Category Archives: Nonduality

The situation that confronts us – to which a spiritual experience of nonduality is apparently a possible answer – is an old one. How do we know what is real? Or true? Thousands of years ago, Xenophanes of Colophon pointed out that even if someone happened to acquire perfect knowledge of the one true world,Continue reading “A Spiritual Experience of Nonduality”

Yet ask: where does an object go and what does it do when it is not appearing in the unified flow of subjective experience? When we look into nonduality – conceptually, experientially, poetically, et cetera – one of the first insights is that Being presents itself as unified to a center that is stable. ThereContinue reading “Nonduality and the Nature of Desire”

Yet perhaps we cannot go beyond names. Perhaps to even try is to descend into a state of infinite regress. “This tree is a white pine.” But before we call it a “white pine” we call it a “tree.” And before we call it a “tree” we call it “it.” Can we reach a stateContinue reading “Beyond Boundaries”

Heinz von Foerster once said – here paraphrased – that complexity is a consequence of language; it does not inhere in the world. I want to extend his insight and say that complexity is not a property of experience but rather is a property of descriptions of experience. Basically, I am suggesting that experience happensContinue reading “On Descriptions of Spiritual Awakening”

Yet ask: if the stories we tell ourselves matter – and they do – then don’t the distinctions we draw (constructivist/realist, believer/atheist, Christian/Buddhist) somehow also matter? After all, they are part of – influential parts of – our stories. Distinctions are inevitable. A human observer cannot help but make distinctions. When we become aware ofContinue reading “Oneness as Human Observer Balancing”

Are we one? Or are we separate? I used to think that these were important questions and that one could be either right or wrong with respect to them. I still they are important questions, mostly because of their potential to prompt helpful dialogues that in turn can clarify our thinking about life and selfContinue reading “Are we One or are we Separate?”