Conceptual understanding of non-duality

[GreenDragon]

I am not enlightened and I haven't had not even one little awakening experience.

But from all the videos / books / posts I've seen / read, my conceptual understanding of the nature of reality is:

I. Reality is not physical, it's experiential.

II. Experiences occur inside intelligent empty awareness (God / consciousness / nothingness). Nothingness is what creates experience and perceives it.

III. Experiences are not separate from nothingness, they are made out of it.

IV. There is only one thing that exists. All 'individual consciousnesses' are interconnected and inseparable. Reality is indivisible.

So, that's my basic understanding of nonduality (please correct me if I'm wrong or missing something). I don't want to seem arrogant, but the reason I've created this thread is that I'm frustrated by seeing posts the authors of which (it seems to me) severely misunderstand non-duality (things like "Leo is a narcissistic psychopath, he thinks he is God!"). It seems like a very simple thing. Why do people so often misunderstand it, or maybe I misunderstand it myself?

[SoonHei]

i like you have not had any direct experiences but i would say you've got those 5 points all correct 

[SoonHei]

@GreenDragon also check this out

this is more so about the physical construct of reality, which is experiential as you say, but kinda how it all comes together
 

 

[Preetom]

@GreenDragon

you've done quite well. I would recommend the book ''Presence: The art of peace and happiness'' by Rupert Spira. It's a very nice experiential book which the potential to lead you all way without any bullshit.

And a hack for non-duality work: Stop imagining yourself as an object no matter how gross or subtle. whatever you can perceive is not you. You are the awareness that knows the object. 

Keep this attitude all the time and keep observing yourself in present moment. The feelings in your head, heart that 'feels' like you, is NOT you. You're the knower of those feelings. This one hack will supercharge all your other spiritual practices and inquiry. All the best

[tsuki]

@GreenDragon It is good that you can distill observation into conclusions. That is an important skill.
The other important skill is to actually keep them open without agreeing, or disagreeing with them and seeing for yourself how long they can last on their own.

Why people misunderstand non-duality is because it directly dismantles many beliefs they hold as meaningful.
For example: Christian culture under superficial inspection claims that you are separate from god.

[who chit]

3 hours ago, tsuki said:

Why people misunderstand non-duality is because it directly dismantles many beliefs they hold as meaningful.

True. And often assumed there's not going to be too much resistance involved. Until it starts digging into the deeply held beliefs that hold the structure up.

It often goes like this:  
"This liberation,freedom thing,... yeah,that's what I want."

"What's that?? Oh, the cost you ask?"
Well,the cost would be every belief, assumption, conclusion you hold as true, including those you didn't know you had.
Those will have to go.
Oh, and that other thing you've been holding onto your whole life. That thing you call you..
Yeah, that has to go too. You don't get to keep that either.

That can be a bit of deal breaker, lol.
 

Edited August 10, 2018 by who chit

[Joseph Maynor]

THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF NON-DUALITY IN ENLIGHTENMENT THEORY

Non-duality is a pointer to Enlightenment, not a set of beliefs or a paradigm to be clung to.  What Non-duality is trying to do is get you to transcend the 'Paradigm of Need to Know BE-ing Or Not Need to Know BE-ing'.

Enlightenment is surrendering to BE-ing in the moment without pre-judgments or pre-expectations; and it's also a transcendence of all paradigms, including but not limited to the 'Paradigm of Self Or No Self'.

Edited August 10, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Moreira]

You are right unless the possibility of mulitple realities, a different reality for every living being. But this sounds very Sci-fi