By Guest Bazooka Jesus
in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God,
Greetings, fellow seekers of truth, Due to a lengthy discussion that I've had recently with an esteemed forum member about the topic of duality / nonduality, I thought it might be good to provide some further clarification and present what I'd like to call "the axis of reality". Keep in mind that the following is of course only an abstract symbolic representation of reality, NOT reality itself.
So, without further ado... here it is:
Duality = Form = Experience = REALITY = Consciousness = Formlessness = Nonduality
Note that these seven words are all ultimately referring to the exact same thing; they are simply seven aspects of the One Thing in existence.
There is no question that the overwhelming majority of people who are living on this planet are completely absorbed in the left side of this axis (Duality = Form = Experience); it's not so much that they don't see reality as it is, but rather they only see one specific part of it. Now, most so-called spiritual teachings are generally geared towards making people who are "lost" on the left side become aware of the right side. This is not about leading them from the wrong side to the right one; this is about making them see the whole glorious picture, for reality would be incomplete without either one of these two flanks. So when we say things like "duality is just an appearance", "form is illusion" or "there are no human beings inside human bodies", these are not expressions of truth; such phrases are nothing but pointers that are supposed to show you the pathway that leads from left to right. You can think of them as signposts that those who have managed to grasp the entirety of the axis leave for the other folks so that they know where to look for the missing piece of the puzzle.
(Psychedelics too are vehicles, if you will, that take you on a journey from left to right and back again. It is however up to you to put the pieces together afterwards and develop an unfragmented awareness of the complete picture; that's why allowing for enough integration time in between your "peeks" is of vital importance. I cannot stress this last part enough!)
Again: The right part of the axis is NOT more real than the left part. The mistake that many spiritual seekers make is that once they have become aware of the Consciousness = Formlessness = Nonduality side of the equation, they all of a sudden think that this part is literally all that there is to reality.. which it isn't. Instead of seeing the whole picture, they have just traded one kind of narrow tunnel vision for another. Being completely absorbed in the right side of the axis is every bit as delusional as being absorbed in the left side. So if your pendulum has swung all the way from one extreme to the other and now is stuck there, your awareness is just as lopsided as the awareness of those who have never made that transition in the first place... which can wreak all kinds of dysfunctional havoc in your life.
What is the solution? Very simple: Just allow the pendulum to swing back to the center and rest in REALITY; and from there, let your awareness expand in both directions simultaneously, into infinity.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call "awakening".
Hope this helps.