Non-Duality; Non-Symbolic discussion

Take a moment and introduce yourself. Tell us the following:

1. Your First Name?
2. Where are you from?
3. What does non-duality mean to you?
4. Additional thoughts/comments.

1. David
2. I am from the USA, now living in Thailand.
3. Non-duality is a state which is possible for us a all. It is the clearing away of labels, of beliefs that we are in control of ourselves. It is the silencing of the mind and the realization that there is nothing to do, as consciousness.

I am Dan, born and living in the US. To me, non-duality means unity or oneness. I have heard it described as all and nothing. In my sessions (an unusual form of meditation) I have experienced "nothing", but I have as of yet not experienced "all." My experience of "nothing" included the total loss of self and complete darkness. If anyone has an insight into my experiencing nothing and not all, I would appreciate hearing it. Thank you.

Chip, in San Diego, California. Recently read The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer, and works by Rupert Spira on non-duality teachings, which resonated deeply with me. Am currently reading works by Francic Lucille, and interested in discussing these topics.

I'm Jeff. I live in the Southern California desert.

Non-duality, in my understanding, is a state of clarity that results when perceptual fragmentation, the result of a culturally conditioned false sense of independent self-existence and a pathological state of alienation from the natural world, is dissolved.

Hey everyone. This group, I think, has a lot of potential. I'm happy I discovered it. I'm Will, living in Colorado, USA.

Non-duality. It's a great term. On the surface it looks like it implies something heady and complex, something philosophical; but I think what it arrives at is the ultimate in simplicity. The mental space above judgment and distinction. The place above words. The place above thought. The Tao, if you will, as described in the Tao Te Ching:

The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is the eternally real.

Wordless, pure; consciousness before differentiation.

I'm looking forward to future discussions!

Hi!

My name is Chris, I just moved to SW Florida a month ago and just joined Goodreads a few days ago. Non-dual to me means to coming together of the manifested and the unmanifested, taking the mask I and the true I and turning them into I-I.

1. I'm Jamie
2. I'm from Buckinghamshire, England but currently live in Stratford, Connecticut.
3. Non-duality for me arises from the knowing of my nature as awareness. The consequence of which is to drop my notion of being a separate mind in a body, which is dropped in favor of being spacious capacity for all (awareness). All objects (mind, body, thoughts, feelings and things) are experienced in and constituted only of awareness. As the knowing of knowing there is no subject to know and no objects to be know all are one, all is awareness. Non-duality appears as a first person experience, however, all attempts to explain it are dualistic because the nature of language is dualistic not because nature is. Nature is non-dual. When we look we find only awareness.
4. I came to this thanks to Anthony De Mello who got me started, Douglas Harding and Richard Lang who chopped off my head, and Rupert Spira who shared his wonderful metaphors.

Hi - I'm Dhyana and I'm interested in the 'practical' aspects of 'non-duality' - our natural state of well-being. In my experience - understanding what we are is very different than living that out. And living out this freedom that we know that we are, in my experience, is a never ending, ever deepening 'process' of integration. Not an integration or evolution of what we actually are - but an integration or evolution of the understanding, sensing and expressing of what we know ourself to be. As long as We are expressing in these bodies the deepening of insights, the refining of sensing and the harmonizing of expressing continues. This is what I greatly enjoy getting together with others about. How is our understanding of what/who we know ourself to be impacting the way we live and relate and express ourself? Does anyone reading this resonate?

Hello All, This is Vivek from California, USA. I am originally from India. To me non-duality is the hidden true nature of ourselves! From which everything else, such as this Universe, arises. It is something that cannot be understood, but only felt. As a human being, it easy for us to get lost in the dual nature of life; Happiness-Sadness, Joy-Sorrow, Light-Dark, Positive-Negative etc., We should consciously transcend these states and witness our ego as much as possible in our daily lives to realize that hidden treasure.

Hi I'm Julian. I am from the UK. Non duality to me means the end of suffering psychologically and therefore physically. Though pain still arises and shadow thoughts it's just they are not held onto. It's a phrase I use that bypasses spiritual and religious jargon for the most part and points to the reality of there being no other than the Self/Non Self. Also no separation between subject and object. We are all already awake it's just noticing we are. After awakening to our non dual condition I feel there is a further process of clearing out old behavioural and addictive patterns....such that somatic experience becomes more comfortable. Yet as fundamental consciousness we're still in a relative body subject to illness and death. My two cents anyway :-) I look forward to reading and learning other folk's experiences, and book recommendations on this topic.

Dear All, Namaste! I am Cliff. It is an honor to be in this group. I am from the USA and have been living for a ong time in Austria. I studied under Zen Master Genro Xuan Lou, Laoshi and am a Zen teacher and as such non-duality is a basis for what we teach. Simply speaking, non duality means that we are not separate from the Oneness. We are not the limites self which thinks it has a life of its own, but we are what we seek, or more simply, there is only the I AM. There is no self-hood apart from God, the Tao, the Divine or however you want to calll it. This non-duality of course is also only a concept, for the I AM that I AM cannot be described or defined. I have been working with Zen Master Genro Laoshi on a book on Zen which focuses on this non-duality, and I hope I will be allowed to present it to the group. Many thanks. A deep bow. Cliff

1. Hi. I'm Doug.
2. I grew up in Ohio but have lived for the past twenty years in London, England.
3. Non-duality is a term that tries to capture the essence of reality - that reality is the experiencing of itself. Realizing what that term points to also redefines what I am - not a body-mind, a fragment of reality, but that entire self-experiencing reality.
4. I've written a mythical account (approx. 80k words) to present non-dual concepts to seekers. Would anyone here be happy to read and provide a review? Phil Grimm's Progress I can provide a copy in MOBI, EPUB, PDF.