what is Duality and Non Duality?? And how does it affect the Afterlife??
 

I come across these expressions regularly in my afterlife investigations but I'm yet to fully understand what they mean:redface: I'd be very grateful if anyone could clarify what they mean, in an understandable way and also how they affect the idea of consciousness surviving death:hug3:

No-one can explain what is meant by duality. Just as no-one can explain what is meant by 'soul' or 'spirit' and all the rest. All one can explain is what these words (among many others) mean to oneself.

In my view there is a duality we can see. One is mind and the other is matter. Mind creates matter and therefore a duality. Mind contains the whole and creates visible and invisible worlds. Both are sides of the same coin.

I think that non duality has something to do with the idea that there is only God that exists.

There is only duality in experience ...

A sense of self is experienced in relation to something else ..

Even if one relates that something else as what they are also, there is the reflection had through perceiving.

If there is awareness of silence, or an experience beyond perception of this world then that will be compared with in duality with it's supposed opposites.

Non duality is therefore related to no reflection / perception of self of experience.

Non duality is a bit of a red herring because in my eyes non duality points to something/somewhere/nowhere/no-one that couldn't possibly relate to it, cos the moment one does one is experiencing what one refers to as duality ..



x daz x

A little book which helped me a lot in my metaphysical studies is the Kybalion, By Three Initiates,
you can get this book for free online; here is a link http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/kybalion.pdf

Read Chapter IV The Divine Paradox and Chapter X Polarity and they may give you some insight into
duality and non-duality, also read some literature on Taoism as the centerpiece of Taoism is about
duality and non-duality. The yin and yang symbol of Taoism is a good example of this. Basically duality
refers to the dual nature of the human mind and how our mind perceives reality which is different than
the spiritual perspective of oneness, wholeness, or non-duality. Duality and non-duality are
metaphysical concepts.

You can understand this in your mind but it will only become clear if you experience it. To see the light
of God in all things is similar to non-duality, but to see all of the differences in this creation, and all of
the labels we attach to those differences, is similar to duality. Human beings have more in common than
we do that is different but the human mind often dwells on the differences which divide us. Both duality
and non-duality serves us; duality is as the mind and non-duality the heart; the middle path is said
to be best.:smile:

All of creation is of a duel nature...it's in the recipe of creation itself that causes this...it is maya....it is illusion...the reason for it is unknowable...it is the Lords Lila....the play of God...it is the grand illusion.

AUM...I AM...consciousness...universal mind....(impersonal I);..this is the dynamic principal behind creation...it holds all possibilities....it is this principle that animates the body.

With the body comes duality(personal I)...that is when one becomes aware that they are...and what they appear to be is a body..and so we falsely identify the body as the reality of existence ...but the higher truth is that we are the dynamic principal that animates all things in creation.

if one can stay in the space between when one is born ...yet....not yet aware that it is...having as of yet, not identified itself with the body....this is the place of bliss,...it's as if the I AM-ness loves to meet itself...and when it does...it is bliss beyond compare...all answers abide here...it is the Guru of us all
this place is before speech can even formulate.


As I write this it came to me that this is what Jesus meant when he said come before the Father as a child...
drop all of your concepts...don't be anything...just be...."and I will take you to myself"

Love
acorn

I would say let the afterlife take care of itself...you most likely have no knowledge of your previous birth....so how has that helped you now?...how will that knowledge help you in the future? Like the title of a Ram Dass book
" BE HERE NOW"....I guess that sums it up; in the title alone


if you believe in the afterlife...this implies that you already know that your consciousness continues...and it does....until it merges into the absolute..which is a singularity...it is prior to the I AM which is prior to the body.

This information is not easy to convey...words are woefully inadequate ....but I still love them :)

Love
acorn

I agree. As Thoreau was reported to have said "one world at a time please". Concern/belief in an afterlife often acts as an anaesthetic that dulls us to the true living and experiencing of THIS life. Belief in an afterlife can lead to what a Buddhist writer - Stephen Batchelor - termed a "metaphysics of hope and fear" ( rather than an ethics of empathy )

This piece implies your consciousness ceases to exist when it "merges into the absolute", and it doesn't. Otherwise reincarnation could not exist. Your consciousness can not with the first life exist, then stop existing at source, and with the next life continue like nothing happened. It either never existed at all, or it always existed non-stop. Since you are here now reading this, it always existed non-stop.

Also, everybody (except those who are new souls here on earth of course), are more in contact with their previous lives than they know. If you are trying to remember your previous lives, in most cases, you won't get names, faces and facts. What you get are feelings and ideas. What do you like more than anything? What do you fear? What is on your mind all the time? And all seemingly without a very good reason or cause.
You can know a lot about your previous lives if you know what to look for, and especially if you know how to look. You don't need to have special powers at all.

Nice freebee, Starman, much appreciated. I enjoyed gaining a wider insight on the history and teachings of Hermes Trismegistus. Also know as 'Thoth", his teaching trickles all the way to modern day tarot enthusiasts(Thoth Tarot) heh. Tarot being a very non-dualistic 'tool'; a practice I recently picked up ( It's been highly fascinating). Anywho, It's always amusing to discover how metaphysics ties in to so many facets in spirituality.

I am excited to read more, book marking it :wink: