The Inconvenient Truth About non-Duality

The non-dual identity is all the rage these days and many seek out the personalities that claim to have it. We know they have it because they take their non-seriousness very seriously.

They say there is no identity free of ‘self.’ I guess that’s why they are often some of the most self-absorbed personalities on the planet. We love the sound of their abstractions, “the presence of Being is annulled by the egoic dialogue of contemplative reverie.”

Whaaat! Good grief, how we eat this stuff up.

Nevertheless, it's all very simple. Free your ‘self’ of ‘my’ identity, and you free your ‘self.' Or continue to realize my ego and stay identified with your own. To liberate from the suffering of ‘self’ means to experience the liberation of another. See me free and free your 'self.'

Think of it this way: You constructed a dream that has many aspects, not the least of which is that it is populated by other 'selves.' So what is 'their' purpose? Why need ‘they’ be experienced at all? Why do others cause us the most problems? Why is most of our suffering always associated with other 'people'?

Answer these questions and "awaken."

But this is absurd to the ‘self’ weaned on individualism and, therefore, it is a voice in the wilderness.

Nevertheless, no ‘one’ can be liberated until ALL are.

‘Judgment’ is the ‘self’s’ tool of identification. To realize non-duality is to experience non-judgment of the ‘other,’ which can only dissolve your own ego-self identification. “You” exist in 'relationship' and that’s how being is experienced, in relationship with others and the world.

It's the significance of my "story" that need be dissociated and not your own, because without my "story" to who would you reveal your own?

The neo-Advaitists and post-modern Zeners inadvertently nullify relationships by informing you that there is something “you” can do, individually, to experience the non-dual. Sure, there’s something you can ‘do,’ but it doesn’t involve “you” at all. It involves ‘them.’ Ah, but the transcendental reductionism of the non-dual conception takes no note of ‘them’ as even worthy of consideration. Seeking non-duality is the epitome of egocentricity.

However, it is easy to understand how those, whose entire self-development was completely formulated through the paradigm of individualism (which covers just about everybody), can only teach non-duality as an individual phenomenon, or state, to be experienced separately and alone. They conveniently employ the same paradigm, or model of perceiving the world, that the ego-self was constructed from, in teaching ego transcendence into non-duality.

The idea that non-duality is a collective phenomenon of experiencing perfect unified equality through, and with, each other is considered absurd to the postmodern individual non-dualer identifying with individual outcomes and rewards. They find their conceptual word games highly exhilarating and, certainly, the games are very thought-provoking.

So how much thought is required to transcend thought? How much identity does it take to "drop" identity?

However, when you look closely, you’ll recognize a general disgust for humanity that the non-dual teacher fears facing. These ideologies are an attempt to escape the impurity of being human. This escape is very subtle indeed, because it appears to deeply engage while covertly disengaging.

For instance, here is a metaphysical manifesto of “reality.” Notice anything missing? Where within this metaphysical treatise do we find any indication of engaging with a world of ‘others’? Do “they” even exist? Do 'they' have value or should they simply be negated or nullified? This is the same conventional paradigmatic program of individual solitary awakening that most “non-dual” professors advocate.

The inconvenient truth that we resist is that the non-dual is experienced dually with others. We resist this because deep within the folds of the “unconscious” is the belief that we really don’t like each other very much. Humanity is a very messy state of being and must be discarded as impure. An impure humanity cannot be trusted to aid us in our search and so we seek alone.

You may continue to enjoy the convenience of abstract conceptual games (“what is the sound of one hand clapping” or "The reflection is not in the mirror but of the mirror"), but the long and winding road leads to all doors and not just your own. Therefore, “you” might want to consider “them” for a change because the door to truth does not open for an individual, simply because it doesn't belong to any separate 'individual.'

The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I've seen that road before
It always leads me here
Lead me to you door

The wild and windy night
That the rain washed away
Has left a pool of tears
Crying for the day
Why leave me standing here
Let me know the way

Many times I've been alone
And many times I've cried
Any way you'll never know
The many ways I've tried
But still they lead me back
To the long winding road

You left me standing here
A long long time ago
Don't leave me waiting here
Lead me to your door
(Beatles)