Consciousness: The Key to Non-Duality

“Like clay in the modifications of clay, like gold in the modifications of gold, like thread in woven fabrics, so is the Infinite, the all-preceding, all-pervading Consciousness. It is without origin, without end, unchangeable and present in all phenomena. Ananda is the essence of all happiness flowing from Consciousness, the oceanic bliss in which all creatures are grounded.” (Anonymous, Sarvasāra Upanishad)

“To desire something other than this immediately present Consciousness is like having an elephant at home and still look for its footprints elsewhere... Thus it is that if you do not understand that everything comes from Consciousness, it will not be possible to achieve Buddha-hood... If you do not see that your own Consciousness is actually the Buddha, Nirvana will remain hidden.” (Padmasambhava, Self-Liberation Through Seeing With Naked Awareness)

“Through Her own Will, Consciousness unfolds the universe on the canvas that She Herself is... When this is fully seen, the mind – by turning inward – is expanded and revealed as pure Consciousness... By thus realizing your innate potential, you absorb the entire universe within yourself.” (Rajanaka Kshemaraja, The Recognition Sutras)

Non-Duality and Idealism
As the quotes above indicate, Consciousness plays a central role in the main forms of Eastern non-dual spirituality, namely Advaita Vedanta (first quote), Buddhism (second quote) and Shaivite Tantrism (third quote). Why? Why is Consciousness the key to non-duality? The short answer is: because, according to these traditions, our entire reality – i.e. everything we can experience and understand – exists only in Consciousness. All things, material objects no less than thoughts and feelings, can appear to us only in Consciousness. In this way, Consciousness is all-embracing, the Whole, the “Brahman”, the “One without second,” as the Upanishads say.

If you then realize that you are that Consciousness, that you are the One in which all things appear, you will see that you essentially coincide with the Whole, that you are the all-embracing, boundless space in which everything takes place. Everything is One; and that all-embracing One is Consciousness; and that Consciousness is you at your innermost core. This realization is the seed of Enlightenment, the realization of your true nature and the liberation from suffering. Your essence can no longer be touched by the things and events in the world, because from now on you know yourself as “That” which precedes the world, namely the Consciousness in which the world appears.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

In philosophy, the idea that “everything is Consciousness” is known as Idealism – an idea that is also found in Western philosophy (in philosophers such as Berkeley and Kant and the contemporary thinker Bernardo Kastrup). The opposite view, Materialism, says that ultimately everything consists of matter, i.e. atoms, molecules, quarks, photons, etc. According to Materialism, Consciousness is nothing more than a by-product of material-mechanical processes, such as Darwinian evolution and electrochemical activity in the brain. Idealism, on the other hand, states that what we experience as material objects is ultimately nothing more than that: a bundle of experiences in our Consciousness, sensory sensations that are (mistakenly) interpreted by our mind as objects existing outside of us. So where Materialism says: “Matter produces Consciousness”, Idealism makes the inverse statement: “Consciousness produces matter”.

Materialism: A philosophy of despair and conflict
The debate between Idealism and Materialism may seem abstract and academic, far removed from everyday life, but on closer inspection the opposite is true. From the Scientific Revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries onward, Materialism has steadily grown into the dominant worldview of Western civilization. As such, Materialism has exerted an enormous – and very harmful – influence in our culture. It is not for nothing that the word “materialism” is synonymous with greed and the exclusive focus on material possessions. The most important cultural consequence of scientific Materialism has undoubtedly been modern individualism, an extreme form of the dualistic belief in the reality of the separate ego.

The seemingly separate ego experiences itself as detached from – and at odds with – an indifferent outside world, in which it must struggle to maintain itself. Materialism naturally leads to belief in separation because this philosophy sees Consciousness as a by-product of the brain. In that case, Consciousness is by definition tied to an individual and mortal body, and thus different from individual to individual. In this way, Materialism is in large part responsible for the suffering that the dualistic belief in separation entails: egoism, greed, exploitation, feelings of inferiority, hatred, abuse, violence… These are all thoughts, feelings and behavioral patterns that originate in the conviction that I – as this person, with this body and this mind – am nothing more than this individual being, separate from the other people around me, separate from nature, separate from the Universe, separate from the Divine...

Thus the Advaita teacher Rupert Spira (2017: 2) calls Materialism “a philosophy of despair and conflict, and, as such, the root cause of the unhappiness felt by individuals and the hostilities between communities and nations”. That is why the debate between Idealism and Materialism is not just theoretical and academic: ultimately, the fate of Western civilization is at stake here. The choice between Idealism and Materialism is the fundamental choice we have to make between universal unity and harmony on the one hand and the destructive effects of competitive individualism on the other. This is a particularly weighty choice in the light of the impending climate apocalypse and the continuing hardening of both society and international politics.

Non-duality not an intellectual game
Now, we could put forward a whole arsenal of theoretical arguments in favor of Idealism and against Materialism – for example, the fact that Materialism fails to explain Consciousness (which is known in philosophy as “the Hard Problem of Consciousness”), or the constitutive role of the observer in quantum mechanics, or the old epistemological argument that we cannot know anything outside of Consciousness (an argument found both in Western philosophers such as Berkeley and Kant and in Eastern traditions such as Yogacara Buddhism and Shaivite Tantrism). From a theoretical perspective, such arguments are of course very important and – in my opinion – ultimately convincing.

But when it comes to Enlightenment through non-dual Consciousness, these arguments are less relevant. Non-duality is much more than just theory, and certainly not a purely intellectual game with philosophical subtleties. Non-dual spirituality is primarily about the living realization of Enlightenment by directly experiencing the existential truth behind Idealism, i.e. by discovering oneself as the one Consciousness underlying everything and everyone.

This also indicates the main difference between Western Idealism and the non-dual spirituality of the East. Although both see Consciousness as the ultimate reality, Western Idealism remains stuck in purely theoretical arguments and does not penetrate into the experiential dimension of Enlightenment, the direct intuition of non-dual Consciousness. Whereas it is precisely this redeeming experience that is the central motive of Eastern spirituality. In Advaita, Tantra and Buddhism, philosophical theory and rational argumentation are certainly not lacking, but they are secondary to the practical pursuit of Enlightenment. In his classic book Philosophies of India, Heinrich Zimmer aptly describes this difference between Western and Indian philosophy as follows:

“India [...] has had, and still has, its own disciplines of psychology, ethics, physics, and metaphysical theory. But the primary concern – in striking contrast to the interests of the modern philosophers of the West – has always been, not information, but transformation: a radical changing of man’s nature and, therewith, a renovation of his understanding both of the outer world and of his own existence; a transformation as complete as possible […]. The attitudes toward each other of the Hindu teacher and the pupil bowing at his feet are determined by the exigencies of this supreme task of transformation. Their problem is to effect a kind of alchemical transmutation of the soul. Through the means, not of a merely intellectual understanding, but of a change of heart (a transformation that shall touch the core of his existence), the pupil is to pass out of bondage, beyond the limits of human imperfection and ignorance, and transcend the earthly plane of being.” (Zimmer 1953: 4-5)

The Eastern contribution: Consciousness is not individual
In the following, therefore, I will not go into the many arguments that can be given for Idealism and against Materialism. Instead, I will focus on one specific argument from Eastern philosophy about the fundamental nature of Consciousness – an argument that directly touches on the experience of Enlightenment. It also addresses one of the main objections raised by Westerners when confronted with non-duality. As said, non-duality is about discovering yourself as the one, all-embracing Consciousness underlying everything and everyone. For most Westerners, that’s a rather absurd idea, trapped as they are in the – ultimately Materialistic – belief that Consciousness is always individual, because always tied to an individual body.

For Westerners, the Materialist assumption that Consciousness is in one’s head, and in particular in the brain, is very natural; it’s what they are brought up with. As said, if Consciousness is in the brain, then Consciousness is by definition of an individual nature, tied to an individual body. It is striking to see that even Western thinkers such as Berkeley and Kant have – despite their Idealism – not been able to escape this Materialist assumption of the individuality of Consciousness. In this respect, Eastern philosophy shows a very different and, above all, more consistent picture. For if we start from the plausible idea that the Consciousness necessarily precedes the phenomena appearing in it, then the strictly impersonal, pre-individual nature of Consciousness follows automatically.

After all, everything that characterizes you as you – your body, your thoughts, your feelings, your character, your social position, your country, your culture – all these things are objects perceived by Consciousness and are therefore preceded by Consciousness. Consciousness is not in your head or brain, on the contrary: your head and brain are, as objects of experience, in Consciousness. Everything that individualizes us, everything that makes us into different individuals – bodies, thoughts, feelings, personal histories, etc. – all these things appear in Consciousness, which as such precedes all of them and is therefore not defined by any of them. The entire talk of “individual consciousness” is nonsensical.

