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15 minute televison broadcast about KIVA Yosy Flug writes, “Nonduality is an attitude which expresses in thought, word, and action, moment-to-moment, the realization of the essential underlying all-pervading unity of all existence.”
Most people who function within spiritual spheres of life, can understand Yosy’s definition of nonduality at some level and can communicate it to others within their spiritual spheres.
Go outside spiritual spheres and you may find you can’t explain nonduality no matter how hard you try.
Here is a method for explaining nonduality to almost anyone who asks. Make sure the questioner knows what duality is. Describe what dual speakers for a stereo system are, or dual controls on a driving instructor’s car.
Duality can also mean two dissimilar items. Mike Myers playing the role of both Austin Powers and Dr. Evil in the same movie is an example of a dissimilar duality.
Next talk about dualities as opposites: waking and sleep, sickness and health, life and death.
Clarify and repeat that duality means “two.”
Next explain that nonduality means “not two,” or “not duality.” Simplify by saying that nonduality means “one,” or “oneness.”
Ask the questioner how, within the flow of his or her life, dualities are philosophically viewed: Waking and sleeping. Riches and poverty. Life and death. Peace and war. Love relationships and loneliness. Hunger and satiety. Fear and calm.
The questioner would likely say they accept these polarites, since they experience them very keenly. Invite the questioner to focus on the feeling of wholeness that is realized when they state that they accept the wholeness of a duality. Offer that this feeling of wholeness that arises out of acceptance, is the sense of nonduality.
You might want to clarify that acceptance isn’t passivity, rather acceptance is readiness for action.
If the questioner values wholeness and needs to pursue it, the discussion may go further. The dualities of separation may be investigated: Me and God; my religion and theirs; my political party and yours; you and me.
Otherwise you’re left saying, “Some people think it’s important to pursue nonduality to great depths. Others don’t care one way or the other. In any case, you now have a sense of what nonduality is.”
This description of nonduality may not be the start of an investigation into nonduality as Yosy describes it, but it is a starting line.
Jerry Katz is the editor of One: Essential Writings on Nonduality. For nearly ten years he has run Nonduality.com, Nonduality Salon, and the daily letter Nonduality Highlights. Visit http://nonduality.com. Contact Jerry at jerry@nonduality.com
One: Essential Writings on Nonduality
Edited by Jerry KatzOne: Essential Writings on Nonduality weaves:
-the desire for nonduality,
-the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi,
-self-realization confessions from major traditions: Sufism, Judaism, Christianity, Native American Tradition, Buddhism, Taoism, Advaita;
-the nondual perspectives of psychotherapy, education of children, art, and the movie The Matrix;
-and a unifying conclusion grounded in the Heart Sutra
to present a far-reaching introduction to the teaching of nonduality.
Purchase One at Amazon Here.
