Nonduality
Greg is editor of Nondualism, Yogas and Personality Characteristics, author of Presence, and editor of the Buddhist Numbered Lists page.
Contents
Comments and suggestions welcome! Send mail to goode@dpw.com or
to Greg.
(Webmaster's note: Greg
Goode's webpage is entitled 'Presence')
Introduction
This page is not just about philosophy, and not just about
non-dualism. Its purpose is to assist in the intellectual
understanding of non-dualistic philosophy. Using the intellect in
this way is a time-honored tradition in Eastern spiritual paths
such as orthodox Advaita Vedanta and Madhyamika Buddhism.
Spiritual teachers in the West, such as Krishnamurti, Jean
Klein and Francis Lucille, have also used this method.
The purpose of this method is
never dialectic cleverness or the mastery of a body of
information. That is, the motive is not intellectual; it is
spiritual. The method is merely a tool, one among many, to remove
ignorance so that Truth is revealed in its full glory. Not
everyone needs this particular tool.
Who Can Use this Tool
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The one who can really use this particular tool is the one who
desires to deeply understand non-dualism but feels blocked,
intellectually stuck on certain points. For example, I have a
friend who travels the world attending non-dualist satsangs,
asking question after question about free will. He is troubled,
believing that a clear non-dualist understanding would deprive
him of free will and hence steal the joy of voluntarily
meditating; he also believes that not having free will would turn
him into an irresponsible determinist. Another friend couldn't
understand what non-dualism was getting at because he had a
strong belief that "I'm In Here and the world is Out
There." Another friend is very much in love with his guru
and even believes that understanding non-dualism will assist in
enlightenment. But he also believes that non-dual understanding
and enlightenment will put an end to his intensely spiritual and
pleasureable feelings.
Though these problems are not unmixed with emotional components,
their belief components are intellectual, and are amenable to
philosophical tools. For example, the "In Here/Out
There" friend learned to see that this duality depends on an
arbitrary and dispensible dividing line between inner and outer.
Since the moment of that flash of insight, his understanding,
peace and happiness have improved dramatically. To paraphrase
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, if the thorn in our foot is an
intellectual one, then perhaps an intellectual thorn can remove
it. We then throw both thorns away.
Western philosophers have less to say than Eastern philosophers
about non-duality as a thoroughgoing metaphysical view. A few
Western schools come close, such as the ancient Greek monists,
the German idealists, and modern antirepresentationalists such as
Donald Davidson and Richard Rorty. Instead, much of Western
philosophy operates within the confines of the perennial Western
dualities.
Some Classic Western Dualities
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The biggest obstacle to an intellectual understanding of
non-dualism is the belief about a duality that it is
philosophically necessary. It is the belief that one side or
the other of a duality is a true view. It is the notion that
our network of beliefs or philosophy of life would be chaotic
or intolerable if these dualites were dispensed with.
According to non-dualism however, all dualities can be
resolved or dissolved. Eastern philosophies have been
accomplishing this for thousands of years, as each generation
discovers anew the great non-dualist philosophers and sages
such as the Buddha, Nagarjuna, Gaudapada, Shankara, Hui Neng,
Sengtsan, Shinran Shonin, Dogen, Yunmen, or in our own times,
the crystal-clear dialectics of Krishna Menon and the
soft-spoken ideas of Shunryu Suzuki.
How to Use Western
Philosophy (Go
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We can employ the method of Western philosophy one duality at
a time, by picking and choosing the arguments that will ease
our intellectual tension around a certain point. For example,
we might feel tension about non-duality because it seems to
make the mental world more real than the physical world, yet
that pesky physical world just won't go away. Or we might
feel tension with non-dualism's seemingly irresponsible take
on free will and moral responsibility. Mental/physical and
freedom/determinism -- both of these are deeply rooted,
sticky Western dualities.
Many of our most stubborn and cherished dualities are the
product of Western philosophy! In using the Western
philosophical method, we are employing a medication that
comes from the same part of the world as the disease. We
don't have to swallow the doctor's entire kit bag, just the
particular pill for our problem. For example, here is how
Western philosophers can help with some of the more
intransigent Western dualities. This list is certainly not
exhaustive!
Western remedies to
dualities (Go
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Good portals to philosophy
on-line (Go
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WESTERN PHILOSOPHERS HELPFUL IN THE STUDY
OF NON-DUALISM (In chronological
order) (Go
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Ancient Greek Monist Philosophers
They argued that all of reality was composed of single
substances, such as:
Thales (ca 615-540) "All is
water."
Anaximander (ca 600-540) All comes from the
Boundless.
Anaximenes (ca 580-500) All comes from vapor.
Heraclitus (ca 540-480) All comes from fire.
Plato (427-347 BCE)
Perhaps the Western world's most infuential thinker, Plato is
sometimes considered a mystic, but rarely a non-dualist. Web
resources include Plato
entry on Garth Kemerling's Philosophy Site.
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Lucretius (1st century B.C.)
Argued poetically that there are only atoms and the void -
all other phenomena are incidental properties of these. His
principal work is De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of the
Universe). Web resources include this.
Plotinus (205-270)
Wrote in the Platonic tradition and argued that all of
manifestation is an emanation from the One, and so never
separate from it. Web resources include material from
Plotinus's principal work, The Enneads, which can be read
on-line at The
Internet Classics Archive.
Meister Eckhart (1260-1327/8)
Web resources include the Meister Eckhart
Page.
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David Hume (1711-1776)
In A Treatise of Human Nature, Section I. i. 4, Hume argues
that causality is nothing more than the regular association
of ideas. We infer causality as follows: "F events have
always been followed by G ones, and so when a new F event
occurs we predict a new G one." But it is unwarranted to
think that this inference entails causal powers in the things
observed. Web resources include Ty's
David Hume home page.
