Enlightenment Handbook, Part Three
By now you’ve probably figured out that this Awakening stuff has to do with something we might call Being in the Now, or Seeing What’s Really Going On, or something. But what is this something?
We may have a sense that enlightenment or non-dualism is going to make our lives much nicer, and give us all the things we really desire, like inner peace, wisdom, and a good sense of humor.
If we could only understand what this something is, and if we could only understand what this website is trying to get us to see, then it would happen! We’d have a sudden realization, and the world would become perfectly clear.
Why isn’t this happening for us?
We might be meditating and reading and, sometimes, we might think we’re sort of on to something. But then the next day we get stressed or frustrated, and we know we’re fakes. Pretending to understand when we really don’t.
The whole issue is that we still haven’t given up the same old game of dualism, which divides the world into pieces and then tries to figure out how the pieces fit together.
Awakening takes no effort. I’m not kidding. Our problem is that we’re trying so hard.
Understanding Divisions
Instead of trying fruitlessly to explain non-dualism, let’s take a good look at dualism. If we get very familiar with its workings, we’ll be able to spot it easily, and that will help us to see when we’re fooling ourselves.
Dualism – our usual state of mind – works by creating divisions. If you look carefully at the world around you, you’ll see that you can’t really find any natural divisions. All these divisions are created by us.
It’s fairly easy to see that there is not a clean division between, say, a tree and the woods, or you and your best friend. But divisions can be more subtle than that – for instance, it’s not just things that we divide (like you and a tree), but mental states (like one emotion from another). And states of mind might be separated by something as seemingly innocent as time.
In other words, if I think that I am happy today, but I was sad yesterday, I’ve played a subtle little game. I’ve created different states of mind (happy and sad), and separated them by time (yesterday and today). And just like that, I have dualism!
Remember, Awakening is simply Seeing the World As Is. Without creating any arbitrary divisions.
This ‘division creation’ can go by different names. Sometimes I’ve called it ‘laying symbols over reality’. Sometimes it’s called ‘breaking the world into bits’. Sometimes it’s just called ‘dualism’. If you can see what all these names have in common, you’ll start to see what dualism has in common – it divides the world into pieces, and then tries to relate those pieces to each other.
But there is something very important to understand if you really want to know what divisions are. Because all of those names are a little misleading. The important thing to understand is that divisions are not actually about breaking the real world up into pieces. They are actually a creation-process. Divisions are about creating things that aren’t there.
As a creation-process, divisions populate our world with all sorts of things. And once we have those things, we can start having trouble with those things.
Have you ever had trouble with money? Money is created by human beings, and it only has relevance because we all agree that it’s valuable. Otherwise it would be meaningless.
Have you ever had trouble with time? Our clocks are invented by us, and if we all didn’t insist in being so punctual, no one would be late.
I’m not suggesting we throw out clocks or burn our money. The point is not whether our society would function without money or time – the point is simply that as thinking beings, it makes sense to pay attention to how our minds divide the world.
Let’s look at another division. Do you believe in Chi (vital energy)? If you decided to believe in Chi, you’d create a division in your world. Then you might discover that wind dissipates Chi, and then you will start avoiding going out in the wind. If you do get caught in the wind, you might very well get sick, because you’re convinced that you will get sick.
It’s important to see that creating divisions isn’t bad. We can have fun with divisions. But when we take them seriously, and think that they are real, we can get really upset when we can’t pay the bills, or someone arrives late, or our Chi is sucked out of us by a windy day.
On the Wrong Track
The point is not to try to figure out if you’re ‘getting’ enlightenment or not. The point is to start to recognize dualism in all its forms. Here we’ll take a look at some common pitfalls encountered by people who are seeking enlightenment or trying to understand non-dualism. Notice how each of these pitfalls represents the same process – the creation of divisions.
Enlightenment Looks Like This:
Probably the most common trap people fall into in seeking enlightenment is to think that enlightenment looks like something. You’ll find yourself thinking that an Awakened individual has certain types of behavior, and you’ll start to look to see if you have those sorts of behavior.
Are you calm and peaceful? That’s non-dualism!
