Entering the quagmire.........I was a bit resistant to non-duality. On various Buddhist forums there would be those I dubbed as The Non-Dual Thought Police who would patrol the threads jumping from a great height at any with the temerity to give expression to blatantly dual thought, views and experiences. One such would respond to my impertinent questions by constantly saying:- "Why do you keep saying 'zen' " and possibly thought this the heights of enlightenment (of which, if you think of it, there can be no heights) Once one of my comments/questions was greeted with:- "It's mighty cold outside today" and possibly the poster was pleased with their profundity!
But time moves on. Just as God Himself/Herself is That/Who in which we live and move and have our being, I accept now that non-duality is that in which we do much the same. The trick - as Dogen explained in his poetic ways - is to
realise non-duality within duality (I think I have that the right way around...
) We really have no choice.
The problem is highlighted in language which by its nature is dual. A word will always be a part, not the whole, and thus is a poor tool for expressing ultimate truth. This problem is found in such works as the Tao te Ching which begin by declaring the Tao cannot be expressed in words and then proceeds to give us 81 chapters explaining the Tao in great detail. In effect we are always expressing non-duality within duality, some just do it better than others. Thinking about it (not always the best option) this very much brings us back to where we started with very little gained.
"If a flower had a God it would not be a transcendent flower but a field"
I find the faith I have the only place to start. In faith I touch "base", "the ground" (which in the eastern way of seeing things is "empty") and from there diversification can arise. But base (emptiness) must be touched first. I fill my own faith with "infinite compassion, infinite wisdom, infinite potential". I found/find myself having it (or
being it) and recognise this as a gift not an attainment. I have found from experience that much good comes
in spite of my beliefs rather than because of them.
No doubt some will scan this post looking for signs of
real attainment but as I say, I'm not really interested in attaining anything.