An Introduction To Non-Duality (Talk & Q&A)

What is Non-duality? This talk is an introduction to the non-dual understanding, the meaning of the words and concepts used, and the simple ways in which it helps us recognise our True Nature. The talk is followed by a Q&A session.

Transcript

Welcome to this talk on an introduction to non-duality.

The idea occurred to me because everything I've done on the platform so far is about non-duality,

But I've never actually done a talk to properly introduce this so-called movement or modality.

My first question when I heard about it was,

Why not call it oneness?

Why non-duality?

And there's two explanations for this.

The first one is that oneness implies two-ness and three-ness more than non-duality,

Because when you say it's not two,

What's left is emptiness,

It's just a.

.

.

Well,

It's not a number,

It's nothing,

You can't quite grasp it.

And the other reason is precisely because of that,

Because it comes from what is not true,

So it speaks to what is true by explaining what is not true.

And I really like that approach,

Because it's easier in a way to say,

Well,

That's not it,

That's not what I'm pointing to,

Than to say this is what I'm pointing to,

Because what we are pointing to in these talks is beyond words,

Beyond concepts,

Beyond names.

Non-duality says that the ultimate truth is silent,

It cannot be spoken about,

But it still makes the concession that some form of language is of course necessary to bring the mind that uses a lot of concepts to recognize its true nature.

In this way it is an all-encompassing approach.

By saying that there is no separation,

That means that there is no difference,

There is no duality,

And because it encompasses everything,

That means that it doesn't disagree with any other approach,

It doesn't disagree with talking about energy,

With psychology and exploring the mind,

It just embraces all of these together.

So in a way non-duality is the core of what all religions and spiritual texts and modalities point to,

Which is simply that our peace and our happiness is already here now.

We are already whole and complete,

And everything wants to convey this message,

Every approach is trying to say that in different words,

In different levels of understanding.

So non-duality does it by saying explore your direct experience,

Notice right here that there are thoughts appearing in your awareness,

That you are aware of your body,

But notice also that since you are aware of those things,

They are not who you are,

They are just expressions of who you are.

And so it guides us directly back to our essential self,

And here some non-dual teachers say that there is no self,

My personal preference is to say that the self is awareness,

We are aware,

We are here now,

We are always in the present moment,

And awareness itself is our true and most essential self.

By not having desires to change anything,

It is peace itself,

By not seeking something other than what is,

It is happiness itself,

By embracing every thought,

Every feeling,

Every experience,

Every circumstance that appears,

It is love itself.

With these words,

With these concepts,

We can point to what is already here,

What is the true nature of all of our objective experience.

Another thing that was kind of strange for me at the beginning was this idea of objective experience,

Because even the mind in non-duality is an object of awareness,

And before that I used to see the mind as less tangible than physical reality and feelings,

But by generalizing it this way,

It is easier to see that there is awareness on the one hand,

And then all that appears is in awareness,

And all of them are objects of attention or objects of awareness.

Here of course there is still the duality between awareness and the objects of awareness,

So as we continue exploring awareness itself,

We begin to understand that everything appears right here,

So if there is a sound that is coming from further away,

It seems like the sound comes to the body and is then processed by the brain,

But this happens so quickly that in our awareness it appears right here,

And when we don't identify with the mind-body,

But we begin identifying with awareness itself,

Then everything happens within.

When we interact with someone,

Both this body and the other body is within awareness,

When we listen to music that's coming from speakers that are outside of the body,

It's still happening within our awareness,

And so it is this removal of separation that brings everything together,

Everything is known by and also made of awareness itself by the beingness in which they appear,

And this is what I love about non-duality,

That we can experientially know this and be this moment to moment.

Something very important in non-duality is that suffering and tension comes from this idea that we are separate.

The very first belief that we have that makes us suffer is that I am the mind-body,

And the world is separate from me and others are separate from me,

And just this belief makes it like I need to get something from them,

I need to prove myself to them,

I need to be a certain way.

But when we explore our actual experience and we see that our essential self is not the mind-body,

But it is the very fact that I am here now,

I am awareness beyond conditioning,

Beyond past and future,

Beyond the ideas that I hold about myself,

Then it becomes clear that I am the peace and the happiness that I seek,

It is already here.

With the removal of this separation comes precisely the end of seeking,

Which is falling into peace,

Falling into beingness,

Falling into the now.

Another thing that non-duality talks about is this overlooking of our true nature,

Our true self,

Our awareness itself is so close to us,

It is who we are,

And because it is so close to us,

We overlook it,

We look to the mind and to the body to find peace and happiness,

We look to the world,

Circumstances and people to find peace and happiness.

When if we come closer,

If we just remember that the fact of being aware is itself the miracle that we want to find,

That awareness itself is this peace that is changeless,

That is constant,

And that is also another reason why we overlook it,

Because it is so constant,

So underlying,

So in the background of all of our experience,

That the mind focuses on things that are seemingly more interesting,

Like thoughts,

Like feelings,

Like the world,

And there is nothing wrong with focusing on these things,

But we shouldn't focus on them to find peace and happiness,

Because they cannot give it to us,

They cannot be who we are,

They can remind us of who we are,

But they are not who we are.