It is only through Consciousness that can we see, feel, perceive, think, understand objects. Consciousness itself, therefore, is not one of those objects – that is to say: it is not a thing itself, and in that sense it is a kind of nothing, a “no-thing”. As Nisargadatta puts it: “Resolutely reject what you are not, till the real Self emerges in its glorious nothingness, its not-a-thing-ness.” (2009: 503) By thus realizing the true nature of one’s Consciousness, one ceases to experience oneself as a particular individual, limited in space and time. Rather, one transcends space and time, which are now seen as mere appearances in Consciousness. Thus Nisargadatta again: “In reality time and space exist in you; you do not exist in them.” (2009: 196)

A widely used metaphor in Eastern philosophy is that Consciousness is the Light in which everything can appear. Of course, this is not about light in the physical sense of the word (a stream of photons), but about the ‘spiritual’ Light in which all objects (including photons) become manifest, i.e. perceptible, knowable and understandable. Therefore, Consciousness itself cannot be perceived or understood as an object: the pure Light in which all things appear cannot itself appear as a thing. In that sense, Consciousness itself is completely featureless, indefinite and formless.

Consciousness: a limitless void
Properties are always determined and as such different from other properties. Red is red because it is different from other colors, long is long because it is different from short, warm is warm because it is different from cold, and so on. In philosophy, this is often expressed in terms of Spinoza’s statement that “omnis determinatio est negatio”, that is, every determination (of a property) is a denial (of another property). In that sense, each property is necessarily finite because essentially limited by other properties. But properties can only appear to us in Consciousness, which is why Consciousness itself is without properties: it precedes all of them. Consciousness is therefore not finite as properties are: it is infinite, limitless...

This already shows that all individuals share the same universal Consciousness. We have seen that Consciousness – as a condition for the appearance of objects – must itself be completely indeterminate and limitless, a kind of infinite ‘no-thing’ that precedes all ‘some-things’. But how many of such ‘no-things’ – how many indeterminate and limitless Consciousnesses – can there be? It is obvious that only one can exist. Because suppose there are several. How then do you compare them to each other? How do you compare multiple ‘no-things’? Clearly, this is impossible: these ‘no-things’ do not have any properties that can be used for comparison. Hence: there is only one Consciousness.
 

Put differently: if we were to say that ‘my’ consciousness differs from ‘your’ consciousness, then they must somehow have (different) properties. Our consciousnesses must then be limited in some way, for then there must be some kind of boundary between ‘my’ consciousness and ‘your’ consciousness. But how is that possible if Consciousness is indeterminate and limitless? Of course, you are aware of different things than I am. For example, you eat an apple while I drink a cup of tea; you feel cheerful while I am sad; you think of your grandmother, while I think of the pain in my back, etc. But these differences all concern the objects in Consciousness. That which perceives these objects, i.e. Consciousness itself, is exactly the same for both of us: featureless, boundless, formless... Seen in this way, I cannot distinguish ‘my’ Consciousness from ‘your’ Consciousness. The whole difference between ‘mine’ and ‘thine’ dissolves in the limitless void of pure Consciousness.

The “neti, neti” formula
Let us return to the fact that properties can only be determined in relation to each other, by differing from each other. This accounts for the famous phrase “neti, neti” (“not this, not this”) which traditionally denotes Consciousness in the Vedanta – an expression that is already found in the oldest Upanishad: “With what means can one perceive that through which one perceives this whole world? About this Self one can only say “neti, neti”.” (Brihadaranyaka, 4.5.15)

This double negation indicates that Consciousness is not characterized by any property, therefore not by any property A or by the opposite property non-A (from which A must differ in order to be A). For example, if I merely said “Consciousness is not large”, I would leave open – due to the relational nature of properties – the possibility that Consciousness is small. It is to exclude this possibility that the phrase “neti, neti” is used. Through this phrase it becomes clear that Consciousness is completely beyond the relational dimension of mutually limiting properties – as the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (3.8.8) says: “it is neither gross nor subtle, neither short nor long”, and so on.

Thus, the non-duality of Consciousness does not just mean that there is no longer any subject-object duality (although that’s the main meaning of it); it also means that Consciousness is essentially beyond (or before) the dualities of our empirical, property-determined world. Consciousness is neither cold nor warm, neither large nor small, mind nor matter, male or female, good nor evil, etc.

The “groundless openness” of the space of Consciousness
Clearly, we are reaching the limits of language and conceptual thinking. How can one talk and think about something that has no properties, something indescribable, something ineffable? To meet this exigency, Advaita, Tantra and Buddhism employ various metaphors to indicate the non-objectifiable essence of Consciousness. We have already got to know one of these metaphors, namely the Light in which all objects become visible, but which itself cannot be seen as an object.

A closely related metaphor is that of the empty sky or space in which material objects can find a place. That space necessarily precedes all objects and is therefore not an object itself. In that sense one can say that Consciousness “gives space” to all phenomena – or rather: it is that space, that indefinite and infinite openness in which everything can appear. Enlightenment is about experiencing oneself as this infinite space in which everything happens.
 

