What is all this nonduality stuff anyway?

"Nondual" is simply the english term for the sanskrit "advaita", both meaning "not two."


It's an interesting and fun concept to roll around in the mind. On face value it looks like one of those endless zen-like paradoxes that come up when you look deep into these things. Everything is one and at the same time obviously separate. How can that be?


Carl Sagan said, "if you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."


This implies, simply, that everything is interconnected. This moment right now and everything in it, exists the way it does because of the precision of the ever-changing conditions, factors and elements that have come into play and combined since the first moment of the universe. Pretty amazing, huh?


This seeming paradox of " everything is the same but separate" can be understood just by looking at the fingers on your hand. And if you look even closer at one of your fingers you will see that it's made up of separate molecules, together forming a finger. And those molecules are made up of atoms, those atoms of hadrons, those hadrons of quarks, et cetera... and not only this, but this is the recipe for all matter. Fundamentally, everything is made up of the same stuff. 

Everything in the universe is so perfectly interwoven and harmonic and conducive, because anything that wasn't entirely cohesive simply could not occur. And if it could, it wouldn't last long. Nothing can survive outside or independent of this perfect, well-oiled machine.


That is, more or less, a way to look at nonduality in a physical manner. We can approach this sensually too, which is important because our senses are the tools with which the universe is perceived.


Firstly, one should verify that everything that exists in reality, arises in direct phenomenological experience. And anything outside of that realm is purely conjecture, at best. In other words, whatever you can verify with your senses in the here and now, you can say exists. Anything that doesn't can only be speculation or hearsay, and must therefore be thrown out. Finding out what is real, is more often a process of negation than confirmation.


You can look at any of the senses, but let's start with hearing. I'm sure you've heard the old zen koan, "If a tree fell in the woods and no-one was around to hear it, would it make a sound?"


Hearing relies on sound to exist, and sound could not exist unless it was heard. You can even bring other elements into play here like the thing that hears, and the thing that makes the sound, like an eardrum and a voice box. You could then go on to say that it's the voice box of a bird and the eardrum of a human. These are all the elements that are separate (fingers), but are all crucial and necessary elements of the one phenomenon, hearing (the hand). They are not only necessary for the existence of hearing, but of each other. Look into any of the senses this way and see what you come up with.


Before the birth of the universe, and that which in the universe is contained, is the void. It's the only thing can can ever be outside of direct experience. I've heard it described as the "voidless void", because it can't really be much of a void if it contains everything, right?


The void. It can be a hard thing to get your head around and not just see it as empty space. Before the universe there wasn't empty space, there was literally nothing. Can you imagine nothing? I mean, really imagine it?


It has been spoken about the void replacing self upon enlightenment, the "no" in no-self. The self is seen as being the experiencer of reality, of the universe, looking in, outside of it. When the illusion is taken away, what is outside is nothing, the void. That in which everything arises. The nothing between thoughts. This is not to say self is the void, it's to say self is nothing.
I'll elaborate.


I've said before that advaita and anatta, nonduality and no-self, are in many ways the same revelation.
Direct, subjective, phenomenological experience. Nonduality says that everything that exists, exists here, and is interconnected. Nothing outside of direct, verifiable experience, can be said to be... 
nothing can abide, dependent/external to this perfect, well-oiled machine. This is what self is. It is separate. It separates. It removes internal from external. 


Self does not exist in subjectivity. It's core implication is that it is something that exists outside of experience, looking in. The idea of an experiencer means that it removes itself from experience, and nothing can be removed from experience. An experiencer cannot, itself, be experienced. It creates false objectivity where there can only be subjectivity. 


Self does not exist in phenomenology. It cannot be found here, anywhere. It cannot be perceived or verified by any of the senses. Don't take my word for it, try to locate it yourself. Seeing through the illusion of self is the same as seeing through the illusion of separation. It reunites internal and external. Can you locate a separate self? Do you exist? Or can you only see this one life, unfolding, in all it's harmony?

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