Friday, February 15, 2019

Life, coming soon to a theatre near you – or: What can non-duality do for you?

When you realize you are ‘just’ the universe manifesting as you, you are liberated from the burden of having to be you. That is: you no longer have to make an effort to be you, since the universe is already doing that for you.

You no longer have to go to work, although “going to work” is still going on; the universe is doing that for you. You no longer have to exert yourself to reach some future goal, although “exertion” and “reaching goals” are still going on; the universe is doing that for you. You no longer have to think intensely about your problems, although “intense thinking about problems” is still going on; the universe is doing that for you. Just as the universe lets your heart beat, makes your hair and nails grow, digests the food in your bowels, so the universe takes care of all of your life – it all goes on spontaneously, effortlessly. 

There is, however, a widespread misunderstanding about this non-dualist attitude to life. People who are into non-duality often can be heard to say things like: “I simply let everything happen – good things and bad things alike.” Now, that may sound like indifference, but actually it's the reverse: it's unconditional love for everything and everyone, for existence as a whole. Love becomes the dominating motive of all thought and action.

That doesn't mean you simply condone bad or evil deeds. Because in letting everything happen, you also let the opposed forces happen. It's like saying to the evil doer: “You are allowed to be, but the force that eventually conquers you is also allowed to be, and it may just be that my own body-mind is that force.” That's an important point: in letting everything happen, you also let yourself (your body-mind) happen. Your own personality is one of the things that happen.


The point is that as long as we make a conscious effort to be ourselves, we are invariably trying to live up to an image of ourselves: “I want to be a good parent, so I am not allowed to feel angry at my kid. I want to be healthy and beautiful, so I have to exercise three times a week. I want to be creative, so I have to work hard on my talent. I want to be a good employee, so I have to work overtime…”

But the trouble with such self-images is that they are no more than ideas, concepts, pictures created by the mind and then forced on a living, ever-changing reality. A mental picture, just like a photograph, freezes what is in reality a dynamic process in constant flux. So, paradoxically, by making a conscious effort to be ourselves, to live up to the image we have of ourselves, we are invariably untrue to ourselves, we deny our own constantly changing nature. In this way, all the images we have of ourselves are idealizations. This is one of the main causes of stress and depression: desperately sticking to a self-image, desperately trying to make it work, when in fact it is no longer working for us, simply because we or our environment – and we can’t really make a distinction here – have changed.

This mis-match between your self-image and your true nature testifies to the basic fact that you are not in control of yourself: you do not create yourself, because the universe creates you. You are, as said, the universe manifesting as you. And, as such, you are already complete, you lack nothing. For what could the universe possibly want? It is already everything, with nothing outside of it. This perfect wholeness of the universe expresses itself in all things, including you, little old you with all your quirky imperfections…


So it’s much, much, much easier to let the universe do the heavy lifting for you. Just sit back and enjoy the show: watch the universe unfold your life (in other words: go with the flow). This doesn’t mean your mind and body will no longer experience pain, stress, hard work, exertion, loss, fatigue, exhaustion, fear, doubt, desperation, anger… All these things still occur, but – and this is the crucial difference – they occur as passing phenomena, as temporary manifestations of the universe that ‘you’ just observe… And as such, they become much, much, much easier to deal with. They become lighter, free from the burden of having to be this person, having to live up to this idealized self-image.

In this way, your sense of self changes. Earlier you were this body-mind. Now that you realize this body-mind is completely the work of the universe, you become the observer of the body-mind, the “witness” as it is called in Indian philosophy, the pure awareness in which this body-mind is allowed to appear and develop according to its own flow. Earlier you were this body-mind, now you are the awareness that lovingly embraces this body-mind…

And, of course, as with any good movie, you can still identify with the main character in it. Nothing wrong with a little “suspension of disbelief”, as long as you remember who you really are: the spectator in the theatre of awareness – or, what comes to the same thing, the universe manifesting as you…

You can join the discussion about Cosmic Non-Dualism at: 
www.facebook.com/groups/cosmicnondualism

1 comment:

  1. Wonderful Peter. Just what I needed to be reminded of at this point in my life.

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