George Berkeley (1685-1753)
Berkeley is the philosopher whose theory gives rise to the
problem given out in Philosophy 101 classes. "If a tree
falls in the forest when there is no one to hear it, does it
make a sound?" Berkeley is said to answer No. He argues
that no material substance or object can exist apart from a
spirit or mind to perceive it. His most accessible work is
the engagingly written Three Dialogues Between Hylas and
Philonous, in which Hylas (which means "rock") is
the materialist who is intrigued by the immaterialist
arguements of Philonous (means "lover of
knowledge"), Berkeley's protagonist.
Web resources include a great overall Berkeley
"portal" page, and a Comprehensive
Berkeley studies page.
Immanuel Swedenborg (1688-1771)
Christian mystic and esotericist. Web resources include the Swedenborg
Collection and works (site in German).
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Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814)
One of the more non-dual of the German idealists, Fichte
sought in Critique of all Revelation (1792) and Foundations
of the Science of Knowledge (1794-95) to dissolve the
conventional duality between the knowing metaphysical subject
and the known object by seeing God's Being as the only being,
and manifestation as a picture or Schema. Web resources and
excerpts include the Fichte
entry on the Garth Kemerling's Philosophy Site.
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Schopenhauer's principal work is The World as Will and Idea
(1819), in which he sets forth his view on the internal
reality of all manifestation as will, arguing that this will
is one and universal. Schopenhauer studied Hinduism and
Buddhism. Web resources include a good Schopenhauer
overview page which brings out his familiaritywith
Buddhist and Vedic writings, and the Schopenhauer
page on the Island of Freedom Website.
William James (1842-1909)
James' most relevant works for the understanding of
non-dualism are The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)
and Essays in Radical Empiricism (1912). The first book
examines religious belief and mystical experiences; the
second book deals with the philosophical issues relating to
consciousness and objects of consciousness.
For an in-depth examination of James' treatment of the nature
of experience in its relation to solipsism, see Two Reflections
on William James, Duality and Radical Empiricism.
Web resources on James include Garth Kemerling's William
James entry.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
Among many other things, Wittgenstein demystified the notion
that language accurately refers to reality. Later in his
career, he construed philosophy as a way to "relieve the
puzzlement generated by (philosophical) misuses of ordinary
language." This quote and one of the best Wittgenstein
resources from the Wittgenstein entry on Garth
Kemerling's Philosophy Pages. See Wittgenstein.
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Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
Sometimes difficult to read, Heidegger, comes closest to
non-dual investigations in Being and Time (1927). He explored
the meaning of both Being and of Nothing. As Garth Kemerling
writes in his excellent Philosophy
Pages:
As abstract as this sounds, there are people who have
actually utilized Heidegger's writings in their spiritual
investigations of non-dualist understanding. One friend of
mine wrote "He's helpful in understanding the human
sense of being within primordial nondual being, individual
being in the world, being in time, and that this individual
being is essential to, inseperable from, the whole of
being."
Thanks to Andrew
MacNab for information on Heidegger. Web resources
include Garth Kemerling's Heidegger
page, and lots of links on the Heidegger
Home Page.
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Franklin Merrell-Wolff (1887-1985)
Dr. Wolff was an American mathematician and philosopher who, after many
years of searching, had a series of transcendental experiences which led
to his formulation of a phlosophy which he called "Introceptualism." He
spent the last half of his very long life writing several books and many
essays, and teaching small groups who gathered around him at his remote
home on the slope of Mt. Whitney.
This is how Merell-Wolff describes his philosophy in his book The
Philosophy of Consciousness-Withut-An-Object:
Web resources include The Official Joel
Goldsmith/Infinite Way website.
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Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Catholic contemplative, who interpreted Eastern teachings to
the West. Web resources include the Columbia
University Thomas Merton Papers collection.
William Samuel (1924-1996)
An American original, William Samuel had been exposed to
various Western metaphysical teachings, and while stationed
with the U.S. Army in Asia during WWII, learned Taoism. He
synthesized this understanding into a compelling non-dual,
heart-filled, down-home American idiom in his several books.
Although not widely known by the spiritual-seeking community,
Samuel wrote books, received visitors and corresponded with
his readers from his home in the American South for almost
twenty years.
Web resources include the Official William Samuel
Foundation page.
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Richard Taylor, University of Rochester
Ameican philosopher and popular teacher who argues that good
and evil are not metaphysically basic or supernaturally
founded, but rather, conventional like rules of a game. At
the University of Rochester, his ethics class called Good 'n'
Evil has perhaps the largest student enrollment in all the
humanities. The new edition of his book on this topic is Good
and Evil: A New Direction (Prometheus Books, November 1999).
Web resources include his "http://origins.org/offices/billcraig/docs/craig-taylor0.html"Debate
with William Lane Craig on the basis of morality (link no longer working).
Richard Rorty (1931- )
Prominent philosopher and modern exponent of the work of John
Dewey, Donald Davidson and Wittgenstein, Rorty sometimes
calls himself an "antirepresentationalist." In
Objectivity, relativism and truth, Vol. I (Cambridge
University Press, 1991), he argues that knowledge and inquiry
are a matter of a reworking the web of beliefs. Further, that
beliefs do not represent anything outside of the web. He is
an energetic and engaging writer. Web resources include an article on how not
to read Rorty: www. the-spa.com/thirteen/rortypap.htm (link may no longer working)
A Course in Miracles (ACIM)
Based very loosely on Christianity, ACIM is
a way to see the Truth of God as the truth that we are. There
are many courses and study guides available on-line, in
bookstores, and through teaching centers. Web resources
include The Official ACIM page,
Foundation for a Course in
Miracles page.
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--Fin--