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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.

Explore posts in the same categories: Awakening and Reality

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 22nd, 2006 at 11:51 pm and is filed under Awakening and Reality. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be queued for moderation and posted as quickly as possible.