How to see Oneness: exercise

[Tim R]

I want to give you a little exercise to make it easier to understand the actual unity underneath the appearance of all differences. Take a look at this:

 

Normally, we'd say "Black VS White". There's a black field and there's a white field and they are clearly not the same. 

Now, I want you to physically point with your finger to the place where black and white are separated. 

Are you pointing on the line in the middle? Good.

Now ask yourself, what color is the line between black and white?

 

Is it black? Well...No, otherwise it would simply be part of the black field and therefore you couldn't see it.

So maybe it is white? But then again, if it would be white, you simply wouldn't be able to distinguish the line from the white field.

Ahh, so it must be both! Right? Well, no. If you think that it's both you're actually still looking at the two colors, so go deeper! Go deeper, look closer, as close as you can into this boundary, imagine you could zoom into it infinitely, what color is the "line between" black and white? 

 

And eventually you'll find - that there is no line separating the two but actually uniting them, in such a way that black and white are identical. There literally is no boundary/difference between black and white. It's a "no-line" if you want to think of it that way. 

If you don't understand this it at first, that's fine, try again. Just keep looking for the alleged line.

 

The above is a very simple example for how to recognize unity underneath appearing duality, but once you got the principle, you can see unity underneath the most intricate multiplicity:

 

This is the visual aspect of recognizing Unity.

Of course you can apply the same principle on every other aspect of perception, for example with sound. Try to hear the boundary between sound and silence. What is it made of? Sound or silence?

 

You can also take this a step further; look for the difference between "you" and "the universe". 

Can you see the difference between the one who sees and that which is seen? Can you hear the difference between the one who listens and the sound? 

Try the latter in your meditation practice, put on some "Om chant" or "singing bowl" or something like that, and with a bit of luck, you might even suddenly merge with the world

Edited March 9, 2021 by Tim R

[allislove]

??

[Gili Trawangan]

Very nice! 

[Flim]

Great post. It gets you thinking.

[nistake]

Mmm, great stuff.

[Someone here]

1 hour ago, Tim R said:

Ahh, so it must be both! Right? Well, no. If you think that it's both you're actually still looking at the two colors, so go deeper! Go deeper, look closer, as close as you can into this boundary, imagine you could zoom into it infinitely, what color is the "line between" black and white? 

 

And eventually you'll find - that there is no line separating the two but actually uniting them, in such a way that black and white are identical. There literally is no boundary/difference between black and white. It's a "no-line" if you want to think of it that way. 

That's all imagination in zooming. Before zooming there is two separate colors.    Anyways nice thought.  But nonduality is not more true then duality. 

[allislove]

@Someone here ?‍♂️??

[Someone here]

@allislove

[Tim R]

12 minutes ago, Someone here said:

That's all imagination in zooming

That's the point haha it's just a nice little visualization to dissolve the idea of there being a boundary which one could see

14 minutes ago, Someone here said:

But nonduality is not more true then duality. 

[Someone here]

@Tim R  ? wanna start a nonduality war? 

[VeganAwake]

Yes exactly, it appears different at night, different creatures come out to play that didn't during the day... but it's all just happening.

Non-dual awareness isn't really about metaphorically smashing everything together because there are apparent differences between birds and bats or dogs and cats.

The experience of duality is a condition of the human mind.

For no apparent reason whatsoever the mind has become an entity unto itself creating an unsatisfactory experience of separation.

Non-dual awareness is the recognition that the separate individual within the body was never real. This recognition then spills over to the rest of humanity thus revealing the cosmic joke.

Everyone is running around in the rat race looking for external means to make them feel whole and complete, whether it's in materialism or spiritual materialism.

No one ever stops to question the validity of the separate individual with all of its needs and wants. They just run on assumptions that they are separate and need to find a better experience in the future.

❤

 

 

[allislove]

@VeganAwake yep. ?

[Endangered-EGO]

@Tim R That reminds me of an experiment I did, where is the line between the past and the present? How long is the "now"? How long is the realisation of being in the now. Is the now in between time?

[At awe]

Someone takes 10 Liters of purest white paint. Starts mixing 1 ml of black paint every 5 minutes into that bucket. When does the paint turn grey? How many weeks does it take to get to total black? Where are those lines?

[Tim R]

@At awe Yes, the idea of a spectrum is also very useful to realize the unreality of boundaries/differences. Same goes for sound, either fading into another note or fading out into silence.

And although most people will admit that there isn't really any boundary between white and grey, they would (maybe not on this forum) still argue that black is "obviously" not the same as white and that there's a clear and distinct difference/boundary. 

[Tim R]

52 minutes ago, Endangered-EGO said:

That reminds me of an experiment I did, where is the line between the past and the present? How long is the "now"? How long is the realisation of being in the now. Is the now in between time?

@Endangered-EGO That's also a good one. I think most people experience the present moment as a very short memory-fraction that lasts for about    0.1 - 0.3 seconds or something like that. It's funny when you point out how arbitrary this is...

"how long do you think is the present moment? 5 seconds?"

"No! that's way too long!"

"Okay, 1 second?"

"hmm, no, that's still too long.."

"what about 5 femtoseconds?" 

"what"

?? 

[Mason Riggle]

Where are the lines between 'intentional' and 'unintentional'?  'doing' and 'being'? 'voluntary' and 'involuntary'? 

[gettoefl]

4 hours ago, VeganAwake said:

...

Everyone is running around in the rat race looking for external means to make them feel whole and complete, whether it's in materialism or spiritual materialism.

No one ever stops to question the validity of the separate individual with all of its needs and wants. They just run on assumptions that they are separate and need to find a better experience in the future.

❤

 

 

from childhood one is taught

what i am is me, what i have is mine

me is identity, mine is attachments

self inquiry gives i am nothing and dismantles identity ... no word describes me

self realization gives i am all and dismantles attachments ... if i am all, no need to desire what i am

[Jonty]

@Tim RGreat thread. Thanks for sharing. ??

[Tim R]

@Gili Trawangan @Flim @allislove @Jonty @nistake

Glad to see that you like it, thanks