Why/how do people accept duality?
 

Where does their faith come from, to move forward in an infinite duality/relativity so ingrained that even their awareness is it, self and other. And yet everyone is seemingly moving forward as if there is going to be something real on the other end.

And why was it such a big shock (or dissapointment to say it softly) for me to discover that everything is a duality?

Why/how can I not accept duality/relativity like most people?

And if there is nothing but duality then why do I (also a duality) have such a difficult time accepting it?

What on earth is wrong with me? :biggrin:

We are born into dualism. The very language we learn from birth separates us; you, me, us, them, etc. When you add here/there, past/future, and preferences like good/bad, right/wrong, etc. That's already here when we're born into it. But it is a viewpoint that creates personal identity. Which is very useful on the macro level, but we're cut off from the realization that we ALL feel that illusion of uniqueness/separateness. I feel unique and so do you. On rare occasions, we may leave that perspective and become one with the universe. Personally, I spend a lot of time trying to recapture that. :-)

me too, but doesn't it discourage you when recapturing it and not recapturing it is just anothet dualistic cycle?

to be whole with the universe without dualistically becoming it and therefor also not becoming it, then I have to already always BE whole/at one with the universe.

I just don't understand where the wholeness is here and now. I feel seperate and stuck in a never ending cycle of feeling good and bad, better or worse. Neutral or non neutral.

Right and wrong are part of the dualistic nature of value judgments. I attempt to not apply those judgmental labels to myself. In my opinion life is for learning and the lessons come in many different ways.

Often the thing is not the problem, rather the problem is often how we are looking at the thing. There is no right or wrong in it. Its’ simply the way things are and most of human life is about adapting to the way that things are. If you do not like duality then find, and constantly dwell, in the one-ness of non-duality.

This morning, as soon as I woke up, there it was. Some bad memory and regret from my past capturing my attention and experience of now. Such an experience is always unpleasant. I asked myself, knowing my situation, which is a "soul" or conscious awareness locked into a temporary aging physical body and it's conditioned mind, how to be free of such mind experiences.

The first thing I realized is I am not consciously choosing what is in my mind. Then I asked myself, why? Why is my mind doing this "to me?" Sucking me down into past memories and experiences I can do nothing about. I can't change what happened or what I did. I saw my partner happily getting ready for work and going on their way. They seemed to be in a mostly unconscious state habitually making their food and coffee but it was obvious their thoughts and mind were not giving them a negative experience. My partner seemed happy and upbeat.

Then I realized, since I cannot control what appears in my mind, there had to be a cause or reason for it doing this to me. I have come to believe the purpose of life is to be free and happy and to "get there" takes higher awareness which is the ultimate purpose in life. To evolve and discover our true identity which is not this body and it's conditioned mind.

Then it hit me. The thoughts reacting negatively to the painful and unpleasant memories and regrets was not unlike the memories themselves. The "duality" I was experiencing, me and my unpleasant memories were two sides of the same coin. It was not duality at all, it was a trick. "I" am neither, what the mind conjured up as my morning memory experience NOR the thoughts pretending to be "ME" reacting to those images and memories. That realization set me free in that moment though the same test will repeat until I truly evolve and change and grow in awareness.

I think we experience duality because we keep our attention and identity in mind. If we are existing as what is basically "a stream of self talking in our mind or head" then all experience will be dual. It's like a DVD where in special features you can turn on the directors commentary. We are living moment to moment with this internal commentary going on not only pretending to be "me" but also pretending to be presenting truth or reality.

All that voice does is keep us from discovering who and what we are which I believe is it's purpose. The sole purpose in life is to discover our true identity BECAUSE that requires higher awareness which is an evolution in consciousness which is the point of this physical life.

The wholeness or "non-duality" has always been and always is right here and right now and fully present. Our confusion and life as a temporary physical body and it's conditioned mind is what is creating our dual experience and view. We have to realize the looker, us as thought, and what is looked at "mind" are both not us nor controlled by us. They are two sides of the same coin but we have been tricked into thinking one is me and one is not me. Thought and mind are one pretending to be two.

Yes we are born into "dualism" because we are conscious awareness that merges with a physical body and it's mind for a relativity brief physical incarnation. But we all seek to be happy and the ultimate peace and happiness is the discovery we can be "untouched" or free of the experience of dualism through alertness and focusing in the right now and feeling that non-attachment to not only what is presented "by mind" but the "one" reacting to it as "me" as well. There is no dualism. There is only an experience of dualism that happens when we have a delusional identity. When we believe ourselves to be the self created by mind and thought. In the now, it is possible to be free of both. The realization we are not either is the freedom and the ending of a dual experience.

That commentary on the DVD by the director is the same thing as the thought stream in the here and now telling us what this here and now is. Turn off the commentary on this DVD or in this moment in this life. The commentary is not what now is or what life is. We are not experiencing what now is, we are experiencing the commentary of it by the "director" we have come to believe is us and we also believe it is presenting some kind of reality. Realty is experience and awareness in the now "free" from of mind and thought. Mind and thought does not leave or go away, what "goes away" is our identification with it as us.

No reason to get upset because your shadow follows you. Ha!
"All is Mind.", but that's not a bad thing. The problem is finding ourselves to be a pin-point perspective or an all-inclusive perspective of it, yet not able to change that perspective or focus at will. We intellectually know Life is a Dream, we just haven't found an easy way to wake up. Of course, we aren't talking about our mortal "character". For instance, I'm alive and babbling in this dream world! Our soul is what has to wake up. I yell at mine a lot.

"You cannot wake a person who is pretending to be asleep." ~ Navajo Proverb

The wholeness is always present here and now. The problem is that we identify with the part, the small separate self.

Surrender all identification with the part, the idea that there is an "I" which feels separate and stuck. Then we identify with the wholeness and we discover that it is everywhere and never goes away.

The "I" seeks the whole and never finds it, because as long as there is an "I" the whole remains hidden in plain sight.

Peace

from post 3
 

Ah, I have noticed this about you for yrs now... you said it yourself...a 'cycle'.
But you don't stop the cycle from what I've read...you keep pumping it...round and round.

Stop the cycle.
Be still and only still....and not for 10 minutes and give up...then, like a fog lifting
you may exp Wholeness or Oneness or God Himself - with Divine Insights downloading into your quiet, receptive head.
I wish this for you. :)

Hi. Thank you for your reply.
If I may ask you about what you said.
Does that mean I can stop experiencing suffering and enlightenment in never ending cycle if I simply stop judging altogether? If so, how do I stop judging?


Does suffering have to always eventually come as part of the lesson? And will there come another new cycle of suffering even after all suffering is over?

How can one find an escape from their own perspective/awareness? Or is there just a mandatory eternal effort to seek balance that can never be accomplished in the absolute sense?

How does one dwell in the oneness of nonduality? Can it be known or become aware of?