Thanks, Sasha. This is valuable. Experiencing non-dualism feels like freedom, feels self-evidently worth pursuing, regardless of whether there’s no proof that it’s the correct way to perceive. After all, we are explorers.
If one is interested in self-inquiry, I can wholeheartly recommend the "liberationunleashed" app with the bit cheesy name "Enlightening Quotes".
It is very basic and just a collection of self-inquiry questions & contemplation points.
Contemplating/Meditating on these pointers triggered for me the most intense non-dual/non-self experiences. So that i even slowed down to remain my seperate sense of self. Together with the book " I am that", this quotes were the most "effective" for me personally. And also kind of playful explorative.
Feb 13, 2023·edited Feb 13, 2023Liked by Sasha Chapin
You should check out Jan Frazier's When Fear Falls Away -- probably my favorite memoir of someone's awakening. Very resonant - found myself highlighting something on nearly every page.
One small suggestion -- I find that thinking of non-duality as an "experience" can be unhelpful, since in a sense any particular experience can be compatible with the perspective of non-duality. For that reason I like to describe it more as a perspective on experience rather than an actual experience. This is also how the Tibetans talk about it -- as a "view".
wonderful post, and great nods (no pun) to the headless way - Harding's work got me poking around this rabbit hole to begin with. Jed McKenna and Jim Newman were clockwork orange-like pointers for me to what is. i would be keen on hearing your thoughts on their angle on nonduality
Wow, this actually worked! This helped bring together and push forward a few different strands for me. Getting the nondual perspective made me start laughing - a common response.
Joshu Roshi used to stand at the window and point out: that's me! and that's me!
It's a beautiful experience and perspective to have. Thank you so much. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this, especially in my daily sits.
Feb 14, 2023·edited Feb 14, 2023Liked by Sasha Chapin
I want to expand on a bit that is sort of mentioned above but that I am particularly passionate about (in this fleeting moment) and has been super helpful/clarifying/fun for me to play with and explore.
(note that this gets a lil technical (as in, assumes some prior knowledge of Buddhist concepts/philosophy and possibly some solipsism for extra measure) and that it is possibly also articulated a little messily; this feels ok but also like it'd be responsible to warn you to take it all with a good pinch of salt)
It is this: Lean INTO "identification" as the proposed lens. Equal identification with all "phenomena". The emphasis is on "I am everything" as apposed to "I am not anything", in both ways the field is one, there are no "real" distinctions (in all of the ways duality manifests which are so beautifully articulated in this piece). The felt sense here is located on the "intimacy with phenomenon" axis.
In some ways I think this practice does a lot in the way of unbinding the sense of "doing something", efforting, or manipulating phenomenon, because it points very saliently to something that is already happening: you know how you already feel like you are at the center of every experience? Notice how this can actually include EVERYTHING. This doesn't mean bringing far-away-feeling things "closer", it means noting that you are equally identified with the experience of far-away-ness as you are with "closeness", equally "at the center of" insideness and outsideness, equally intimate with the experience of being located inside your head as you are with the experience of attempting to dislodge that sense, or, as one of my teachers likes to phrase it: "the awareness with which your purest, most elevated, noble thoughts/experiences is known, is the SAME awareness with which your worst/most shameful thoughts/experiences is known". This also "flattens" a lot of practice-born moralizing tendencies (like being in "now" is better than being "in the past/future" etc.). Essentially all phenomena is "taking place" in the same place and it can (and does) feel like equally "you" (except the "you" or "I" part is almost nonsensical in its all-inclusiveness).
I cannot emphasize enough that you are not "doing" anything here, in the sense that you are not trying to warp/manipulate/move in or out of/relax or tense a sense of ANYTHING. It is just noticing (and here one could claim that this is the "doing", which of course, it is.) that all of this activity is being known EQUALLY (yes including the sense that the phenomenology of some phenomenon IS that it is distant, "feels less knowable" etc. AND including a sense of selfing/separateness. That is not outside of the purview of this exploration).
This practice invites a deliberate development of a taste for "intimacy" with all phenomena and of course carries all the risks of getting lost in phenomenon and identification. (Note that, on the other hand, dissonance or dissociation (feeling removed from experience) is a possible danger of misunderstanding or misapplying "non-identification" that is not widely discussed).
My thinking here is greatly influenced by Rupert Spira's work/books and Dharma Talks.
I'll add that this specific flavor of experimentation happened for me after years of sitting with Anata-type practices that resemble the ones outlined in this essay, and that I can't speak to the necessity or non-necessity of this order of practice development (first non-identification and only then full "identification").
And also that this is another shiny piece in the mosaic and that I'm sharing it out of love for both the practice and anyone encountering it.
Feb 14, 2023·edited Feb 14, 2023Liked by Sasha Chapin
Weirdly enough, I'm now reading abt such stuff. I find "Shock Amazement" and "Spectrum of Ecstasy" incredibly useful.