Thus Nisargadatta often used to ask his visitors questions like: “Have you ever felt the all-embracing emptiness in which the universe swims like a cloud in the blue sky?” (2009: 330) The Dutch Advaita philosopher Douwe Tiemersma, who also happened to be one of Nisargadatta’s students, aptly spoke of the “groundless openness”, i.e. the boundless and open space of Consciousness that is “groundless” because there is nothing outside of it and that therefore does not depend on anything (it is its own ground, one could say).

Of course, this is not about space in the scientific sense of the word, i.e. not the geometric space of mathematics or the physical space of physics. These spaces are objects in Consciousness, since they can be studied scientifically. As such, they presuppose an even more fundamental space, the space of Consciousness in which they can appear as objects. In that sense, Consciousness is “the space behind space” or “the space around space”, i.e. the indefinite and groundless openness in which the geometric and physical spaces can first come to appearance. This is what the Chandogya Upanishad means with the following remarkable passage:

“As immeasurable as the space around is this space in the Heart, which contains both the earth and the sky, both fire and wind, both the sun and the moon, both lightning and stars… Now, what is called space is that which generates name-and-form (nama-rupa). That in which they are grounded – that is Brahman; that is the Immortal, that is the Self.” (Chandogya Upanishad, 8.1.3 & 8.14)

Consciousness and Enlightenment
The last sentence of the above quote – “that is Brahman; that is the Immortal; that is the Self” – points to the importance of the non-dualistic view of Consciousness for the ideal of Enlightenment in Advaita, Buddhism and Tantra. To begin with, we have to see that this indeterminate and limitless space of Consciousness is our deepest Self, or rather our deepest I. For the third-person form of “the Self” can create the dualistic impression that it is about something apart from us, standing over against us, a divine He, while the point is precisely the non-dualistic insight that we are “That” ourselves. After all, I am aware of all my experiences, feelings and thoughts. I am the observer to whom the world appears. I am the subject to which all objects appear but who can never become an object itself. In short, I am that featureless, boundless Consciousness that underlies and precedes all phenomena.

The seeing of this is what Enlightenment is, Awakening, the liberation of suffering. All experiences, thoughts, feelings appear in Consciousness, but they do not touch Consciousness; it remains featureless, formless, unmoved – just as a theater remains unmoved by the drama that takes place in it, or as a cinema screen is not touched by the film it displays. As the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says, Consciousness is “the one who is beyond hunger and thirst, beyond sadness and confusion, beyond old age and death” (3.4.2).

Although Advaita, Buddhism and Shaivite Tantrism place slightly different accents and use different terminologies, the essence is always the same insight, namely that you are primarily this non-dual Consciousness and not one of the limited phenomena that show up in Consciousness. In a following post I will elaborate on the relationship between Advaita, Buddhism and Tantra. The superficial differences that indeed exist between these traditions should not obstruct our view of the liberating core message they have in common.

References
-Heinrich Zimmer, Philosophies of India, edited by Joseph Campbell, 1953, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
-Nisargadatta, I Am That, edited by Sudhaker S. Dikshit, translated by Maurice Frydman, Chetana, 2009.
-Philip Renard, Non-Dualisme: De Directe Bevrijdingsweg, 2005, Felix Uitgeverij (p. 103 for the Padmasambhava quote).
-Rajanaka Kshemaraja, The Recognition Sūtras, translated and annotated by Christopher Wallis, 2017, Mattamayūra Press.
-Rupert Spira (2017), The Nature of Consciousness: Essays on the Unity of Mind and Matter, Sahaja Publications.
-Wim van de Laar, De Upanishads, translated and annotated by Wim van de Laar, 2015, Uitgeverij Nachtwind.

Melting the Ego: Cosmic Non-Dualism and Climate Change

“We melt. We just melt and melt and melt. The heart has to melt and when it does, an indescribable flow of love reveals itself. And we experience something mysterious, this incredible warmth and light and fire and opening that is real, that is not just a temporary emotion, but is a true breakthrough into our deeper self…”
(Paul Muller-Ortega)

In the summer of 2018 something weird happened to me: I had an experience of melting, of becoming fluid, as if the icy bulwarks of my ego melted and dissolved into something like a warm, sticky liquid that flowed into everything and everyone around me. Ok, it sounds a bit gross when I put it like that, but really it was a very uplifting experience: I sort of fused with the world, became ‘one with the universe’ in a feeling of all-encompassing love. In other words: I felt the truth of Non-Dualism, the spiritual philosophy that says we are all manifestations of the same cosmic force, the one creative essence of the universe. Non-Dualism, however, is not just a question of feeling. It is also a question of clear-headed, rational thought. For the factual truth of some form of Non-Dualism is strongly suggested by what contemporary physicists and philosophers tell us about the holistic unity of the universe and the place of consciousness in it. 

