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 =)

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

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