What occurs to me now also to say is that non-duality is the final understanding,

It is very clear,

And as I said earlier,

It is the essence of all other teachings,

It doesn't say that any other approach is not relevant or is less good,

That's why it's the final understanding,

Because there is nothing else to explore in a way,

Because the reality of our experience is non-dual,

So anything else that you do still fits the so-called model of non-duality.

Okay,

So I think I'll start answering questions now.

What meditation techniques do you use to get to a sense of non-duality?

I think this fits with what I just said,

It depends on where you are on the spiritual path.

I started with just mindfulness and noticing my thoughts,

And when I came across the Kartole to try and be in that space between thoughts,

And just rest in the silence,

In the gaps,

And now the way non-duality has helped me is to understand that my true self is awareness itself,

And it is in awareness that thoughts appear,

So the gap between thoughts is the source of the mind,

It is just resting as awareness.

But of course all meditation techniques are relevant,

You can meditate with a candle,

You can do visualizations,

Anything that helps you be in the present moment,

That helps you get a sense of feeling your own being,

Feeling that you are here now,

Always.

Another question,

The sense of non-duality is fairly easy to achieve or get when your circumstances are okay.

How to achieve it in the middle of struggles?

It's really important to get in touch with the body,

And feel what's going on as many times during the day as we can,

Because if we don't feel what's happening in the body,

Then these feelings give rise to anxious thoughts and eventually anxious behavior.

And the more we are aware,

The more we can be with them and embrace them,

The better it is and the less of these outer expressions we get.

Of course it's not always possible to be mindful and to be present.

I remember early on in my journey what I used to do was to still ask,

Even though there was a lot of tension and anxiety,

Still ask,

What would love do in this moment?

And do my best to come from this place.

And then later on during the day to go back and feel what happened,

Why was there so much anxiety,

What was triggered in me,

And try to release that.

And the more we feel it,

The more we can be present with what's happening,

The less we get lost in the body and the mind,

And the more we can rest as the presence and accept everything that is arising.

So I would say it's a process of continuously dealing with our anxieties,

Our tensions,

But also a deepening of the understanding of what is true,

Who am I really,

How does the mind work,

How does life unfold.

My suggestion is to keep exploring this reality of experience through meditation,

Through various modalities,

And to continuously go back to what is it that gives us tensions during the day,

What is it that makes us anxious or resists our experience.

And over time it's fascinating to notice because there's a memory of what used to trigger you.

And now when you're in a similar situation,

It no longer triggers you.

So that means you have healed the part of you that used to be triggered by that circumstance,

That person,

That event.

And of course it's also important when your circumstances are okay to keep coming back to presence and to peace,

Because that's also a strengthening of the knowing of what's true.

It strengthens your certainty that you are okay,

That you are not your circumstances,

You are not your mind,

And you are not your body.

Another question,

Do you find you need to do a grounding meditation or some equivalent?

Last week I went into deep meditation for three days in a row without someone disconnected all week until I realized,

And then did body scans and grounding.

Yes,

I think it's relevant.

If you meditate a lot,

Especially in the beginning,

You reach a state of awareness,

And it seems like you're more into spirit reality than physical reality.

And when you recognize that,

It's important to work on these lower chakras,

The first and the second chakra,

And come back to rooting the body in the present.

To me,

Grounding meditation and balancing,

It's more of an energetic practice.

And of course,

To have a better moment-to-moment experience,

To feel comfortable in the body,

It's important to realign also the energy centers.

I would say over time,

Exploring your true nature,

Knowing yourself as awareness,

Would include this rebalancing.

It's out of love for the body,

Out of love and a desire to have a nice experience that you like your body to be aligned,

You like to eat healthy,

Etc.

I would answer one more question.

Is it possible that a person can become non-reactive to most external stresses and not realize that at some point you need to actually react?

For example,

Get angry.

A great example I love giving here is a mother and her child.

So when a child does something dangerous,

The mother instantly says,

Don't do that,

Or just takes the child's attention away.

And this is a reaction that comes from love.

So when our reactions come from love and from care,

Then we can of course,

And we should react in cases where they come from a sense of lack and fear.

Then it's best to do what I said earlier,

To ask what would love do in this moment and later in the day to feel into what was going on.

Thank you for being here with me.

If questions appear for you,

You can message me or also join my group here on Inside Taima.

Otherwise,

I wish you a beautiful time.

Thanks again for being here.

Reviews

I have enJOYed the people and the “presence” that I experience as I reside in non-duality oriented communities since 2008. This is the clearest, most succinct offering I have ever heard. Thank U. I will be haunted by the simplicity of “what would love do” for the foreseeable future🥰! www.gratefulness.org, ahimsa www.compassioncourse.org

I really love this talk and explanation about non duality. Thank you. It has helped increase my understanding. 🙏

Excellent talk, on duality, I enjoyed it very much, thank you! ✨🙏🏼

Thank you that was very helpful. I love the ‘what would love do’ idea. I have just done a deep dive into Eckhart Tolle teachings and have found myself saying ‘what would Eckhart do?’ 😆
Your meditations are very aligned with where I am at currently and I am very grateful for your gentle and insightful guidance 🙏❤️

Thanks. I really appreciate your teachings. I recognise the truth of non-duality, but I like that you consciously bring love/God into your teachings, and that I need that. Thanks again 🙏