Nowhere Meditation
Discover: What is Nonduality?
"Everything is meant to be lost, that the soul may stand in unhampered nothingness."
-Meister Eckhart
The contemporary understanding of nondual awareness (what some may refer to as "spiritual awakening", "self-realization", or perhaps "enlightenment") can be a confusing topic to navigate-- there are as many definitions as there are speakers on the topic. The bad and good news is that none of the definitions we devise can ever be entirely correct. The true nature of reality and its seamless flow are impossible to pin down with words and concepts. The best we can hope to do, really, is fail somewhat more gracefully each time we attempt to describe the conceptually unknowable Ground of Being.
The simplest way to sum up my experience is as follows:
Despite how persistent the sensory perception of separation may be, there is-- in reality-- no separation.
There is simply Being itself: Seamless, boundless, timeless.
There is no "person" experiencing Being, though there may appear to be.
This Being is the only true subject to be found,
but because it has no location or physical presence,
it cannot be conceptually defined.
The No-thingness of true, present, clear Being
can only be lived.
This Alive-ness, Awake-ness, Being-ness
has never left any of us;
it is generally just so shrouded in thoughts, feelings, doubts, and sense perception that it goes overlooked.
We don't "find" Being.
We don't "gain" enlightenment.
We simply lose more and more of our distractions
as we gradually realize their impermanent and transient nature.
We become interested in what It Is that stays, despite all the changing phenomena of our lives.
As we stop zooming in and becoming caught up in every passing event that arises,
as we let go of more and more of our conceptual definitions of life, the world, and ourselves,
the camera lens of our experience opens and widens until, gradually,
the aperture disappears entirely,
and there is only Seeing.
Does this mean we disappear? Do our personalities cease to function? Do we forget our partners, jobs, children, and responsibilities? Are we swept up in some kind of cosmic void?
Not in my experience. Rather, there is simply a clear, self-evident, self-validating Presence which holds, sustains, and accepts
all the contents of life fully.
All of existence is held in, by, and as this Presence--this Being.
All is within, nothing without.
Whole and inseparable.
I am That, as are you.
-Meister Eckhart
The contemporary understanding of nondual awareness (what some may refer to as "spiritual awakening", "self-realization", or perhaps "enlightenment") can be a confusing topic to navigate-- there are as many definitions as there are speakers on the topic. The bad and good news is that none of the definitions we devise can ever be entirely correct. The true nature of reality and its seamless flow are impossible to pin down with words and concepts. The best we can hope to do, really, is fail somewhat more gracefully each time we attempt to describe the conceptually unknowable Ground of Being.
The simplest way to sum up my experience is as follows:
Despite how persistent the sensory perception of separation may be, there is-- in reality-- no separation.
There is simply Being itself: Seamless, boundless, timeless.
There is no "person" experiencing Being, though there may appear to be.
This Being is the only true subject to be found,
but because it has no location or physical presence,
it cannot be conceptually defined.
The No-thingness of true, present, clear Being
can only be lived.
This Alive-ness, Awake-ness, Being-ness
has never left any of us;
it is generally just so shrouded in thoughts, feelings, doubts, and sense perception that it goes overlooked.
We don't "find" Being.
We don't "gain" enlightenment.
We simply lose more and more of our distractions
as we gradually realize their impermanent and transient nature.
We become interested in what It Is that stays, despite all the changing phenomena of our lives.
As we stop zooming in and becoming caught up in every passing event that arises,
as we let go of more and more of our conceptual definitions of life, the world, and ourselves,
the camera lens of our experience opens and widens until, gradually,
the aperture disappears entirely,
and there is only Seeing.
Does this mean we disappear? Do our personalities cease to function? Do we forget our partners, jobs, children, and responsibilities? Are we swept up in some kind of cosmic void?
Not in my experience. Rather, there is simply a clear, self-evident, self-validating Presence which holds, sustains, and accepts
all the contents of life fully.
All of existence is held in, by, and as this Presence--this Being.
All is within, nothing without.
Whole and inseparable.
I am That, as are you.
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