Over and above that, Non-Dualism also satisfies an urgent ethical and spiritual need that is felt worldwide. In that sense, Non-Dualism is a philosophy whose time has now definitely come. This becomes especially clear in light of the many global problems facing humanity, notably that of climate change. In this post I will argue that it is only by recognizing the truth of non-duality – i.e. by recognizing our fundamental unity with each other, with our planet, and with the cosmos at large – that we will be able to muster the global solidarity needed to deal with these global problems. And perhaps, just perhaps, this is the upside of climate change: that global warming will cause a ‘global melting of the ego’ and thus a global embrace of Non-Dualist modes of thinking and experiencing. In this way, perhaps, climate change will bring about its own solution…

My Long Hot Summer of Love
If you are expecting some raunchy story about erotic conquests on the beach, I have to disappoint you. Partly because I have no such stories to tell (I am a happily married father of a seven-year-old son). But also because I would like to tell you a different kind of story, one of spiritual awakening, or – as I put it above – the melting of my ego. Mind you, the summer of 2018 was exceedingly long and hot. In fact, it was one of the longest and hottest summers ever recorded in the Netherlands (and much of Europe besides), which is where I live. It was simply another bead on the string of meteorological records – heat waves, droughts, tropical storms, arctic ice melting, and so on – that have become so familiar the last couple of years, testifying to the worrisome reality of climate change. The long hot summer of 2018 meant there was a perfectly rational explanation behind my somewhat mystical experience: all those months of sunny weather just made me super relaxed, up to a state of ultimate ‘hippie-ness’ so to speak. Of course, I am very concerned about the potentially catastrophic threat of climate change, not least because of our son whose future is at stake. But the truth is that I also thoroughly enjoyed this amazing summer. I feel kind of guilty saying this, but it’s true.

We live close to the beach, so that’s where we would spend most of our free days: swimming, building sand castles, giving the old frisbee a throw, relaxing under the parasol, reading books on non-duality, meditating, eating ice creams… In short: living the good life! In the afternoon, we would cycle home languidly, take a shower to wash off the salt and sand on our sunburnt skins, and start up the barbecue for another easy diner in our garden. In the evening – my stomach filled with veggie burger, fries, salad and light beer – I would just sit there and look in wonder at the spotless blue vault over my head, with a hint of orange in the west, and watch the acrobatics of the swallows weaving their warp and woof in the warm evening air.

That’s when it would happen, during those days on the beach and evenings in our garden, this ‘melting of the ego’ experience, of becoming fluid and fusing with my environment. I would have glimpses of cosmic unity, of everything being one. I would look at the people around me and have the strange sensation that somehow ‘they are me’ or ‘I am them’. Whatever it was that looked out of my eyes at the world, it also looked out of their eyes. Whatever it was in me that enjoyed the heat of the sun, the coolness of the water, the taste of ice cream, it had the same enjoyment in the people around me. It felt as if the universe was enjoying itself on the beach, tasting itself, feeling itself, playing with itself, throwing frisbee at itself, basking in the light of its own sun, swimming in its own water... And this feeling of all-embracing love would rush up inside of me, engulfing me, engulfing everything around me.

Waking up from the dream of separation
Now, these thoughts – of everything being one – were certainly not new to me. Having a background in philosophy, I am particularly interested in the philosophical tradition of Absolute Idealism, which stretches roughly from the Upanishads in the East and Neoplatonism in the West to the German and Anglo-American Idealisms of figures such as Schelling, Hegel, Bradley, and Royce. Absolute Idealism can be summarized as the claim that everything exists because it is thought and/or experienced by an Absolute Self, which in turn exists because It thinks/experiences itself. Up till the summer of 2018, however, my interest in these ideas was purely intellectual and theoretical. The idea that the universe is one consciousness simply seemed (and still seems) plausible to me in the light of what physicists and philosophers tell us about the holistic unity of the universe and the place of consciousness in it (the so-called “hard problem of consciousness”). But now, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, it became an experiential reality for me as well. I started to feel its truth.

