What is Nonduality: Perspectives on Nondual Realization

In nondual realization, there’s no phenomena experienced apart from pure or transcendental consciousness. There’s no me and you, no I set up against a world. So, it’s in that sense that it’s a non-worldly experience and not an other-worldly experience. There’s no such thing as another world; everything is here and now but only concealed by an apparent diversity of phenomena. In fact, the experience of being-human-in-the-world is nothing but a notion, a sheer idea having the same nature as that of a daydream; this very notion has apparently blocked the seeing of nonduality which is right in front of us and always present and available. … More What is Nonduality: Perspectives on Nondual Realization

Finding the Real in Ecstasy: The Metaphysics of Joy

We need only reflect on our own daily experience to see that much of suffering, I mean the unnecessary and avoidable suffering, is the result of attachment to what’s pleasant and aversion to what’s unpleasant. Perhaps if we have a bad day where we don’t feel great, we’ve made it what it is in contrast … More Finding the Real in Ecstasy: The Metaphysics of Joy

What’s Mine & What’s Grace

Moreover, there are times that even the “I” is taken away from me without me being the one giving it away, and then returned to me without me being able to even ask for it, and that’s the state of dreamless sleep. So, even with regard to my existence, I’m neither its possessor nor its support. My existence, too, is given to me and present as transcendentally as any other thing such as a desire to do good or the power to carry it out. … More What’s Mine & What’s Grace

I Can’t Stand Musicals & More

Sinn, in German is to have meaning, to deploy intelligence forward and outward. Perhaps it’s the same thing: to sin is to sinn, to suppress one’s primordial and divine stupidity for the sake of a loaf of meaning; it’s to beat the innocent stupidity in the head by the hammer of intelligence and wisdom so that life finds some arbitrary and transient meaning. Man can’t tolerate meaninglessness and indeterminate being, that is, sheer stupidity. To bring things into form, into intelligible conceptions and limitations, this man elevates intelligence over and above stupidity and takes the fall and the subsequent suffering. … More I Can’t Stand Musicals & More

The Primordial Confusion: How to See Nonduality in Duality

When we realize that realness belongs to us rather than the things outside us, when we realize that we are that realness itself, it’s only then that we become fearless, for we know that realness can’t hurt itself. Realness just is and and it is us. And that’s why he said “that which doesn’t kills us makes us stronger,” for when we face realness with courage and open heart we become even more real, which is in truth a case of reclaiming our own reality which we had lent to things outside of ourselves. … More The Primordial Confusion: How to See Nonduality in Duality

The Ground of the Soul in Meister Eckhart’s Theology

What keeps us from seeing The Truth is our stories and interpretations about it. Once we cease looking in the direction of this self-created drama, truth will shine on its own accord and without the need for our effort. It’s quite often our own efforts, and more so our spiritual efforts, that muddle the waters of Beyond-Being and keep our true essence hidden from view. … More The Ground of the Soul in Meister Eckhart’s Theology

Practicing Honesty

To take the practice of honesty to a higher level, we can be less selective about people’s imperfections and recognize that they have their own process. It’s more noble to give someone time with their imperfections and let them learn from their experiences than try to fix them. … More Practicing Honesty

Seeing With The Flesh: How our bodies tell us what to see and how to see it

The mind simulates situations and reads threats into them, quite innocently, to make sense of uncomfortable sensations and unpleasant feelings. As a result we end up seeing in our visual field more than what’s there. We may see a monster in our spouse, an enemy in our friends, etc., and we do so by projecting malicious intentions onto others’ behavior when we are bothered by our own sensations. In a sense, the bodily sensations warp our our visual field: we actually see the world not with the eyes but rather with the flesh. … More Seeing With The Flesh: How our bodies tell us what to see and how to see it