"The mind itself is a place
and can make a hell of heaven
a heaven of hell"
~Milton
Sometimes we hear people speak of non-duality. Many times people think of this to be some transcendent state that somehow extraordinary or supernatural. Something that is abstract or untainable by any normal mode of conscious abstraction of reality. And what if it was not that complicated? What if it could be explained quite eloquently with a few lines of poetry?
Thine life is an image inexorably cast
By the pictures that form in thy mind
If thou seest evil then evil thou hast
Seest thou evil and evil is thine.
~Anderson
Sometimes we distinguish between Eastern philosophy and Western mystery traditions or mystical traditions. And although these might appear to have a slightly different approach to being we tend to agree that they point to essentially the same things or perhaps non-things.
Shambhala Vibration prefers to refer to this concept of non-duality as it is called in Tibetan Psychology, the Two Truths. Quite simply stated as that there are two troops one being an absolute truth and the other being a relative truth. The paradox is that the absolute truth is that there are no absolute truths. All of experience all of what our conscious aperture can apprehend in any given instance is nothing more than an arising appearance that comes through five skandas, sometimes called aggregates, and easily thought of as the five senses; seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching. These five skandas are perceived by the imagination. The imagining mind. The mind that makes judgments of favorable or not favorable, of like or dislike, of love and hate, of good and evil, of light and darkness. Without judgment there is no duality.
Take for example a person blind from birth has never seen darkness. You can ask any person who has been blind from birth whether or not they have seen darkness and although They may talk us in circles and will be rather easy to both agree conclusively that they have indeed never experienced darkness. A blind man once explained to me that to him darkness was merely ignorance.
"There is neither good or bad
Thinking makes it so."
~Shakespeare
Can we divide a candle's light from its flame? Do fish know that they're wet? Can a dancer walk away and leave a dance to itself? Could duality and not-duality be two different ways of looking at exactly the same thing? In Hindu they speak of the ‘pairs of opposites’; up and down, left and right, forward and backward, inside and outside, male and female, hot and cold, and so on. Each of these is a perspective opposite to the one in which we stand. If we are inside of a house everything else is outside, and if we are outside everything else is inside. Merely a matter of perspective. this idea of non-duality exists in all philosophical spiritual and religious traditions. Also in Hindu there is a branch of philosophy called Advaita-Vedanta which means "non-duality end of knowledge".
In Christianity Jesus Christ speaks in the Gospel of Thomas about non-duality in many different ways.:
"When thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light"
"Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death."
"...the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you."
"When you come to dwell in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?"
"I am he who exists from the undivided. (If He) is destroyed, he will be filled with light, but if he is divided, he will be filled with darkness."
"When you make the two one, you will become the sons of man"
"Have you discovered, then, the beginning, that you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who will take his place in the beginning; he will know the end and will not experience death."
In Chinese Taoism the concept of non-duality is ubiquitous and we all have seen the symbol that we call Yin-Yang which itself clearly represents this concept of non-duality Aquarian the white is in the black and the black in the white the two spiraled together inseparably.
In the Hebrew tradition we clearly have Boaz and Jachin, the right and left pillar of the temple one feminine the other masculine, and we cannot have one without the other.
In Islam it is said that there is no God but God; La Illaha illalah. And as we mentioned the poet Rumi, he suggests that "Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field. I will meet you there." Ibn Arabi, Nasr-Udin, Idries Shaw, Hafiz, and the Sufis are all well familiar with this concept.
I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being. ~Hafiz
"Nasrudin, your donkey has been lost."
"Thank goodness I was not on the donkey,
...I would be lost too."
~Nasr-Udin
When you realize the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge. ~Idries Shaw
When my Beloved appears,
With what eye do I see Him?
With His eye, not with mine,
For none sees Him except Himself.
~Ibn Arabi
When the heart weeps for what it has lost, the spirit laughs at what is has gained.~Sufi Saying
In Tibetan psychology it is also suggested that the cause of suffering results in dualistic judgments of the mind. That is to say, if the mind makes a judgment that it doesn't like something, that it has aversion to something, then it will create suffering in the form of anger. If the mind makes a judgment that it does like something, that it is attached to something, then it will create suffering in the form of sadness when it loses whatever it is that it is attached to. So essentially to remain in a non-dual state of observation without judgment at all times is one of the most primary hallmarks of a Buddha, of an individual who has realized the true nature of their mind. The challenge comes perhaps in remembering this in every moment? Politically, philosophically, in relationships with friends and family, and in all circumstances. When we are alone we can be alone, when we are in a challenging relationship we can simply accept our challenging relationship. Non-duality is a perspective and we can have discerning awareness that directs us in a more favorable direction but to have attachment or aversion to any situation or experience is to create suffering and to have discerning awareness is to move in a more favorable direction without creation of suffering.
This is expressed in the well-known prayer that it's called the four immeasurables or Metta prayer:
May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness.
May all beings be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.
May all beings dwell in equanimity free from suffering.
May all beings dwell in equanimity free from aversion and free from attachment.
At Shambhala Vibration we try to always remain with Rumi in his field, with Jesus in his 'heaven within'. Although we like to speak of far reaching mystical and metaphysical concepts or philosophical stretches of a mind beyond anything conceivable by our typical five skandas or senses, we tried to remain an equanimity without attachment and without aversion remembering the two truths for the benefit of all beings in all of our writings as not to create any unnecessary conflict as we all together work to expand our awareness of being and of the nature of mind as empty.
Now having realized the state of Mahamudra, may we quickly established all beings without a single exception in this state. Through the blessings of the Buddhas who attained the three bodies, through the blessings of the unchanging truth of the Dharma, through the blessings of the unwavering aspiration of the Sangha, may this dedication prayer be fulfilled!
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