Non-Duality

For beginners and advanced spirits too a good article about Non-Duality

https://mindowl.org/non-dual-awareness/

Meditation is guided by a deep interest in human awareness. While people start meditating for a number of reasons, one of the biggest motivations is the possibility of unlocking the subconscious mind and expanding our sense of perception. If that’s an ambition of yours, one of the best tools available to you is Non-Dual Awareness.

When you begin practising meditation and finding out more about the subject, it’s likely that you’ll come across terms like “oneness” or “non-duality”. The idea of being “at one with everything” has been expressed across all of the world’s major meditative traditions, whether it’s Advaita Vedanta, Sufism, Buddhism or Kabbalah. But what does this concept actually mean? And how can we benefit from practising Non-Dual Awareness?

What Is Non-Duality?

Non-Duality is a slippery concept with many different spiritual and secular associations. Put simply, it’s a state of consciousness in which practitioners feel as though they’re an essential part of their surroundings.

American spiritual teacher Shinzen Young describes Non-Dual Awareness as “an experience of oneness between subject and object”. Others have defined it as an experience of intimacy with all things, the feeling of identifying with the entire universe. It might sound strange, but in practice this means feeling as though rather than being a witness, you are the things you are beholding. Whether it’s birdsong, a mountain, or a lake, you feel like you become the object, and the separation between the seer and the seen disappears.

In order to understand what Non-Duality is, it can be useful to consider what ‘duality’ is. At the ordinary level of consciousness, everything that comes into our awareness appears as a duality. Every concept we have is defined against its opposite: man/woman, wet/dry, happy/unhappy — everything we are able to interpret can be defined in comparison to its opposite. Non-Dual Awareness seeks to break down this assumption.

Just like many other forms of meditation, Non-Duality seeks to shift practitioners’ perception away from the ego’s self-identification and towards self-realisation. Essentially, this means that by realising our own patterns of misperception and understanding that our lives are built on assumptions, we can experience a kind of ‘awakening’. It’s human nature to become attached to assumptions about the world which often aren’t true, so unfortunately this process can be difficult. Non-Duality seeks to make this mode of thinking come a little more naturally.

Where Did Nonduality Come From?

Non-Duality encompasses hundreds of techniques that have been developed in every corner of the globe. Arguably, its lack of connection to any particular religious tradition makes it more accessible to anyone — advocates of the practice say that Non-Dual awareness is an essentially human experience which lies at the root of all human awareness.

While the Nondual experience has ties to various regions, the practice’s roots are planted most firmly in the Indian subcontinent and its major religions. 

Hinduism and Buddhism both have concepts of Non-Duality at the heart of their belief systems. In Hindu contexts, Non-Duality is called advaita, or advaita vedanta. This literally translates as “not-two-ness”, and is the source of the English term. While Hindu advaita is rooted in spirituality, involving a sense of oneness and identity with God, the Indian Buddhist tradition of Non-Duality – called no-self (anatta), emptiness (shunyata), or rigpa – is not a deity-based practice. 

Elsewhere, some Zen Buddhist lineages call this state ryomou, with ‘Ryo’ meaning ‘both’ and ‘mou’ meaning ‘disappeared’. This translation encapsulates the idea of both the subject and object literally disappearing into one thing as they unite. Again, by harnessing this type of awareness, the practice seeks to shine a light on the true nature of human experience.

Regardless of the differences we’ve touched on, all these traditional practices rest on the belief that we are already completely, perfectly enlightened. The idea is that some form of practice must be adopted in order to tease this true nature out of ourselves. Non-Dual Awareness is about harnessing a different type of consciousness and trying to experience things before human thought, before human labels and binaries have been applied to them. By doing this, we can realise that everything is made of the same materials, therefore not everything is as distinct as we might initially think. You can find out more about the spiritual roots of non dual awareness here.

Is There Any Science Behind Non-Dual Awareness?

There’s no way of proving that Non-Dual Awareness helps practitioners experience ‘the ultimate reality’; however, if this practice gives you a powerful, spiritual, or even transformational experience of oneness with the things around you, does it matter how much scientific data there is to back it up?

How To Practise Non-Dual Awareness

Now, it’s time to take a look at how Non-Dual Awareness works in practice. If you’re still slightly confused about what this method consists of, the following exercise should give you a better idea of how a direct experience of Non-Duality works. Let’s get started.

First, get settled into a comfortable position. Breathe normally and spend a few moments just letting yourself relax slightly. 

Gently gaze at an object nearby. Try to maintain a soft gaze, taking the object in and thinking of it as an ‘entity’ with its own sense of awareness. Consider the idea that the object is as aware of you as you are of it.

Move on to a new object. Again, notice that this object is shining with awareness, and that it’s noticing you while you’re noticing it.

Repeat this practice for a third object, and continue doing this with each aspect of your visual field.

Then, try to expand your awareness so that you’re taking in everything at once. Taking in this massive field of awareness is sometimes described as open attention. Think of this visual field as looking back at you, and try to connect and be at one with these surroundings.

Note that you are now part of one big field of awareness. Here, there are no separations or binaries, there is just oneness, unity, and connection. 

Take some deep breaths and consider this idea of oneness for as long as you like. When you’re ready, you can end this meditation session.

Hopefully, this guided meditation will give you a better idea of what non dual awareness involves. It may sound like a complex practice at times, but in reality it’s a relatively simple process based on the idea of expanding your awareness of the things around you until you can include yourself as part of those surroundings. Immersing yourself in your environment in this way can help enrich your daily experiences and increase your peace of mind and sense of connection with the world.

There are a number of other practices you can use to help improve your natural awareness and reduce your sense of separation from the world around you. Exercises such as Open Attention or Beginner’s Mind can help you acclimatise to this new way of thinking and integrate it into your daily habits. You don’t always have to provoke some religious experience, or unlock the true nature of existence — but if it helps you achieve a freer, more relaxed, more curious nature of mind, what’s the harm in it? If you’d like more guidance on how techniques such as Non-Dual Awareness can impact your life in a positive way,