Today’s topic is a response to an email that I received from a listener in Indiana. He writes in part:
“So here is the reason I am writing to you… I would like you to talk about what non-dualism IS, as opposed to what it is NOT. It seems, from my dualistic roots, that non-dualism blurs into nothing-ness. In reality, I know this to be wrong. God is Light, which is the presence of all colors, as opposed to darkness, which is the absence of any color. The lie still plaguing my soul is non-dualism is absence, instead of presence. I want a vision of the fullness of non-dualism, to replace the lie that non-dualism is absence. Hopefully, I have not gone too abstract with my words… language just doesn’t fit with the Spiritual!”
I responded to him saying that what he asks is impossible. But Jesus said that if we have faith small as a mustard seed, then nothing will be impossible to us. So here goes.
There are two ways to approach Reality. They are usually called the Via Positiva and the Via Negativa. If you want to sound really educated you can call them the Cataphatic Way and the Apophatic Way. The positive way and the negative way. In this episode I explore these two ways, and in particular try to express nondual awareness in positive terms.
Via Positiva, Via Negativa
Today’s topic is a response to an email that I received from a listener in Indiana. He writes in part:
“So here is the reason I am writing to you… I would like you to talk about what non-dualism IS, as opposed to what it is NOT. It seems, from my dualistic roots, that non-dualism blurs into nothing-ness. In reality, I know this to be wrong. God is Light, which is the presence of all colors, as opposed to darkness, which is the absence of any color. The lie still plaguing my soul is non-dualism is absence, instead of presence. I want a vision of the fullness of non-dualism, to replace the lie that non-dualism is absence. Hopefully, I have not gone too abstract with my words… language just doesn’t fit with the Spiritual!”
I responded to him saying that what he asks is impossible. But Jesus said that if we have faith small as a mustard seed, then nothing will be impossible to us. So here goes.
There are two ways to approach Reality. They are usually called the Via Positiva and the Via Negativa. If you want to sound really educated you can call them the Cataphatic Way and the Apophatic Way. The positive way and the negative way.
The Via Positiva or positive way describes Ultimate Reality using positive statements. This is the path of traditional Christian theology. We say things like God is Love or Light or Good, or we use the omni words that are so popular, saying God is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient.
The Via Negativa or Negative way says that human language is incapable of describing the Absolute. That language is by nature dualistic and therefore cannot describe the nondual reality we call God. It says it is misleading to say anything about God. All such attempts are idolatry. So this path resorts to saying what God is Not. Not this, not that. This is the approach of the Upanishads, which uses the Sanskrit phrase neti neti, “not this, not that.”
When nondual reality is seen, it is unable to be described or communicated. As the Tao te Ching says, “Those who speak do not know. Those who know do not speak.” Nondual awareness cannot even be thought about, much less spoken about. As soon as we start to think about it we have already enmeshed in duality.
Nonduality involves the absence of the self that speaks. For that reason, it can be disorienting and scary. It was scary for me, which is why I – as a separate I - fought it for years. To the self Nondual Reality is seen as nothingness, because the self is seen as nothing. This is disorienting. It is disintegrating. As separate beings we do not exist, and everything feels like nothingness.
This is what the Teacher of Ecclesiastes described as emptiness or nothingness, normally translated vanity. “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” He also says we are like mist or vapor. When Reality is seen, everything else is seen through as not real. Illusion. Maya. But here is the important point. We are not separate beings; we are Being Itself. Being is not nothing. Being is not absence. We are. I am. That is a very positive statement!
Being is Presence. Although I use these words, they are not quite accurate. Reality includes both absence and presence. Being and Nonbeing. Nothingness and Everythingness. Yin and Yang. The problem with language is it describes by contrast. So Being is thought to be different from nonbeing. Something from nothing. Positive from negative. Absence from Presence. Nondual Reality is not separation. It is neither/nor and both/and.
I travel the via negativa, and say “not this, not that.” But I will try the via positiva. I can say that Reality is all. It “is this, is that,” which is just as true as “not this, not that.” It is this right here. This is all there is. This is what I label God, although the label cannot stick. This is not the theological image of a Deity, but Divine Presence. It is Presence that includes absence of all else, if that makes any sense. As a Christian I call this the Presence of God or Christ or Holy Spirit. It is Fullness. It is Love experienced as all-encompassing and unconditional.
Perhaps it is best if I just try to describe my experience. Of course it is seen as not “mine;” there is no me to own an experience. But this Reality includes me. This is oneness, which is the positive way of saying nondual. Unicity. It is experienced as union with God. The closest idea in theology is pantheism, and the closest term in philosophy is monism. But I hesitate to use those terms, because according to Christian orthodoxy that is heresy. But this reality is not heresy, this is the original Christian gospel of Jesus.
Neither of these terms - pantheism or monism - do this awareness justice. It is too abstract. So let me go back to experience. This is openness, like peering into the Grand Canyon. Spaciousness, like laying on your back and looking into the heavens on a clear starry night. This is the dissolving of all boundaries between self and other. Separate things disappear into everything. Like a drop of water disappearing into the ocean or a drop of water evaporating into the atmosphere. But it is more like the ocean disappears into the drop of water or the atmosphere disappears into the drop of water.
The world disappears into me and me into the world. I am everything, but not me as a human being, but as Being Itself. I am resorting to abstract language again, so I will try to come back to the concrete. Boundaries between the world and the self cease. Boundaries between God and self disappear. The self disappears, which at first feels like death and nothingness, but it is seen to be life and everythingness. It is immortality. This is what Jesus called eternal life.
To the self this feels scary when we first experience the death of the self. We want to push this away. But there is no place to push it to because it is all there is. And there is no place outside of this to stand in order to push it away. So I relax into it and disappear and realize that I am this. This is Divine Presence. Love. Acceptance. Forgiveness. Compassion. Grace. Truth. It is our eternal nature.
It is seen that our human time-bound manifestation is nothing, and we really are presence. What seemed scary is not scary when it is seen that we are not a self to drop away. We were always –or better said are always, since there is no time - this presence. By presence I do not mean consciousness the way we normally think of human consciousness. This is older than consciousness. The Tao te Ching says that Tao is older than God. This is what human consciousness originates from. This is what we are. That thou art. It is that out of which the universe comes. It is That out of which light and darkness come.
I am doing my best here to tred the Via Positiva, to use positive terms, but I am continually drawn to words that try to go beyond positive and negative. This is it. Right here is what is. Words and thoughts do not add anything. People say words are pointers to nonduality, but they hardly even do that. They are like a finger trying to point to itself. Or an eye trying to see itself. This is us trying to see ourselves. Words are like a two dimensional reflection in a mirror, which is not us.
The only way for me to communicate this is to invite you to see for yourself. See as yourself, your real self. Drop into deep intuition rather than thinking about it. This is a sense of Reality that is self-authenticating. It is instantly recognized as true. This is so obviously Divine Reality that it makes all doctrines and theology look like paper cutouts. This is the best I can do in trying to describe in positive language what cannot be described. So l invite you to see.