No doubt, this was in large measure due to the fact that I had taken up meditation, stimulated by my wife who was following a course in mindfulness. I am convinced, however, that the exceptionally long hot summer also played a crucial role here: in making me super relaxed, in almost literally ‘melting my ego’, it made me feel – rather than just intellectually understand – the truth of cosmic unity. The thing that finally did it for me, that made the penny drop, was reading Christopher Wallis’ wonderful book Tantra Illuminated on the philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism (which is not the thoroughly commercialized pseudo-spiritual sex therapy which is sold as Tantra in the West, though it certainly is true that sexuality plays a significant role in Tantrism). Reading this book on the beach, I came across the following passage:

“Thus all sentient beings […] are simply different forms of one divine Consciousness, which looks out at the universe that is its own body through uncountable pairs of eyes… This perspective brings a sense of meaning and presence to even the simplest acts. When you sit and contemplate a pebble, what is really happening is that the universe is contemplating itself in that form… When you see yourself clearly, there comes a flash of recognition: you are a microcosmic expression of precisely the same divine powers that create, maintain, and dissolve this whole universe. [T]here is a profound shift. Your fear and pettiness drop away as you harmoniously fall into the dance of life energy… An explosion of joy accompanies the realization that there is nothing to do, nothing to achieve, other than to fully embrace the divine powers that seek to manifest through you by expressing the entirety of your authentic being in the fullness of each moment, in an endless flow of such moments.” (Wallis 2013: 56, 62, 67)

When I read this, I literally felt the “flash of recognition” of which Wallis speaks. Bang! There it was: cosmic unity, cosmic love… Clearly, the Tantric philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism with its belief in “one divine Consciousness, which looks out at the universe that is its own body through uncountable pairs of eyes” is one particular instance of the broader tradition of Absolute Idealism. However, in the context of Eastern philosophy, this way of thinking (and experiencing) is usually called “Non-Dualism”. One could say that the Absolute Idealisms of philosophers like Plotinus, Schelling, Hegel, Royce and Bradley is simply the Western variety of Non-Dualism. This is not to say there are no significant differences between them. Whereas the Western approaches to non-duality are mostly theoretical, more focused on the epistemological, ontological, and theological aspects of non-duality, the Eastern approaches – though certainly not devoid of theory – focus more on the experience of non-duality as an existentially transformative experience, as the key to Enlightenment and the ultimate Liberation of Suffering.

That is, in Eastern philosophy the non-dual experience is usually seen to bring to an end the suffering inherent in being a (seemingly) separate individual, standing over against an independent world, in which the individual must struggle to maintain him-/herself. As the illusion of the separate ego falls away, its petty worries and ambitions, its bickering likes and dislikes, its fears and unfulfilled desires, all these obstacles to peace of mind fall away as well. And what remains is just peace of mind, a tranquil bliss, and a deep feeling of loving unity with everything and everyone. This enlightening aspect of non-duality is often illustrated by the comparison of the human mind with a lake that mirrors the sky above it. Normally, the water on the lake is rippled, as the ever-variable winds of our thoughts and emotions create smaller or greater waves, causing a distorted reflection of the sky in the water. But with the experience of non-duality, the waves on the lake calm down, as the storm of thoughts and emotions settles, and the water becomes as smooth as a mirror, finally reflecting the blue sky above it, with the radiant Sun at its centre. Here, of course, the ‘Sun’ is a metaphor for the creative essence of reality-as-a-whole, the source of all energy and life, which you now realize to be your true identity. 

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”
I guess that that’s what I experienced during the summer of 2018, an enlightenment experience. Not that I would say that I am permanently enlightened now (whatever that means). Not even close. For, as many spiritual seekers will testify, such “pink and fluffy” feelings of all-encompassing joy and love, which generally accompany the first glimpse of non-duality, are usually not permanent. They last for a while – from a couple of days or weeks for most people up to a year or even a few years for others – but then, ultimately, at one point or another, daily life kicks back in again. It’s a bit like what happens to mafia boss Michael Corleone (the character played by Al Pacino in The Godfather) who, realizing the senselessness of the mobster life style, wants to get out but finds to his dismay that the ties to his former personality aren’t cut that easily. The people around him – family, friends, enemies, the FBI – still see and treat him as the Capo di capi, forcing him to act accordingly, against his deepest wish. At one point in the film this makes him exclaim the famous line: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” (And the television series The Sopranos, where the same thing happens to mafia boss Tony Soprano, contains some great parody on this.)

Most spiritual seekers who look upon the experience of non-duality as the ultimate Enlightenment, as the end point of the spiritual path, have at one point or another uttered just the same line – “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” – or something like it. They find that the unforeseen events of daily life keep ‘pulling them back into duality’, that is, keep addressing them as separate individuals, who must struggle to find their way through life. You may become sick, lose your job, lose a loved one, fall back into some nasty habit, or simply hit your head very hard against a kitchen cupboard – the trigger could be any negative experience, which suddenly bursts your pink bubble of non-duality. Hence the importance of spiritual practices, what in Indian philosophy is known as “sadhana”, such as yoga and meditation, which help you to stabilize your initial enlightenment experience and to integrate it into your daily life.

