I rather like my computer. When my friends built her a couple of years back, we chose one of those cases with the pretty lights and a clear side panel so you can see all the inner workings.
I’ve downloaded Google Earth, Verbot, and a host of other interesting software, each of which adds a tangible new function to my computer. But running behind all that, invisible and usually taken for granted, is the Windows operating system. This is the foundation that my entire computer rests upon, but I usually don’t even think of it as a portion of my computer, unless I happen to sit down at a Mac and discover how different its foundation is.
What most of us don’t realize is that we’re all running on an ‘operating system’ as well. This is called our ‘model of reality’, but we’re so used to it being there that most of don’t even know we have one! Instead of a model of reality, we consider it to be reality itself!
What we further don’t realize is that we have a choice of what model of reality we want to use. Every model works differently, and your choice of a model will profoundly affect the workings of your life, and your overall happiness as a person. It will also affect the happiness of every person you encounter in your life. In fact, your choice of a model of reality is probably the most basic and important decision you’ll ever make! And what have we done? We’ve let other people make the decision for us, and we’ve never even been told that there were other versions available!
What Is a Model of Reality?
A model consists of our basic assumptions about reality. Those basic assumptions dictate how our life unfolds. For instance, at the time of this writing, it’s early October and it’s snowing out. If I were to assume that early October is too early for snow (as most of my fellow citizens are doing – it’s the talk of the town), then I’d be a bit agitated that it’s so cold and windy and snowy. If I made no assumptions about early October weather, I wouldn’t be surprised. On another level, if I make assumptions about people with different cultural backgrounds, then my interactions with those people will be skewed – despite the ‘actual’ personality of the individual I’m encountering.
Even deeper assumptions — about what makes a good person, about cause and effect, about responsibility vs. victimhood, about time and space – all of these assumptions are the building-blocks of your life.
You’ve essentially been handed a pre-fabricated model of reality by your culture, parents, and teachers. Very few people have taken the time to really examine their most basic assumptions about life. We don’t let strangers decide what make of car we drive, what type of house we buy, or who we marry. (Unless you want to consider the power of our consumer culture and advertising.) And yet, we let other people make our most important life decision for us – without ever examining the decision that’s being made!
Types of Models
There are innumerable models of reality to choose from, but it’s not as difficult as it sounds to sort through them, because in actuality, there are only two types– dualistic and non-dualistic.
Dualistic models assume that the world is divided into different parts. You, of course, are one of those parts.
Because dualistic models create dividing lines where none actually exist, they cause incredible problems. You see, when we divide the world up, then the different parts have to interact. And while sometimes the parts interact in positive ways, it seems like just as often they interact in negative ways. Conflict is built right into the model.
The Standard Dualistic Model, which is the model 99% of us live by, actually sucks. In fact, if I were to write an article explaining it in detail, the article really wouldn’t be worth the electrons it would take to bring it up on your screen. Yes, it’s really that bad. And it’s probably the model you’re working under right now.
Philosophers have struggled for millennia to create a dualistic model that really works well. Thus far, the only one that is really worthwhile is the Intention-Manifestation model. It works incredibly well because it taps into the ‘real’ way the world works.
True non-dualism, on the other hand, makes no dividing lines. It sees that the world has no opposites, no cause and effect, and no divisions. If you take the time to clearly observe the world around you, you’ll see that this is the way the world actually is. But because the thought of it conflicts directly with our dualistic model of the world, our dualistic minds assume that it can’t be real.
Living by the non-dualistic model makes conflict and frustration impossible, and it doesn’t rob us of our ability to function in the ‘regular’ world. In fact, it enhances our ability to function.
Shifting Models
Sticking with your current model seems easy (although it’s really not – see What’s Really Going on in Our Minds). Shifting to the non-dualistic model can seem impossible. Actually, it’s quite easy, but we’re so habituated to our regular way of seeing the world that we seem to run into stumbling block after stumbling block. This site is about dissolving those stumbling blocks and letting you make an informed choice about what model you choose to guide your life.
The Life Basics articles on this site will give you advice and insight based on a non-dualistic model – without having to change your model completely, they’ll help you find more happiness and peace in your everyday life.
The Deeper Understanding articles on this site are meant to challenge your basic dualistic assumptions about the world until it becomes completely apparent that non-duality is ‘it’.
Realizations
Most of all, have fun with this site. Explore, and let the articles do the work for you. Unlike many other paths to self-development, this one doesn’t require lots of work and effort. In fact, the articles are carefully written to do the work for you. Read them, let them soak in, and think about them a little. They’re designed to invoke realizations in you. This is a totally different feeling than learning. When we learn something new, we have to take it on faith that the teacher knows what they’re talking about. With realizations, the aim is to achieve an experience of perfect non-doubt, when you suddenly say ‘Oh, that’s the way it is! It was so obvious all along! Why didn’t I see that before?’
That’s the real trick to moving to a non-dualistic way of experiencing the world. You have to give up all the effort you usually use to create change, and let the change come on its own.
It’s a whole new way of thinking.
[...] top three picks of Kenton Whitman for [...]
Hello Kenton!
Thank you (again) for a great post(s) and site!
Isn´t it also true that you can get stuck in oneness? Dualism, which is the “normal” way we are conditioned to view the world…which comes though language. Oneness…is the other extreme of believing there is nothing seperate… which is both true and false…is it not? Non-dualism doesn´t mean complete oneness as far as I understand it but rather of seeing things as they are without the veil of concepts (which means seeing both out interconnectedness and the dualistic workings).
One of the things I find difficult is believing in myself…and my view of reality without getting feedback from other human beings. And since i´m conditioned with this “model” of thinking there is great comfort to be found in sharing that with others…and great fear of standing alone with a different model seperate from the common held belief. In a way I feel I want to change the world into this better model…and not be so alone (here the buddhist sangha, online communities, and text/thoughts from others are of great importance for me…) – and this wanting/acting creates feelings of separation, suffering and non-acceptence of what is.
I guess I´m stuck in either or…either dualism or non-dualism…and are having trouble breaking out of that. I think I begin to understand that there acually only is non-dualism…but how to live and act in a world of made up rules without feeling that I am bound by them or without wanting acceptance from others (and myself) by following these rules – but to feel playfull and accepting of the rules (which I find so oppressing and conflict creating) instead…this, I find very difficult.
Well… this was ramblings from a somewhat confused and stressed mind at the moment, hope you can bear it.
Also…I´m abit confused by what you mean by this part of the post:
“True non-dualism, on the other hand, makes no dividing lines. It sees that the world has no opposites, no cause and effect, and no divisions. If you take the time to clearly observe the world around you, you’ll see that this is the way the world actually is. But because the thought of it conflicts directly with our dualistic model of the world, our dualistic minds assume that it can’t be real.”
Could you please elaborate, and especially what you mean by no-cause and effect…?
With warm regards,
/Peter (Sweden).
Hello Peter,
Absolutely, we can just as easily get into the ‘all is one’ trap. Just as funny and delightful as our usual way of seeing everything separately!
I can understand your feelings of isolation — I had a long period of feeling like — ‘am I the only one in the world who sees things this way’? At some point, another realization came, and I saw that those around me who had appeared to be living in dualism were actually unfolding as perfectly as a tree, a cloud, a Buddha, or me! That’s when the isolation vanished.
You are so clear — you’re not afraid to see just where you are. Often, people are so desperate to appear enlightened or different that they’ll insist that they’ve ‘got it’ — and as long as you think you’ve ‘got it’ you can be pretty darn sure you don’t =)
The statement that you quoted above is tricky — if you haven’t already, I’d have you read Everything You Hear About Enlightenment is a Lie. And to answer your question regarding cause/effect, I’d steer you to the article on Karma, which will also bring into question our idea of linear time, which I addressed at a guest post on the Urban Monk’s wonderful blog.
Thanks, Peter!
Hugs,
Kenton
Did you have a bad day when you wrote this article?
So oneness is the solution now.. mmm. By the way, stating that we have basically two models: dualistic and non-dualistic is in itself a *dualistic* affirmation 
IMHO, the “problem” is not about the model of reality (this again — the paradigm thing — is another mind game); it’s about reality itself: the “sense” of reality, *any* reality, and how *seriously* we take/deal with this sense of reality.
Definitely not your best post. Yeah! It’s your fault; since you’ve shown us much better insights!
Sincerely,
Robert
Greetings Robert,
Well, I’ll have to take the fault, as better insights don’t excuse lesser ones =) Still, this article has been ‘just the thing’ for a number of readers, and if you hadn’t read it already, I’d refer you to ‘Everything You Hear About Enlightenment is a Lie! Not only is ‘dualistic’ and ‘non-dualistic’ a dualistic affirmation — any word that we use, ever, implies a dualistic view, so we’d have to limit ourselves to blank entries if we were to do things properly, and even then our minds could crowd in a dualism within the context of our idea of ‘nothing’ or ‘emptiness’. Oneness is one of my least favorite images (and I’m loathe to use any whatsoever) when discussing Awakening, but it’s used purposefully in this article. I think the key here is that none of these articles stand alone — they’re meant to all work within the context of the rest of the articles on this site, where a process of creating and undoing our ideas is played at. For some people, a certain article might seem remedial or even contradictory to another, but if we attempt to understand ‘awakening’ through descriptions, however well-laid or enticing, we’re going to end up doing nothing but creating a new and pretty idea in our heads. This article, then, is meant to suggest something to people who have never even considered that there might be ‘something else’ — to suggest a path toward taking their ‘first step’.
Thanks for your comments of late, and for being a discriminating reader. I’m always attempting to hone my ability to make things clear and to not lead our minds into more tangled thickets. Having someone like you here helps in the honing =)