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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3598, Sunday, July 19, 2009, Editor: Mark
A level of mental maturity is reached when nothing external is of
any value and the heart is ready to relinquish all. Then the real
has a chance and it grasps it. Delays, if any, are caused by the
mind unwilling to see or to discard.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels
Don't project an idea of reality, of freedom. Be simply aware of
the facts of your existence without wanting change. Seeing things
in this way will bring you a state of deep relaxation both
physical and psychological.
- Jean Klein, from I Am
Tom: Can you explain what non-duality is ?
Richard: Non-duality is a description of the seeing that there is
only Oneness, or rather an attempt to describe this, as an actual
description is impossible. The seeing of Oneness can only occur
when the sense of being a person, an individual living a life
full of choices in a separated world, falls away. When this
happens, the self is seen to be empty, the individual is seen to
be an emanation of consciousness, and 'you' and 'I' are seen to
be the light in which everything arises. The relationship between
the apparent individual and Oneness, or Being itself, is the same
as the relationship between a wave and the ocean. The wave is the
ocean waving; you and I are Oneness 'personing'.
This has been described in many spiritual traditions, from
Advaita to Zen, yet it belongs to none.
The seeing of Oneness either happens or it doesn't. Nothing that
the false self can do, no practice or reading of spiritual texts,
will enable it to see that it is false. I do not give
recommendations, but if I did, in the face of this immense
hopelessness, I would recommend that we relax. This is it. This
is the entirety. This is already the promised paradise. Samsara
and Nirvana are one so we may as well relax and enjoy it.
Tom How did you arrive at this view point or awakening?
Richard This is not a point of view. A point of view is an idea
which emanates from the mind. The mind can never see or realise
non-duality although it may comprehend or miscomprehend many
concepts about it.
Awakening and liberation are either seen or they are not seen.
Here they are seen, but that's not important. In any case, being
awake and being asleep are the same thing, but that cannot be
known while we are asleep. The awful paradox is that there is no
such thing as liberation but that cannot be known until there is
liberation. The mind has a tendency to collapse around such a
paradox.
Tom Has it been a positive force in your life?
Richard No, because I do not have a life. Actually, no one has a
life, but until liberation is seen it will be felt that there is
a person who owns their life and has responsibility for it.
Nevertheless, although liberation has no necessary implications,
there is a tendency for certain changes to take place when
Oneness is seen. For example, a certain level of neurotic
feelings may drop away and there may be more relaxation and
presence. Time is seen through, so there will probably be less
guilt and regret about the past and less anxiety about the
future. The disappearance of meaning, purpose and hope can also
be a great blessing and so can the end of searching. So this
character has a preference for being awake.
Tom Can people learn to wake up to the idea of Non Duality, or is
there just awakening and it either is or it isn't seen.
Richard People can learn about Non-Duality, but we cannot wake up
by learning. Learning is a function of the mind and the mind
cannot help us to awaken although it may fervently believe that
it can. That is the nature of the mind.
Tom In 'The Book of No One', are you giving a description when
you say "There is no one?" Do you mean we are just
experiencing things happening but we have no control over them,
as if we are observing the mind of God through each other?
Richard "There is no one" is not a philosophical
statement, it is a literal description of what is seen in
liberation.
We do not experience things happening, because there is no 'we'.
Things happen, and these may include the sensation that they are
happening for 'me', a person. This sensation ceases when
liberation is seen.
This communication is often misunderstood as stating that we have
no control. That is not what I am saying at all. I am saying that
there is no control because there is no person, which is
altogether different.
If you want to describe Oneness as God observing itself, I think
that is a lovely metaphor, but I tend to avoid such language
myself because the word 'God' can set too many hares racing
across the Western mind. This is because in the West, we tend to
think in terms of a personal creator God. In the East, the
language used about God is much closer to the language used about
non-duality.
Tom: What are your insights into death? What happens to us? Do we
continue in any form?
Richard: Death is the end of the dream of separation. In
liberation and in death (which are the same thing) it is seen
that there is no person, there is only Oneness.
Nothing happens to us in death but that's all right because
nothing is happening to us now. There is no 'us'.
We are not continuing right now, so we do not continue after
death. There is only Being.
Tom: If non-duality is seen, do your choices still matter, the
choice to be good or the choice to be bad, depending on what you
determine to be good and bad?
Richard: There is no one who makes choices. There never was
anyone who made choices. A person may feel that all kinds of
choices matter and may consider them to be good or bad in all
sorts of ways but this is seen through in liberation when the
person falls away.
Tom: If you were a murderer and you awoke to non-duality would
you remain a murderer? If you were a kind and loving person
before you awoke, would you still be kind and loving afterwards?
Richard: There are no rules. Non-duality excludes nothing. As
soon as we exclude something, we are back in duality - we have
non-duality over here and something we have excluded from it over
there.
Nevertheless, if the impulse to commit murder came from a
neurotic or psychopathic tendency, it is quite likely that this
would drop away in the seeing of Oneness. And if the impulse to
be kind and loving came from a compulsive and neurotic need to be
needed or liked, what is often called 'co-dependency', that also
might drop away in liberation.
- Richard Sylvester, interviewed by Tom Carter
Existence or Consciousness is the only reality. Consciousness
plus waking we call waking. Consciousness plus sleep we call
sleep. Consciousness plus dream, we call dream. Consciousness is
the screen on which all the pictures come and go. The screen is
real, the pictures are mere shadows on it.
- Ramana Maharshi