The global threat of climate change
In my case, what shook me out of my pink-and-fluffy dream of cosmic love was precisely the very same thing that had put me in it: the long hot summer of 2018. As elated as I was about the melting of my ego and becoming one with the universe, I knew in the back of my head that – from another perspective – this melting was a very bad thing. As if the polar caps themselves were melting inside of me! The looming threat of climate change gave this whole ‘enlightenment thing’ an eerie atmosphere, not least because much of the Netherlands lies several meters below sea level. This is especially the case where I live, in the province of Zeeland, where an intricate network of dikes is our last line of defence against the ocean thunderously bearing down upon us. Lying on the beach, immobilized by the oppressive heat, I would have nightmarish visions of polar caps melting and breaking up into huge chunks, causing tidal waves spilling over the dikes, engulfing our homes, drowning my loved ones…

Thus, by melting my ego, global warming had created my pink-and-fluffy bubble of cosmic peace, love and happiness. But almost simultaneously it also popped that bubble. After all, it has been scientifically proven now that man-made environmental pollution – and CO2 emission in particular – is the driving cause behind climate change. Even according to moderate scenarios, global warming will bring disastrous consequences within a hundred years, endangering the survival of the Earth’s flora and fauna, including human beings. Although it is true that the Earth has naturally warmed up and got colder again during other eras, such cycles have always been much slower, taking millions of years. But now, within a period of just 200 years, we are reaching levels that in the past brought about extinctions!

If we don’t drastically diminish our output of greenhouse gasses (such as CO2), the average global temperature will – according to the U.N. World Meteorological Organization – most likely have risen with 3 to 5 degrees Celsius in the year 2100. (And some estimates put this rise even higher!) In the process, there will be accelerated melting of arctic ice, which in turn will cause a rising sea level, leading to mass flooding of coastal areas. Some small island states will probably disappear altogether. There will be an increase in violent weather phenomena, such as tropical storms, heat waves and droughts, which will endanger the food chain and economic resources, especially in developing countries. Glaciers will melt, resulting in dried up rivers. Vast areas of the Earth will be left uninhabitable, becoming literally too hot to live in. As a result, there will be many, many millions of climate refugees. Already Europe is struggling with a refugee crisis due to the war in Syria. But the number of climate refugees will dwarf those that have fled the Syrian conflict. The result will be increased political conflict, instability, war... 

But even as my pink-and-fluffy bubble was popped by the threat of climate change, this loving awareness of cosmic unity stayed with me. In fact, it became even more important, because I realized that Non-Dualism could just be the right spiritual stimulus triggering people into collective action. Not only to deal with climate change and to save the precious ecosystem of our planet, but also to eradicate poverty, war, racism, injustice, and the extreme wealth inequality that has become rampant after 40 years of neoliberal capitalism. For, in the light of such challenges, what could be more inspiring and motivating than to learn that you, a seemingly separate and isolated human being, are really not separate at all? That you and the other(s) are actually the same, the same suffering being which is suffering precisely because it hasn’t yet realized what it is, namely, a single being? What could be more conducive to global responsibility and solidarity than the knowledge that you and the world around you are one?

Cosmic versus Acosmic Non-Dualism
Here, however, we should note an important difference between two kinds of Non-Dualism: cosmic and acosmic. This distinction is especially relevant to the ethical value of Non-Dualism. In philosophy “acosmism” means the denial of reality to the empirical world of plurality. The universe we observe around us appears to consist of many different individual objects, from atoms and molecules up to trees, cars, people, planets, stars and galaxies. According to acosmism, this plurality of individual objects is ultimately unreal, non-existent, a mere appearance or illusion. Non-Dual philosophers are particularly prone to acosmism, given their overarching emphasis on the fundamental unity of reality: since reality is one Whole, the empirical world of plurality must be unreal – or so it is argued sometimes. Such acosmic forms of Non-Dualism often go hand in hand with a monastic ethics of renunciation: to achieve the final Enlightenment, the individual must renounce the empirical world of plurality – only then will she realize the liberating insight into “the One” that alone is truly real. Such renunciatory acosmism affects both Eastern and Western forms of Non-Dualism. In the East, acosmism is a dominant feature of classical Advaita Vedanta and, perhaps to a lesser extent, Buddhism. In the West, acosmic tendencies can be found in Parmenides, Spinoza, Schelling (at the time of his “Identity System”) and the British Idealist Bradley.

