Scratching with a feather

What follows is a "beginner's" view of Advaita, or Non-duality as an experience described in time. Of course, this is a contradiction in terms because in reality there are no beginners, and no masters, in time. There is just THIS awareness of what is happening right now.

"Don't keep searching for the truth; 
just let go of your opinions. 

For the mind in harmony with the Tao, all selfishness disappears.

With not even a trace of self-doubt, 
you can trust the universe completely. 

All at once you are free, 
with nothing left to hold on to. 

All is empty, brilliant, 
perfect in its own being.

In the world of things as they are, 
there is no self, no non self. 

If you want to describe its essence, 
the best you can say is "Not-two." 

In this "Not-two" nothing is separate, 
and nothing in the world is excluded. 

The enlightened of all times and places have entered into this truth. 

In it there is no gain or loss; 
one instant is ten thousand years. 

There is no here, no there; 
infinity is right before your eyes. 

The tiny is as large as the vast when objective boundaries have vanished; 

the vast is as small as the tiny when you don't have external limits. 

Being is an aspect of non-being; 
non-being is no different from being.

Until you understand this truth, 
you won't see anything clearly."

- Seng T'san, the third Zen Patriarch, 
"The Mind of Absolute Trust," from Stephen Mitchell's "The Enlightened Heart"

THE SCRATCH OF AN ITCHY FEATHER

The subject of Advaita (an ancient sanskrit word, meaning: "Not Two") is fascinating, but talking about it is like scratching a perpetual itch with a feather.

I have fallen in love with the subject, and enjoy the challenge of trying to explain it, or share it; even though, by its very nature, it is beyond any definition grasped by the dualistic mind. The mind always needs comparative ideas and previously known "facts" in order to appropriate any new concepts. All known truth is borrowed information and does not come through a pure channel.

Advaita, or non-duality, is elusive. It is not a religion in itself, in fact, its understanding leads to the end of all religious belief as being final, for these are seen as merely pointers or "reference points" to the reality that is ever-present beyond them. Non-duality is deeply rooted in the foundations of all the teachings of the great founders of the world's religions, as the principal of oneness, as the fulfillment of the religion and its practices.

• - Jesus speaks of non-duality when he mentions the oneness between himself, his followers, and God the Father.

• - Sufis interpret Mohammed's creedal call as being "There is nothing but Allah."

• - Buddhists speak of the emptiness of all things; "form is emptiness, emptiness is form."

• - Hindus speak of the unity of life: "all is Brahman."

The perceived problems in life that lead everyone to seek fulfillment through a variety of means, religion, career, wealth, fame, sex, drugs, alcohol, food, etc., all seem to result from the overwhelming "itch" of this sense of apparent separation from the source of unity or completeness.

RELIGION, THE SCRATCH OF GRACE

Religion, a means of "re-connecting" (from latin re-ligere, connect again), appears at first, for some of us, to be the best form of scratching for the itch of this anxiety, or suffering, that is the apparent separation. But if you look at it deeply, religion often only serves to feed the sense of separation by strengthening the illusion of a "destination" or state of being that is "out there" or distant from the present reality; that somehow must be attained or "realized."

In Christianity it's called "salvation," and depending on the denominational interpretation, is something that is received as a gift, but not fulfilled until after death, or is a process that continues forever as one develops through grace that grows in response to effort, into the image of Christ. ("Theosis") where an individual soul "communes with God in heaven" for eternity.

In Buddhism, this "reconnecting" is seen as awakening or enlightenment, and is attained either in a bright moment of Satori (sudden awakening), or is a gradual growth into self-awareness that culminates in the attainment of Nirvana - or consciousness of the emptiness of everything that is mythically described as the Pure Land (a kind of Buddhist heaven).

All religions speak of a journey - but for there to be a journey implies a destination that is not here - a physical or spiritual "place" that exists elsewhere in time. The problem is that time, of course, is an agreed upon mental projection that does not exist in reality, but serves as a mental tool for dividing what is actually the eternal present into manageable moments.

So, apparently, from a religious point of view, there are seekers. Their seeking leads them on a journey through life to an apparent future state of existence that fulfills all desire for meaning. As the seeking and searching becomes more intense the distance between the one who seeks and the goal of the search grows ever wider.

NO SCRATCH, NO ITCH - MY APPARENT EXPERIENCE

One day I became very aware of the futility of this process of constantly seeking - as if somehow I'd managed to peek behind the curtain in the Emerald City and see the show for what it is. The desire to seek went away and in that instant I realized that there is no separation between awakening and the present moment. There was liberation happening - not as a process but as eternally present. There was no journey, there was no destination - in that instant I was already here where everything happens - it only happens right here. No past, or future - just right here and right now. This awareness is pure grace - no effort, no sacrifice, no bartering - it just happened.

There was no sense that I had become something different, or someone special, there was no desire to shed all my possessions and move to a cave in the Himalayas. Apart from the nagging headache that lingered for a few days, everything was perfectly ordinary and very natural. There is, however a tremendous lingering desire to tell people about it, - which to me is just another form of the "itch," indicating the continued presence of an apparent ego that still wants to preserve and exert its influence upon me - re-affirming my sense of separateness from all things. But this too is to be accepted.

The ultimate joke in all of this is that all my seeking and searching had to be. There was no purpose in it other than it had to be so that it could lead to its own end. There is only that which leads to what is happening now. It was not bad, and it was not good - it just happened.

The awareness that IS this doesn't require anything from anyone. No change of religion, no asceticism, no acquisition or disposal. All is contained in it, for there is nothing else! There is also no apparent discouragement for doing these things either - they happen as necessary, for no other reason than that they seem appropriate. There is no sense of bartering behavior for good favor. Whatever is done is done for its own sake and the morality of it is decided by its impact and not by its intent.

Also, there is no compulsion that this must be the way things should be for everyone else - for in this awakening there is only one Self experiencing all of this through everything that is contained within it.

WHAT NOW?

Everything is as it should be, and always has been. All of the suffering in life appears to be rooted in the act of non-acceptance of things as they are - good, or bad. This doesn't mean that we should choose to be nihilistic and accept bad things without resistance, or that life has no meaning. On the contrary, everything has infinite meaning and happens as part of the experience of the only Self. There are no more isolated events - all events, good or bad, affect everyone. Compassion in awareness, is no longer the work of a few, but the responsibility of all. The ego appears to exist as a means of protection from the overwhelming pain of universal awareness of suffering, thus it might be perceived as dangerous to seek its elimination.

In reality we do not exist as separate, unconnected beings, but the illusion of separateness has a purpose that can only be seen in light of the awareness of all that is happening.

Life is This - all that is happening right now is life.

Life is not a temporary thing - it is always appearing and disappearing in multiple forms, with the consciousness that is life, seeing itself, continuing.

Don't seek the experience of awakening - it cannot be sought. It cannot be attained. It is already the case - it needs only to be accepted. Reality can be trusted - it does not need our approval or need to be understood. It is just what is happening.

RELAX!!!!