Four Steps to Non Duality

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.

You’ve paid your dues, sat at the feet of many a Guru and spiritual teacher. You have put so much effort into your spiritual life. You remember spending all day removing stones from lentils because you were told that this service would take you closer to God.  You spent all your hard earned money traveling the world  to seek out spiritual teachers. Many of them promised to show you how to be enlightened, but none managed to do this. You feel that this was all your fault. not theirs.

All Jenny did was get on the London tube, travel a few stops to the Friends Meeting House and listen to non-duality speakers shortly before her walk across the Common revealed all.

You go to Clapham Common and walk the route Jenny took when she became enlightened. It rains. You get soaked. You find no magic in the air.

So, is there anything that you can do to stop wasting your time? The good news is that nothing was your fault. Jenny may haves seen the non-duality and wholeness of everything and cut through the illusion of the separate self, but this does not, by itself, make her a good teacher. She has no skill or knowledge of how to get others to see what she sees. All she can do is point out certain characteristics of non-duality, in the hope that this pointing out will resonate with some of her audience. She also makes a bit of money out of speaking which pays for her smart white outfits.

So how do you go about getting this? Well there is a method. Here is my summary of a 4 step approach to non-duality:

1. Preparation.

In the preparation stage you cultivate the motivation and commitment to practice.

2. Object Meditation

Learn to meditate on an object. This could be your breath, a mantra, a candle flame or whatever works best for you. The only purpose of this meditation is to develop the skill of concentration.

3. Mindfulness

Once you have developed the skill of concentration, you then  make the object of concentration your own mind. You observe your own internal dialogue. You watch your reactions to events that take place in your life. You pay attention to your senses. You do this without discrimination, that is you develop the ability to be neither  attracted  to or repelled by any thought of feeling that passes through your awareness.

4. Insight

You then turn your attention away for the content of your mind to observing the nature of the mind. You see the flow of thoughts arising, staying then leaving. You observe the emptiness from which all  these thoughts emerge. You try to find the separate entity you call your mind or your awareness.

You then come across the non-dual nature of everything and you awaken.

Those, briefly are the steps. Obviously to do all the steps you will need a lot more instructions.

There are a lot more steps after step 4. Non-duality may be the end of seeking, but it is only the beginning of another great journey.