ‘divine’ self. That is the Tao experiencing dualistic identities (Why? Who knows? Only the Tao knows, and it isn’t telling. It’s an eternal, ineffable mystery, to which no one has the answer, so get over it and stop asking). The instant there is a sole/soul identification with a separate self, then self and not-self are magically created, and thus the relative, conceptual, space-time world of opposites, separation, discrimination and judgment is also pulled out of the magician's hat (again, don’t ask why. It’s magic! Give me a break!). And so the Tao is both the identification and the non-identification, both self and not-self, and yes, I’m sorry to have to tell you, both YOU and I, married forever, for better or for worse, etc. All of these diverse separate self-identities are always the boundless vessel of the Tao experiencing and expressing itself. They are what we ‘believe’ our selves to be, but there is never really any self separate from the Tao. If there was, I wouldn’t be wasting my time writing this, as I would be too busy being my separate human self trying to re-unite with my divine self, so I could have one of those really cool enlightenment highs.

There is no way to grasp the Tao either (nor any way to un-grasp it) because there is nothing separate from Tao to do the grasping. In dualistic terms, the Tao is that which is grasped and that which is grasping. In other words, it is grasping itself (perverted wanker that it is!). So there is no need to try grasping it, because it is already grasped. So don’t even bother trying. But if it feels good, go for it. Knock yourself out! What do I care?

Lastly (I’m sure you’re greatly relieved to hear it), the Tao of Advaita is not about avoiding something to be in the now. There is nothing to avoid. The now is Tao, and vice versa. They’re inseparable. They even rhyme, so that’s just too friggin’ coincidental not to mean something. And as long as there is an apparently separate self believing it is NOT already in the now trying to be in the now, you can never realize you're already there. It is like trying to fit a shoe inside of itself. Go ahead, give it a try, I can wait ... let me know when you give up. The shoe was already there, right? Nothing needed to be done about it. So shoes are smarter than most of us. (Who knew?) It’s always happening now. The now is unavoidable. You are always here now. You can never not be here now.

So in summary: whatever you are, whoever you are, wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, why ever you are, you are always and forever the Tao.

So might as well relax and enjoy the journey ... or not. Either way ... well, you get the message.

P.S. By the way, just in case you think that this let’s you off the spiritual hook, so to speak, think twice. I’ve got news for you: it’s only just begun. Realizing the Tao is like graduating from spiritual elementary school: the ‘let’s pretend/make-believe’ games are over, and the real-life adventure of being a human begins. Sorry if you thought you could just hang out in Nirvana for the rest of your days! But at least you get to leave all that weighty baggage of your personal history behind and the needless suffering along with it. But I suggest you continue to brush your teeth everyday, just in case.

Have fun!