This article suggests a simple and literal perspective of Nondualism which is neither spiritual nor therapeutic but rather as a statement of non-separation, which is unachievable. The suggestion is, there is no real separation, no person. Separation is only apparent and the person is illusory. There is no real separation to overcome, there is no wholeness to become. Nondualism is not seen as a positive statement of what should be, nor is it a negative statement of what should not be. But rather a statement without positive or negative charge of “what is” already.
Nondualism or non-separation cannot be described, it, „this“, is a mystery. There is no separate position to describe it from. It points to a reality that is simultaneously empty and all that appears; all-encompassing and limitless, timeless and complete, whole, unconditional, unknowable “isness”. Non-separation is an unbelievable, unapproachable, uncompromising freedom which is already. These are not descriptions of a condition, but “what is” already, when the personal condition unravels. As the illusory person can only find value in what can be owned or known.
This condition-less freedom – which is never found but seemingly lost – is continually longed for and is overlooked by being unknowable.
The experience of real separation – which is the arising of the “I am” experience – is simultaneously a discontent of the need to know and the feeling that something needs to happen. It is exactly the need to know, which makes the unknowable freedom of “what is” seem out of reach. This perspective of non-separation does not in any way meet the expectations or needs of the seeker, it undermines them.
Therefore – when this message is listened to, the seeking energy may react in many different ways. One is to reject it offhand, as it does not reflect its experience of itself nor meet any of its’ expectations of logic or need to find something else; something better or more. It may misunderstand what is being suggested and attack its misunderstanding. The concepts can be quite foreign to the expectations of the seeker. Or it may believe the concepts making it about itself and thereby inevitably (although falsely) believe that Nondualism points to a reality separate from „what is“ already and therefore a philosophy to apply or a desirable reality to become. These reactions are all functions of the personal experience, there is no free will or choice involved.
Of course, the reality being suggested is not limited to or by the concepts nor is it simply a philosophical understanding. This article points to „what is“ as “already unconditional isness”, which is never recognized by the “I am”.This message however can be “heard” and when it is heard, it is not the “I am” which hears but rather the message rings true with something unidentifiable, a simple but profound response, an unconceived yes of no one.
“What is already” is nothing to the “I am” seeking energy, which is looking for something knowable. As the “I am” and the experience of real separation are illusory and what is truly longed for is never lost, any personal search to overcome separation or find what is already, is utterly hopeless.
A perspective arising out of an illusory „real“ separation will suggest, that personal effort such as being aware or more aware, being conscious or more conscious, being in the now or being present can lead to the end of separation. These suggestions in essence take the seeker prisoner. Confirming the hope, that what is longed for will be or could be found through personal effort. However: No experience, realization, or process of becoming could possibly lead to the dissolution of the already illusory experience of „real“ separation. The “I am” is hopelessly and choicelessly trapped in a dream of personal process, in its’ efforts to find something for itself, thereby missing what is already: unrecognizable freedom.
The end of the “I am experience“ is the recognition, that there never was one. Real Separation is a dream.
With this recognition, the need to compromise with the seekers’ expectations of becoming, naturally also ends. The assertion, that what is truly longed for would or could be found as the result of a process, is revealed to be completely misguided. Nothing leads to „what is“ already. Non-separation is never realized, found, or known. But can be recognized by no-one in the falling away of the illusory experience of real separation.
The end of seeking is not the fulfillment of the individuals’ need for answers about what life is, what death is, nor is it the satisfaction of the need for meaning and purpose. It is the end of the need to know, which is the end of questions and search for answers as the causeless end of the questioner which never was. The end of something that never happened. There is already not two. Real separation is a dream.
Nondualism takes no prisoners.
Jim Newman
http://www.simply-this.com/essays
