First published July 1, 2012. [Note: The original post attracted a lot of attention, 74 likes and many comments, some of which continued 5 years later. I learned so much from them … it’s worth taking a look, I’ve included some of these at the end of the post.]
I didn’t know about Advaita Vedānta when I was a child and only recently discovered there were people like Alan Watts (and others) writing about non-duality in the Christian context, [link to part of the Alan Watts’ essay: This Is It]. Now I’m convinced it is important to focus on the fact that there is something at the heart of Christianity. The uncomfortable feeling that’s followed me all these years – that somehow, I missed the point of the Jesus Teaching – all this has gone when I think of the Advaitist aspect of the teaching. It’s the missing piece of the puzzle I just stumbled upon, coming from an Asian perspective, an inductive knowing and that’s how it works.
The reason I didn’t see it before is because the Western concept of God, having human attributes (similar to the Advaitist idea of Ishvara), contradicts the rational scientific view. Accepting something that’s scientifically impossible, just because it’s written down in the Bible, doesn’t make sense. It’s like a myth and that’s why Christianity never had any reality in the West. What’s needed is to take it all a bit further.
‘… when human beings think of Brahman, the Supreme Cosmic Spirit is projected upon the limited, finite human mind and appears as Ishvara. Therefore, the mind projects human attributes, such as personality, motherhood, and fatherhood on the Supreme Being. God (as in Brahman) is not thought to have such attributes in the true sense.’
In Western countries, people are wandering around without a map. There’s the shopping mall and that’s all. How to let go of the individual ‘self’ if everything in the system is aimed at getting you to hold on? Looking for the way out by browsing possibilities will take a lifetime. The distractions built-in to window shopping behaviour are designed to keep you ‘shopping’ and prevent you from finding the way out too easily. By the time you get there you’ll have forgotten what it was you were looking for.
‘The Advaita Teachings are pointers, offered at the level of the audience, so to some people Jesus would talk about “a mansion with many rooms” and to other people he would say: “(heaven) is within.” (And) without understanding Advaita and the way pointers are adjusted depending on the audience, (most) Christians haven’t a clue what Jesus was talking about.’
Those who didn’t fall into the shopping mall trap just took the belief ‘thing’ to pieces to see what it was made of. That’s how it was seen that there was/is no substantial “self” in the centre of consciousness. It’s an operating system that keeps all working parts in the state of ‘oneness’. We are, right at this moment, God itself, and we can rejoice in that – if we can break out of our individual identity….’ If someone had been able to explain it to me like this when I was a child, the challenge to find out what it could mean would have been enough motivation for a lifetime.
‘When you fully understand that which you are and cannot not be, there is nothing to do to be
…………..
Check out the comments section in the original post in the link below
dhamma footsteps 
Thank you for sharing this with me
Thank you, please come again
T
Tiramit, an interesting post & interesting comments/discussion. From the point of now the following thoughts come to mind: 1. Being human, in a separate physical form from other humans, conditioned through human language & culture, it is inevitable that the prevailing view is one of duality – subject/object. 2. Add into this mix the scientific model & the prevailing political & economic models & we have global structures to reinforce the narrative of subject/object. ……but the heart senses something else when given the sense of presence (in an Echart Tolle way). Approaching this subject of duality in a less religious way (but no less spiritual), I have found Charles Eisenstein (The Ascent of Humanity) & Rutger Bregman (Humankind) inspirational. Both attempt to unpick the deep narrative of modern culture & explore the roots of “Separation”. Since before the time of Buddha & Jesus, humanity has (for the large part) taken the path of duality. Has this been in error? I am inclined to agree with Charles Eisentein that it has been a necessary part of the human story – the universal consciousness becoming self aware through the multitude of human minds….exploring the farther reaches of subject/object, and the depths of suffering within that exploration. But it is time to come home to the non-dual wholeness that is the universe. What tools do we have to assist in this homecoming? Our prevailing tools – language, science, politics, economics – are largely rooted in separation. As the discussion in the original post highlights, it is difficult to describe non-dual reality in words (either positively or negatively). We return to intuition, insight, feeling/sensing from the heart….but then we return to language to try & share our experiences – we are back to signposts!
I heard recently that early humans coordinated their activities prior to the evolution of language. It has been speculated that humans had telepathic abilities – non verbal communication that may be able to convey total experience, both sensory & emotional/feeling/heart. I think we still have these abilities – afterall we are part of one consciousness, it would be silly to think otherwise. When we have a “gut reaction”, we “feel it in our bones”, we have a “flash of inspiration” we need to give that experience some attention….perhaps more attention than we give to language.
Enough words! Tristan
Thanks Tristan, this is how it is; the prevailing view is subject/object duality. Everything in our world reinforces the subject/object narrative. Then there is the heart sense of presence and you mention Echart Tolle – I read all the early books and had a DVD of him at Findhorn … which I gave to my mother before she passed if you have any links of recent talks, please let me know. Then there is Charles Eisenstein and ‘global culture is immersed in a destructive “story of separation”’ Now looking at a way to take this on, as you know my vision status doesn’t include reading I’d need a ‘reader’ app (dictation). I’m interested in the Thich Nhat Hanh sense of interbeing. This is how it is.
Humanity has taken the path of duality and this is the human story, never the less, one is becoming more and more self-aware and the link we share through timeless universal consciousness where everything is always ‘now’. How to refine the search… what is non-dual reality in words? There are no words for it, only signposts as you say – there must be t anthropological studies of remote tribes in Africa, China who depend on insight, feeling/sensing from the heart, because they exist in a world prior to the evolution of language. We still have these abilities, we are part of one consciousness, beyond ‘time’.
Do a search on the word, Atammayatā,’ an analysis by Ajahn Amaro ‘thought and, indeed, the mind itself – although they exist, they cannot be said to truly be anywhere’
Let’s just say non-duality is Nibbāna. Check out the “Questions of King Milinda”, to Nāgasena: “Sīla, great king, is the place! Abiding steadfast in Sīla, putting forth diligent mental effort – whether … on a mountain-top or in the highest heaven – no matter where a man may stand, by ordering his walk aright [practising wisely], he realizes Nibbāna.”
Do a search on astrophysicist, Frederico Fagin