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The Nonduality
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Science and
Nonduality Anthology
Interviews of participants at the Science and
Nonduality Conference 2009.
3-DVD set, 21 interviews, 600 minutes
The following are excerpts from responses
to the question, What is nonduality? They are found on
Volume 3 of the DVD set:
What Is Nonduality?
Peter Russell, Author, Philosopher:
Nonduality ... means the
universe is not dual, there is one common essence to the
universe. ... Science is nondual. It's basic philosophy is that
there is a unified field, a oneness which we are approaching. In
spiritual circles ... the nonduality is where the essence is
awareness ... consciousness ... a different sort of nonduality
... both of them see the fundamental nature of things, the
oneness behind everything.
Thomas Ray,
Professor of Zoology and Computer Science,
Nonduality involves
absence of self or sense of self and the feeling of oneness or
unity with everything, with the universe. I've believed that
nonduality is just the plain truth. The universe is one thing and
we're all part of the universe and that it isn't nonduality that
needs explanation, it's duality that needs explanation. In fact,
there is a mental organ that produces duality, just one. Without
the activity of that mental organ, we would experience nonduality
as the normal state.
Shaikh Kabir
Helminski, Author, Sufi teacher:
The way we see it in the
Sufi tradition is that -- particularly for mystic consciousness
-- we understand that everything is rooted in the divine.
Everything is unified in a field of oneness. Practically speaking
what that means is that my consciousness, my love, my will, my
generosity if I have any, my capacity for forgiveness, all of
these have their attributes in the source of the divine. ... This
nonduality has a kind of quality to it ... that is deeply
personal as well as cosmic and impersonal because we realize the
human being is the ripened fruit of that nonduality. The
nonduality doesn't cancel our human individuality. ... We don't
make a big deal about nonduality because we know and trust that
everything comes from God. The God that we're talking about is
subtle and integral to this whole creation. ... Poetry suggests
it. We communicate more through poetry than through abstract
theory.
John Prendergast,
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology, CIIS
Nonduality, for me,
points to the basic absence of difference between self and other,
between subject and object, between perceiver and perceived. When
the Buddha said form is emptiness and emptiness is form, this is
statement of nondual perception. When nothing looks out and sees
that it's everything, this is the experience of nonduality. The
apparent division between self and other is seen through. ... The
reality of the seamless wholeness nature of reality reveals
itself. ... It's a deep understanding and knowing that there is
essentially no separation.
Olga Louchakova,
Director,
Nonduality is the certain
perspective on self and consciousness which makes one to
experience being and consciousness as undivided and nonseparate
from every other consciousness which can be perceived initially
as different. It's the experience of consciousness as being
undivided, experience of your own being as being connected with
the rest of the universe, and being one with the rest of the
universe even though you may not have the perception of the whole
universe at the moment. Most importantly, the experience of
nonduality is the experience of authenticity, of authentic,
unlimited, nonconstricted being, experience of being yourself,
experience of living life with no fear.
Tim Freke,
Scholar, Author, Stand up Philosopher:
My experience is that
fundamentally reality is characterized by polarity. For me it's
not nondual or dual. It's both at the same time. ... Polarity is
opposites, but they can only exist together. ... They're two and
one at the same time. The paradox of our predicament is that it's
two and one at the same time. I see no reason to prejudice one
over the other. In fact, I see a necessity to be conscious of
both. What I've looked for is an image that can capture that
experience. For me the image is lucid living, which is a state
comparable to lucid dreaming, only now. ... On the one hand I am
Tim ... I'm actually so individual that I inhabit this
unique point in space and time and no one else can or ever will
inhabit it. Then there's the discovery of this deeper nature, the
subject itself, not the object, the "I", that which is
witnessing this, and if I go deeply into that now it is a vast
spaciousness in which all this is arising just like in a dream.
And those two exist together, so "here" it's all one,
"here" it's all separate. Which is true? They're both
true.
Science and
Nonduality Anthology
Interviews of participants at the Science and
Nonduality Conference 2009.
3-DVD set, 21 interviews, 10 hours
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1149233