Non-duality, from the Sanskrit term Advaita, practically means “perhaps not two.” At its key, it is the acceptance that there is no true separation between self and other, issue and object, author and creation. This is not only a philosophical idea, but an immediate experiential truth that lies at the heart of many religious traditions. Non-duality shows that distinctions—between you and me, great and bad, living and death—are illusions produced by the mind. Beneath these performances, there is only 1 truth: pure attention, infinite mind, or what some may call God. This novel substance conveys it self in countless forms, however never divides. The trip in non-duality is not one of buying something new, but of shedding illusions to identify what is definitely present.
The feeling to be a different individual—a “me” looking out at a world of “others”—is considered by non-dual teachings to be the root of all suffering. This separation is not true, but a mental create strengthened by thoughts, language, and cultural conditioning. The ego, which can be built on recognition with the body, character, and story, thrives on duality. It needs opposites to establish itself—success and disappointment, love and rejection, security and danger. But non-duality reveals people these distinctions exist only at first glance of experience. Like dunes on the ocean, all things arise from the same resource and return to it. Realizing that doesn't suggest questioning performances, but viewing through them. It is a change in perception from separation to unity, from concern to peace.
Key to non-dual understanding may be the recognition that you will be perhaps not your thoughts, emotions, or body—you are the attention in which all of these come and go. This attention is eternal, formless, and ever-present. It is perhaps not “yours” in an individual feeling; it is universal. Every experience—whether joyful or uncomfortable, mundane or profound—arises in this field of awareness. Whenever you stop pinpointing with the information of knowledge and sleep whilst the seeing presence it self, putting up with begins to dissolve. Your head becomes calm, and a natural peace emerges. This peace is not at all something you've to generate or keep; it is your correct nature. As many non-dual educators state, “You're the sky. Everything else is just the weather.”
In many non-dual traditions, a instructor or guru can play a vital role—never as someone who gives you something you absence, but as a reflection who details you back once again to your own correct self. Teachers like Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Papaji, Mooji, and Rupert Spira information seekers perhaps not giving new values, but by appealing strong inquiry. They usually question: “Who are you, really?” This issue is not designed to be answered intellectually, but lived. It brings the seeker inward, past levels of personality and believed, to the pure mind that's generally here. A true instructor doesn't need followers—they need one to wake around that which you previously are. In non-duality, there is no hierarchy. There's only attention appearing as many.
Some may question if non-dual attention means withdrawing from living, becoming indifferent or passive. But this is a misunderstanding. Living from the non-dual perception doesn't suggest questioning the world—this means participating with it from the host to wholeness and clarity. Whenever you notice that the “other” is not split up from you, consideration arises naturally. You still play your roles—parent, spouse, worker—but minus the heavy burden of identification. You behave, but no more feel a different self is in control. Living becomes spontaneous, streaming, and implanted with a peaceful joy. Even difficulties are met with less opposition, because you understand they too are area of the unfolding party of consciousness.
The trip into non-dual recognition usually involves what thinks such as a death—perhaps not of the body, but of the ego. Since the false self dissolves, there may be concern, opposition, and actually grief. The ego has been your personality for so long, and letting go of it can appear like going in to the unknown. But on one other side of this letting go is profound freedom. Without the ego's regular discourse and contrast, what remains is silence, presence, and deep stillness. There's no more a need to defend, achieve, or become. You simply are. And in that being, every thing is included—joy and sorrow, birth and death, gentle and shadow. Non-duality doesn't get rid of the human knowledge; it holds it completely, without clinging or rejection.
One of many paradoxes of non-duality is so it can not really be described in words. Language is founded on duality—that versus that, issue and object. Therefore any effort to explain non-duality certainly falls short. As Zen teachings state, the finger going to the moon is not the moon. The very best non-dual teachings use words as tips, perhaps not truths. They information you to appear within, to issue assumptions, to sleep in silence. Finally, the facts of non-duality is something you recognize, not at all something you believe. Oahu is the quiet “aha” of awakening, when you see clearly that you've never been split up from living, from the others, or from the divine. This acceptance can come abruptly or steadily, but once it's seen, it changes everything.
Probably the many sensible appearance of non-duality may be the invitation to live completely in the current moment. Your head lives in past and future—replaying thoughts, expecting outcomes. But presence is obviously here. In the today, there is no ego, virtually no time, no separation. Every thing simply is. This is why techniques like meditation, mindfulness, and self-inquiry are very powerful—they carry attention out of believed and back once again to the strong experience of being. And in that being, the facts reveals itself. You're non-duality not really a individual having an event; you are the attention in which knowledge unfolds. You're the area in which the planet arises. Because knowing, there is peace, wholeness, and the finish of the religious search.