- Image by ngochungarch via Flickr
You’ve read all the Non-Duality books and have been going to non-duality speakers for years. You still have not got this.
Along comes Jenny Upstart who, after a few weeks exposure to non-duality, is walking across Clapham Common one day and, with a blinding flash of awareness, gets it. She then declares herself a realized and liberated soul and starts to teach all about non-duality.
You are a member of the audience at one of her meetings and put your hand up to ask a question?
“Is there anything I can do to get this?”
Jenny says: “No, there is nothing you can do. There is no you, so there is no you to do or get anything?”
This seems so unfair to you. Why her, and not you? You are the one who has been a spiritual seeker for years and years. Read more
For many long years I struggled as a spiritual seeker, seeking out:
- Gurus
- Spiritual teachers
- Mystical experiences
- Spiritual practices
- Spiritual companions
Although I developed ideas about compassion, wholeness and emanating love to heal the world; to tell the truth, I was basically seeking from the perspective of self interest. There was something I felt was missing in my life. I did not know what that was, but I felt that somehow spirituality would provide the answers and this would ease the pain in my life. Read more
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I was watching a video on the internet today. It was a talk by a man who had been involved in research into the secret of a long life. He looked at several areas of the world where the average lifespan is considerably longer than the average.
He showed slides of 102 year olds water skiing, a 97 year old heart surgeon and a 103 year old grannie. They all appeared to live happy and active lives. When he looked into why they lived longer, one thing that these people had in common was a strong social life and a religious belief. In American, there is a community of Seventh Day Adventists who spend 24 hours every week worshipping God and socialising. Research has shown that a religious faith can add about 4 years to your life.
How does a non-dualist spend Christmas?
I’m spending a day with my family: eating good food, drinking fine wine, opening presents, taking the dog for a walk in the snow, playing silly board games. A normal Christmas I suppose.
What is the meaning of Christmas?
As I am not a Christian then I do not have religious feelings about Christmas. For me, Christmas has no meaning. It is there to be enjoyed. Indulging in pleasurable experiences needs no reason.
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The human brain has evolved to do complicated things. Whenever I see a scientist pictured in front of a blackboard covered with equations, I think to myself how complicated the equations look, and what a brilliant mind the scientist must have to figure it all out.
I’ve just finished a computer program Life Manager Pro that involved hundreds of lines of computer code. My brain managed to sort out all the complex interactions involved to make the program do what it is supposed to do.
The human brain is great at complex stuff like this, but when it comes to non-duality there is a tendency to over complicate what it is all about. If you go to Non Duality Press you will find lots of books written about non-duality. If you read them all there is the danger that you mind will make non-duality into some intellectual puzzle that needs solving.
I was thinking of how to express the essence of my perspective in as few a words as possible. How do I reduce all the ideas and concepts to their essence?
I recently met an old friend who I had not seen for some time. She lives in the spiritual community called Findhorn and she does lots of spiritual activities – peace dancing, singing Sufi songs, Laughing Yoga. She was surprised that I had given up all spiritual practices and reminded me of the days when we would talk about my latest spiritual teacher, my spiritual journeys to India, all the spiritual books that I was reading.
“Don’t you miss all that? Where do you get your peak experiences from?” she asked.
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The human race is fond of complaining:
- I don’t like the weather
- I hate the way my boss treats me
- I hate the way my partner treats me
- I don’t like my bad habits
- I don’t like this meal
The list of things to complain and whine about appears endless.
What would happen if you caught yourself in the act of complaining and decided to stop? How would you feel?
- Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr
This week I was watching an episode of the television program ‘In Treatment” in which a therapist talks to his clients and also has to deal with problems with his partner. What the program illustrated is how humans hang on to things, and how much suffering happens as a result.
How much do you cling to your:
- Possessions?
- Ideas?
- Emotional issues?
- You sense of importance?
- Beliefs?
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I went to a meeting with Scott Kiloby this weekend. There was a discussion about words and the difficulty of expressing non-duality in words. Words can only ever be pointers, yet there is so much importance put on words, and so much confusion arises when listening to different teachers expressing their perspective on non duality. Read more
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This weekend I went to see the film Final Destination. It was an entertaining but gory film with lots of people meeting their death in horrible ways. When I looked at the screen the images were all blurry, but when I put on the special glasses I had been given, my brain was fooled into thinking that I was watching everything in 3D. This meant that various object came out of the screen and appeared to be heading straight towards me so that I too would share the fate of the characters on the screen as their heads came away from their bodies.
The 3D technology is fascinating. One day I will be able to interact wityh the 3D images, have conversations with holographic characters in a virtual reality world, get to hold a virtual gun to shoot virtual people in the ultimate video game.
