The True Hallmark of Non-Duality

It is easy to turn non-duality into another religion, philosophy or spiritual path leading to some future attainment. Seekers get lost in the whole drive to experience the kind of awakening into Oneness that they hear others talk about or in a futile attempt to understand Oneness through the dream of thought. Turning the truth to which the words non-duality or Oneness point into a religion, philosophy, or spiritual path is a massive act of reductionism of a truth that no thought or idea can capture.

The truth to which these words point is an actual energy shift within the body and mind. It is not a philosophy or religion. The realization of Oneness may appear to happen gradually. But that is only an appearance within the story of “me” that believes it is coming to Oneness. There is no coming to Oneness. Oneness is what is already here. When the story of the “me” that believes it is coming to Oneness is seen to be an illusion, Oneness is realized. Therefore, the only point of entry—so to speak—is this moment. The story of “me” lives in time through thoughts of past, future, and resistance to now. That story can never realize Oneness. It is a story of separation. Its only real goal is to keep the idea of a separate self alive, which means to keep surrender from happening.

This shift is delayed by trying to figure out non-duality through thought and by seeking some future attainment of it. You are not doing the delaying. The delaying is just the conditioning of the “me,” which is an illusion that tries desperately to stay alive. The shift is more likely to occur when focus turns away from trying to mentally grasp Oneness and chase future attainment and towards the simple beingness in this moment. The “me” cannot make that shift. The “me” is the energy that is avoiding that surrender. The shift happens when it is realized that the whole story of “me” arises spontaneously as a result of conditioning. In noticing that, there is a noticing that even the noticing is beyond “your” control. It simply happens. That is what is so beautiful about spiritual awakening. It reveals a life lived effortlessly.

In this total openness to what is arising now, there is a seeing that identification with ideas such as “Oneness” and the spiritual path itself are part of the story of “me” that thought tells in some attempt to delay the total surrender to this moment—the true hallmark of non-duality or Oneness. There is nothing wrong with those words. They are beautiful. All form is beautiful. This is not about suppressing words. This is about realizing that the truth cannot be expressed. This is about a surrender that cannot be found by attachment to stories. Strictly speaking, the “person” is nothing more than attachment to stories. Attachment to a story brings about the idea that a person must effort to control life, to bring about Oneness, enlightenment, love, surrender, or some other particular result that conforms to the person’s story about where life should be going or what it should look like. The whole idea of future attainment is a dream, an attempt to avoid the natural surrender that is here in this moment under all the efforting. No person could ever fully surrender. Surrender is what is left when there is a seeing through the false belief that there is a separate person who can bring about surrender.