Without a Boundary

What is this boundary between self and other, between self and the rest of life, between self and the universe, between self and enlightenment, between self and awareness, between self and beingness, between self and oneness, between self and God? For purposes of this essay let’s just call it the “boundary.” You can fill in the blank between you and whatever it is you are looking for in your spiritual search, whether it is God, enlightenment, liberation, beingness, oneness, or awareness.

Does the boundary actually exist? Does it have an inherent reality or is it merely a mental dream? Does the boundary need to be dissolved? Is there something you must do?

Nothing needs to happen in time. The boundary arises simply because thought is happening. It does not exist anywhere but in thought. In other words, the very moment you believe the thought that you must “do something” in order to be free or find God or enlightenment, awareness, oneness, beingness or whatever you are chasing, you give yourself more time. More time means more mind, more story, more “separate you.” You give the boundary a solidity that it does not actually have in those moments when you believe that something needs to happen before you can be free, find God or enlightenment. You draw an imaginary mental boundary between the concept of you and whatever concept you are chasing (God, enlightenment, liberation, awareness, oneness, or beingness). All those words are nonsense. At the very most, they are pointers. Give them up entirely. Do not become hooked on chasing after them. You are only chasing after your own mental ideas–ideas that have been planted in your mind by spiritual books and websites such as this one.

Searching will arise. It is a longing for the truth. Let it arise. But do not fall into its seductive trap of leading you to believe that awakening is something that will happen later. In placing awakening in time, you place it in thought. You give it to the "me." Always tell the truth. Look at what thought is doing. It is creating the illusion that you are separate from what you seek. Simply be aware of those thoughts. See the search itself in every way that it manifests. The search creates the self-boundary. It creates the idea of a "me" chasing the idea of "enlightenment." The only point of entry to this truth which the words God, enlightenment, liberation, awareness, oneness and beingness are describing is this moment. Right now. In this moment, allow the sincere longing for the truth to see every manifestation of ego that is applying effort or looking for awakening in time. See every idea that you have about awakening. In seeing every idea, it is realized that the world of ideas is protecting you from the full openness, vulnerability, sensitivity, sincerity, and honesty that are attributes of your true nature in this moment. Allow the ideas to point you to whatever is arising right now and to the awareness that is watching what is arising. Then allow all ideas to drop away naturally. When awareness is fully aware of itself in this moment, the ideas are no longer helpful.

Every word that is used to point to this moment including God, enlightenment, liberation, awareness, oneness, or beingness can actually obscure the realization and embodiment of that to which the word is pointing. Missing this means missing the boat entirely. Let every one of those words point you to this moment, and then let them die along with all of your other illusions. In the end, there is only ‘This’–a truth that cannot be expressed. We can call it the great love, or enlightenment, or oneness, or God. But those are just ideas. Little maps. Nothing else. Truth is beyond ideas. Look at the ideas in your head, including the ideas about nonduality, about your belief system, tradition, religion, or program, and about needing to be more present. All of that is time. It is mind. There is literally nothing to hold onto. Nothing, nothing. Let ideas show you the silent love to which they are pointing. In that silence, the ideas are no longer necessary and the boundaries around those ideas (self vs. other, self vs. God, self vs. enlightenment) are seen as illusions.

There are a lot of fancy words written on this site, in my book, and on other sites and in other spiritual books. They are all part of the dream. Be very careful. You can very easily dissolve whatever egoic identity or suffering that led you to the spiritual search and replace it with a nonduality or enlightenment dream. The more you read nonduality and enlightenment websites, the more you may believe this stuff. The more you believe, the more you may create a self out of that belief, and therefore the more you strengthen the illusory boundary between you and whatever you think you need to find or realize or between you and those that do not believe as you do. You run into conflict with others, as you argue, disagree, or insist on your version of the truth. In this way, you take your nonduality belief and create division and separation with it.

Fancy ideas, if there is identification with them on any level, just strengthen or redefine the illusory boundary between self and enlightenment, self and other, self and life. You take the idea of enlightenment or oneness and identify with it, make it into nothing more than a new belief system, which creates a boundary between you and your future attainment of enlightenment and/or between you and those who do not agree with your conception of enlightenment.

Concepts can be great pointers to this living truth. But pointers are like spiritual practices. They die on their own when they meet the light of truth. They are only pointers. They are not philosophies. The truth that must be faced along the spiritual journey decorated so poetically with pointers is that there is nothing to hold onto. Nothing, nothing, nothing, including the notion that it is all one. Let the pointers point and then let them die, all of them. That includes not holding onto the words God, enlightenment, Buddhism, Advaita, neo-advaita, liberation, oneness, beingness, presence, awareness, and even nothingness. Ideas, that is all. Obstacles to the inexpressible truth. Let the maps point to this moment, to the reality of now, and then let them blow away into the wind. They were never yours. You were just holding on. Let all ideas dissolve into the great love of the unknown. Live in the liberation of the truth that cannot be expressed. ‘This.' 'This' is a dance like no other dance. It is the only dance. It is without a partner, without a boundary. It is inexpressible love dancing all by itself. Once this dance is happening, ideas can be played with and used to point. But they no longer create or strengthen boundaries, conflict or separation. They are realized to be little movements of this dance, little expressions of an inexpressible love.