By contrast with “acosmism” we can define “Cosmic Non-Dualism” as a position that recognizes the fundamental oneness of reality yet does not deny the reality of the empirical world of plurality. The cosmos – the infinite universe with its countless stars, planets, living and non-living beings – is rather seen as somehow manifesting the One that alone truly is. For Cosmic Non-Dualism, the One appears as the world of plurality: reality is a unity-in-diversity, an integrated whole with inner complexity, rather than a featureless blob of undifferentiated oneness – which is the view to which acosmism tends. Consequently, Cosmic Non-Dualism does not tend to world renunciation but rather to the exact opposite, world affirmation, a celebration of empirical existence as the manifestation of divine reality, and an associated ethics of universal compassion and solidarity. Enlightenment is achieved not by rejecting the world, but by embracing it as your own Self. This leads to an ethics of active involvement in the world rather than aloofness from the world. In the East, such Cosmic Non-Dualism, with its celebration of empirical reality as manifesting the Divine and its ethics of universal solidarity, can be found in the original Vedanta of the Upanishads and especially in Shaivite Tantrism. In the West, Cosmic Non-Dualism is a prominent feature of the Neoplatonism of Plotinus, who explicitly rejected the extreme world renunciation of Gnosticism, and the philosophy of Hegel, who developed his version of Absolute Idealism partly in criticism of Schelling’s acosmism.

The ethical value of Cosmic Non-Dualism
Clearly, if we want to utilize Non-Dualism as a means to foster global solidarity, we need the cosmic variety rather than the acosmic one, which tends to a nihilist indifference towards the world. This comes out forcefully in Robert Pirsig’s cult novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (which is partly autobiographical), where the protagonist – the analytically minded Phaedrus – goes to India to find wisdom but ends up taking classes in Oriental philosophy taught by a professor with a predilection for classical Advaita Vedanta:

“But one day in the classroom the professor of philosophy was blithely expounding on the illusory nature of the world for what seemed the fiftieth time and Phaedrus raised his hand and asked coldly if it was believed that the atomic bombs that had dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were illusory. The professor smiled and said yes. That was the end of the exchange.” (Pirsig 1999, p. 144.)

This is exactly why the difference between Cosmic and Acosmic Non-Dualism is so utterly crucial! An activist ethics of universal solidarity is precisely what our much suffering world needs today, torn as it is by ever widening divisions – between the haves and have-nots, between different ethnic groups, between secular society and religious fundamentalism, between mass society and the isolated individual, between the dangerous lure of populism and the aloofness of the political elite, between the interests of economic growth (necessary to feed an ever-growing world population) and the interests of a defenceless nature choking in the mind-numbing garbage heap produced by economic growth. These are global problems, affecting our whole planet and everyone on it, requiring a global solution and thus global solidarity. Hence the great ethical importance of Cosmic Non-Dualism. With the separation between self and other overcome, you can no longer remain indifferent to the suffering and injustice in the world. You have to act, simply because in helping others you are actually helping yourself – perhaps not, directly, your individual self, your empirical persona, but first and foremost your underlying Self, the creative essence of the universe, of which everything and everyone is an integral part. The Non-Dualist teacher and therapist Jeff Foster puts this wonderfully well:

“It’s myself in Burma, it’s myself in the earthquake. It’s myself starving in Africa. People sometimes hear the message of non-duality and they think that it’s about sitting back and doing nothing. They think it’s about arrogantly sitting back and saying, “Oh, it’s just a dream, it’s just a story, there’s nobody there suffering so what’s the point in doing anything at all?”… Oneness recognises itself in the face of that starving child and can move to help itself, not out of pity, not because it needs to be a good person, that’s nothing to do with it. It doesn’t come from a set morality. But in seeing that it’s all One – and this is the mystery of the universe – somehow it moves to help itself.” (Jeff Foster in Gilbert 2011, p.37.)

So let’s just hope that global warming will have at least this positive consequence, that it will lead to a global melting of the ego and thus to a global embrace of Non-Dualist modes of thinking and experiencing. At least then we have a fighting chance to deal with our problems together, as a single species, in harmony with each other and with our precious planet. That this 'melting of the ego' things is not wholly speculative can be seen from the fact that in non-dual spirituality it is often said that the ego is a 'contraction' of the Whole into a seemingly separate individual. It is also well-known that this separation is experienced physically as a contraction of the muscles: a tightening of the breath, of the muscles around the throat, around the eyes, etc. But isn't such a physical contraction not also stimulated by cold weather? When its cold, you sort of have to contract your body to stay warm. Now, as Tantra in particular stresses, mind and body are one 'thing', the body-mind. So it stands to reason that if the body becomes very relaxed (and thus loses its contraction) through warmth, the mind will relax along with it, and awakening will become easier. Hence, perhaps, the fact that non-duality originated with the Upanishads in the warmer parts of India?

Om & Peace!

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

References
Gilbert, Eleonora (2011), Conversations on Non-Duality: Twenty-Six Awakenings. Cherry Red Books.
Pirsig, Robert M. (1999 [1974]), Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. London: Vintage.
Wallis, Christopher D. (2013), Tantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, and Practice of a Timeless Tradition. Boulder, CO: Mattamayura Press.