Are you stressed and frustrated? That’s dualism!
Soon you are thinking that the world (and yourself) can be divided into dualistic and non-dualistic behaviors. If you’re thinking of yesterday, you’re being dualistic. If you deal with a tough situation with finesse and ease, you’re being non-dualistic.
Do you see what’s been done here? More divisions have been made (dualistic vs. non-dualistic behaviors and actions). Our regular dualistic minds have successfully made ‘non-dualism’ into a division, and now we’re right back where we started!
Non-dualism doesn’t have any characteristics. It’s not a system of behavior, or a way to deal with the world more positively. If you dealt with a situation with calm and ease, you’ve simply learned to re-define some of the relationships between the divisions you’ve created.
But you still have the problem of the divisions, and at some point they’ll catch up to you again.
If you are thinking that non-dualism has any characteristics at all, or that you can recognize it in yourself or others by their actions, then you’re barking up the wrong tree. Non-dualism is Seeing the World As Is, and has nothing whatsoever to do with behaving in a certain way.
Oneness:
The second most popular pitfall seems simple enough. If the creation of divisions is the problem, then the solution must be to have no divisions!
Again, we can see dualism in action here. It’s made ‘divisions’ into one thing, and ‘no divisions’ into another thing. Since divisions are the problem, then ‘no-divisions’ is the answer! You’ve all heard people say ‘All the World is Oneness’. This ‘Oneness’ sure sounds non-dualistic, but if we saw the world Just As Is, we’d see that ‘Oneness’ is equally as off-target as having all sorts of divisions in the world! You see, the divisions we create are part of the world too, and Oneness ignores the reality of What’s Really Going On. It tries, in a sneaky way, to turn non-dualism into a new ‘thing’. And what happens when we create a new thing? Yup. We get new problems.
In this case, we walk around saying that ‘All is One’, and separate ourselves from those who think the world is divided into little parts (we might believe we’re a little wiser or more ‘in the know’ than they are).
In this way, we can start to think of ourselves as spiritual, and there are actually folks who consider themselves to be on higher planes of consciousness than other folks. What these people are failing to see is that they have simply created more divisions in the world – and more subtle divisions at that! In this way, someone who has never heard of enlightenment and just goes to the same factory every day is actually more spiritually aware than someone who thinks they are on a ‘higher plane of consciousness’. Why? Because the ‘higher consciousness’ person has only applied themselves to becoming more adept at dualism. And becoming more adept at dualism means that you’ve learned to fool yourself even more effectively than before!
Most of our spiritual paths, then, only help us to get further from enlightenment. They make us experts at fooling ourselves.
You can tell if you’re fooling yourself by simply asking if your particular path has any divisions. Are there different levels of advancement? Are there different energies you have to learn about? Are there new beings or entities you have to relate to? Is there a state you’re trying to achieve, such as enlightenment or awakening?
If you are creating divisions, you’re going to have to spend more time and energy trying to relate those new divisions to each other. It doesn’t matter if you accept money as a reality and devote your life to becoming a millionaire, or you accept enlightenment as a reality and devote your life to meditating in a cave. It’s all the same game of dualism.
Enlightenment can be the most dangerous ‘path’ in this way, in that it’s very easy to fool yourself. Just remember that this is not about learning to see the world in a new way or achieving a new state of being. It’s about something that takes no effort at all. It’s what happens when we let go of all these divisions and see the world Just As Is.
Don’t worry. The world won’t evaporate, money won’t disappear, and you’ll still be able to make your appointment tomorrow. It’s just that you’ll see all these ‘things’ for what they really are.
Nothingness:
If you read about non-dualism or enlightenment, you might hear much about sunyata, which is sometimes translated as emptiness. Also, if you consider the implications of what we actually have real evidence for (which is that our current, momentary sensory perception is all we can really know to ‘exist’), we can come to the conclusion that we are alone in an empty world.
In a more subtle manner, this is the same fear we have when we insist that we wouldn’t want to become enlightened because we think we’d lose our emotions, or our ability to have desires or motivation.
