Quotes about Nondual

Under the right circumstances, it is not difficult to have a powerful experience of meditation, to taste the indescribable peace, bliss, rapture, and stillness of the Ground of Being-like a still forest pool, in which you sink ever more deeply, where your mind is not moving at all. It is very important to taste the inherent liberation of your own infinite depth, but that kind of experience in and of itself will not necessarily teach you how to have a liberated relationship to the chaos of your own mind and emotions. Sinking to the depths of your own self is always profoundly inspiring, but it's not enough. It is equally important to know how to stay on the surface when a storm is raging and have no relationship to the chaos. And that is what the deliberate practice of meditation is all about. For most of us, learning to do that is ultimately a source of greater confidence and soul strength than the spontaneous experience of infinite depth. And in fact, from an absolute or nondual perspective, being at the surface is no different from being at the very bottom of the pool. Even if it doesn't necessarily feel that way, in time you will come to understand that it is the same. That is the secret of freedom.

The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love.

The Tao is infinite, eternal.
Why is it eternal?
It was never born;
thus it can never die.
Why is it infinite?
It has no desires for itself;
thus it is present for all beings.

The Master stays behind;
that is why she is ahead.
She is detached from all things;
that is why she is one with them.
Because she has let go of herself,
she is perfectly fulfilled.

The Truth is far more all-encompassing than the mind could ever comprehend. No thought can encapsulate the Truth. At best, it can point to it. For example, it can say: "All things are intrinsically one (The Pearl of Great Price)." That is a pointer, not an explanation. Understanding these words means feeling deep within you the truth to which they point.

When I discover that i am you - that I am the trace of your traces - the ethical problem of how to relate to you is transformed. Loss of self-preoccupation entails the ability to response to others without an ulterior motive that needs to gain something, material or symbolic, from that encounter. Of course, the danger of abuse remains, if my nondual experience is not deep enough to root out those dualistic tendencies that incline me to manipulate others. As long as there is sense of self, therefore, there will be a need to inculcate morality, just as infants need training wheels on their bicycles. In Buddhism, however, ethical principles approximate the way of relating to others that nondual experience reveals; as in Christianity, I should love neighbor as myself - in this case because the neighbor is myself. This makes ethical responsibility for Buddhism not the means to salvation but natural to the expression of genuine enlightenment. It is what might be called the "nonmoral morality" of the Bodhisattva, who, having nothing to gain or lost - because he or she has no self to do the gaining or losting - is devoted to the welfare of others. The Bodhisattva knows that no one is fully saved until everyone is save. When I am the universe, to help others is to help myself. To become enlightened is to forget one's own dukkha, only to wake up in - or rather at one with - a world of dukkha. The career of the Bodhisattva is helping others, not because one ought to, for traditionally the Bodhisattva is not bound by dogma or morality, because one is the situation and through oneself that situation draws forth a response to meet its needs.

"[I am] the nature of Pure Consciousness. I am always the same to beings, one alone; [I am] the highest Brahman, which, like the sky, is all-pervading, imperishable, auspicious, uninterrupted, undivided and devoid of action. I do not belong to anything since I am free from attachment. [I am] the highest Brahman... ever-shining, unborn, one alone, imperishable, stainless, all-pervading, and nondual-That am I, and I am forever released." - Shankara, The Upadesasahasri

One Taste is not some experience you bring about through effort; rather, it is the actual condition of all experience before you do anything to it. This uncontrived state is prior to effort, prior to grasping, prior to avoiding. It is the real world before you do anything to it, including the effort to "see it nondually".

This is the world of One Taste, with no inside and no outside, no subject and no object, no in here versus out there, without means, without path and without goal. And this, as Ramana said, is the final truth.

The mind is creeping closer and closer to the soul, which sits on the edge of God's world, at the event horizon.  The gap of separation is wide when there is no perception of spirit; it grows smaller as the mind figures out what is happening.  Eventually the two will get so close that mind and soul have no choice but to merge.  When that happens, the resemblance to a black hole is striking.  To the mind, it will be as if falling into God's world lasts forever, an eternity in bliss consciousness.  From God's side, the merging takes place in a split second; indeed, if we stand completely in God's world, where time has no meaning, the whole process never even occurred.  The mind was part of the sould all along, only withought knowing it.

The integral sage, the nondual sage, is here to show us otherwise. Known generally as "Tantric," these sages insist on transcending life by living it. They insist on finding release by engagement, finding nirvana in the midst of samsara, finding total liberation by complete immersion.

But if I remain in the simple Feeling of Being, what does it matter if a friend gets a new house and I do not? Her joy is my joy, in the simple Feeling of One Taste. What does it matter if a colleague receives accolades and I do not? His happiness is my happiness, in the simple Feeling of One Taste. When there is but one Self looking out through all eyes, do I not rejoice in good fortune wherever it occurs, since it is the good fortune of my own deepest Self? And when suffering occurs anywhere in the universe, do I not also suffer, since it is the suffering of my own deepest Self? When a young child cries from hunger, do I not suffer? When one young husband delights in seeing his wife come home, do I not rejoice?

It is not quite right to describe One Taste as a "consciousness" or an "awareness," because that's a little too heady, too cognitive. It's more like the simple Feeling of Being. You already feel this simple Feeling of Being: it is the simple, present feeling of existence.

You simply are everything arising moment to moment. You do not see the sky, you are the sky. You do not touch the earth, you are the earth. You do not hear the rain, you are the rain. You and the universe are what the mystics call "One Taste."

This is not poetry. This is a direct realization, as direct as a glass of cold water in the face.

Back on typical schedule. I awaken between three and five, meditate for one or two hors, go straight to my desk and work till one or two P.M. The type of meditation I do varies, but the basic form is "the practice of the morning." or "ultimate guru yoga," where the true nature of one's own mind is the ultimate guru. The practice is: Upon waking, or upon passing from dream state to the waking state, look directly into the mind, inquire directly into the source of consciousness itself--inquire "Who am I?" if you like, or practice looking directly into the looker. Upon inquiring into the self, the self disappears, dissolving back into radiant Emptiness, and consciousness rests as absolute Freedom and Fullness, unbounded and unlimited, unborn and undying, unseen and unknown.

And resting in the ocean, dipped into the sea, I find glimmers of One Taste everywhere.

The Witness is a huge step forward, and it is a necessary and important step in meditation, but it is not ultimate.  When the Witness or the soul is finally undone, then the Witness dissolves into everything that is witnessed.  The subject/object duality collapses and there is only pure nondual awareness, which is very simple, very obvious.

When the thunder roars, do you not hear your Self? When the lightning cracks, do you not see your Self? When clouds float quietly across the sky, is this not your very own limitless Being, waving back at you?