Getting stuck in Nothingness happens when we over-think non-dualism or enlightenment. Again, we’ve made it into a mental state, just like Oneness, which has to be supported by arguments and thoughts. It’s quite easy to argue Nothingness, but these logic-games ignore the Direct Perception of reality available to us all. If you’re having to think about how non-dualism works, then it’s a sure sign that you’re thinking about thoughts, and not about Direct Perception or Pure Experience. Pure Experience needs no words to explain it – in fact, as soon as we apply words or ideas to it (for instance, by trying to explain it), we turn it into something that it’s not.
Thinking Non-Dualism
Most subtle of all, and thus the most difficult to recognize in ourselves, is Thinking Non-Dualism. Thinking Non-Dualism has figured out how to speak the ‘language of non-dualism’, and since language is so tied to thought, we begin thinking that we understand what non-dualism is all about.
It’s a simple art, actually, and it works like this. If confronted with a question or idea, you simply acknowledge both sides of the matter as equally real and unreal.
Here’s an example.
Dualistic question: “Is there an inner Self?”
‘Non-Dualistic’ answer: “Of course not! And mine is right here! The Self can never be found, and yet it is everywhere you look.”
In many non-dualistic discussions, people debate about whether something is real or not, never realizing that they’re really arguing about the nature of the thing’s reality! If you can see it, ‘Self’ is made into an object in the Non-Dualistic answer above. It might be better to answer by asking “What do you mean by ‘Inner Self”"? Then we can see what the dualistic mind is creating, and if we can understand the creation-process, we can guide our minds to recognize when we are making new divisions in the world.
Dualism pretending to be non-dualism will grab onto any object it can, and then pretend that the object doesn’t exist while it weaves its strange logic around the very object it’s pretending does/doesn’t exist!
Confusing, I know. But the point is that non-dualism is the simplest thing in the world. It’s just right here, now, when we stop trying to think and label everything. If you’re studying non-dualism and start to get bogged down in incomprehensible concepts and ideas with lengthy and exotic-sounding names, then what you’re studying probably has nothing to do with non-dualism and a lot to do with creating new beliefs and ideas.
Awakening is the easiest thing in the world, and it’s available to everyone. You don’t have to be wise or be able to weave perplexing sentences or learn a new language. You don’t have to do anything at all!
But while we’re here in the dualistic world, we’re going to keep trying. And if we’re going to try to do something, we might as well apply all our efforts to something useful. Devote yourself to dualism for a while. Start to see how it works. It’s alright to look at other people and learn from their behaviors, but you’ll do best by watching yourself. Especially as you start to seek non-dualism.
Dualism is fascinating. It’s genius, actually. No matter how you think about it, it will support its own foundation. But paradoxically, that can be its undoing, because if you follow any idea long enough, it will circle back upon itself, and you’ll find that there is nothing ‘real’ there to support it!
Ending With an Ice-Cream Cone
Take a bubble-gum flavored ice-cream cone. It is a real ‘thing’? It’s melting constantly, so just what is the ‘thing’ we want to call an ice-cream cone? When does it cease to become an ice-cream cone, and become just a cone with pink liquid on it?
Is it an ice-cream cone if it is half-melted? If there is only a marble-sized piece of frozen ice-cream left on the bottom? Maybe you’ll decide that it’s an ice-cream cone the whole time – but that the ice-cream cone has different ‘ages’ and states of being. You’re welcome to create whatever set of ideas you want.
You’ll find that everyone can create their own ideas, and no one is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ (unless they can convince everyone else of their position, and thus swing everyone else to their own, personal delusion). In the end, we find that the only thing we can really call an ‘ice-cream cone’ is our idea of an ice-cream cone. From there we have to decide if the things around us fit into our ideas or not.
This is the same thing we do with creating ideas of what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, with creating ideas about who we ‘are’ and who our friends ‘are’. Then, after being married for eight years, we can say – “You’re not the person I married,” and you actually sound vaguely sane doing it.
This site is full of articles that help us to see how dualism works. The more you learn about it, the more you’ll be able to recognize it in yourself, and the more you’ll be able to recognize, along your journey, when you fall into one of the common pitfalls.
Explore posts in the same categories: Enlightenment Handbook