"Roaring Silence" didn't do so much for me though. Maybe it will feel differently when I re-read it.
I am a software developer so I am inclined towards STEM-y topics and STEM-y approaches towards non STEM-y topics.
I don't quite like the typical religious/superstitious/vague/hand-wavvy descriptions/approaches about this topic.
Though both titles I have recommended are written by a person with training in a religious context, the precision in these two books appeal to my STEM-y mind.
I also had a meditational experience (I'm using this term as described in Shock Amazement. I'm abt 70% certain I'm using this term correctly) that was triggered by stress many years ago, so I know there's something "there". What exactly is over "there" -- that I'm less certain of.
That experience led to a kind of relaxing that sounds awfully similar to your "mental move". IT lasted about a week or so for me.
Best description i have for it is it feels like walking on air.
I think a good therapy session was the catalyst led me down path of self inquiry and to eventually discover non duality - took about a month.. and has since made therapy more productive
Thanks, Sasha. This is valuable. Experiencing non-dualism feels like freedom, feels self-evidently worth pursuing, regardless of whether there’s no proof that it’s the correct way to perceive. After all, we are explorers.
If one is interested in self-inquiry, I can wholeheartly recommend the "liberationunleashed" app with the bit cheesy name "Enlightening Quotes".
It is very basic and just a collection of self-inquiry questions & contemplation points.
Contemplating/Meditating on these pointers triggered for me the most intense non-dual/non-self experiences. So that i even slowed down to remain my seperate sense of self. Together with the book " I am that", this quotes were the most "effective" for me personally. And also kind of playful explorative.
You should check out Jan Frazier's When Fear Falls Away -- probably my favorite memoir of someone's awakening. Very resonant - found myself highlighting something on nearly every page.
One small suggestion -- I find that thinking of non-duality as an "experience" can be unhelpful, since in a sense any particular experience can be compatible with the perspective of non-duality. For that reason I like to describe it more as a perspective on experience rather than an actual experience. This is also how the Tibetans talk about it -- as a "view".
wonderful post, and great nods (no pun) to the headless way - Harding's work got me poking around this rabbit hole to begin with. Jed McKenna and Jim Newman were clockwork orange-like pointers for me to what is. i would be keen on hearing your thoughts on their angle on nonduality
Wow, this actually worked! This helped bring together and push forward a few different strands for me. Getting the nondual perspective made me start laughing - a common response.
Joshu Roshi used to stand at the window and point out: that's me! and that's me!
It's a beautiful experience and perspective to have. Thank you so much. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this, especially in my daily sits.
I want to expand on a bit that is sort of mentioned above but that I am particularly passionate about (in this fleeting moment) and has been super helpful/clarifying/fun for me to play with and explore.
(note that this gets a lil technical (as in, assumes some prior knowledge of Buddhist concepts/philosophy and possibly some solipsism for extra measure) and that it is possibly also articulated a little messily; this feels ok but also like it'd be responsible to warn you to take it all with a good pinch of salt)
It is this: Lean INTO "identification" as the proposed lens. Equal identification with all "phenomena". The emphasis is on "I am everything" as apposed to "I am not anything", in both ways the field is one, there are no "real" distinctions (in all of the ways duality manifests which are so beautifully articulated in this piece). The felt sense here is located on the "intimacy with phenomenon" axis.
In some ways I think this practice does a lot in the way of unbinding the sense of "doing something", efforting, or manipulating phenomenon, because it points very saliently to something that is already happening: you know how you already feel like you are at the center of every experience? Notice how this can actually include EVERYTHING. This doesn't mean bringing far-away-feeling things "closer", it means noting that you are equally identified with the experience of far-away-ness as you are with "closeness", equally "at the center of" insideness and outsideness, equally intimate with the experience of being located inside your head as you are with the experience of attempting to dislodge that sense, or, as one of my teachers likes to phrase it: "the awareness with which your purest, most elevated, noble thoughts/experiences is known, is the SAME awareness with which your worst/most shameful thoughts/experiences is known". This also "flattens" a lot of practice-born moralizing tendencies (like being in "now" is better than being "in the past/future" etc.). Essentially all phenomena is "taking place" in the same place and it can (and does) feel like equally "you" (except the "you" or "I" part is almost nonsensical in its all-inclusiveness).
I cannot emphasize enough that you are not "doing" anything here, in the sense that you are not trying to warp/manipulate/move in or out of/relax or tense a sense of ANYTHING. It is just noticing (and here one could claim that this is the "doing", which of course, it is.) that all of this activity is being known EQUALLY (yes including the sense that the phenomenology of some phenomenon IS that it is distant, "feels less knowable" etc. AND including a sense of selfing/separateness. That is not outside of the purview of this exploration).
This practice invites a deliberate development of a taste for "intimacy" with all phenomena and of course carries all the risks of getting lost in phenomenon and identification. (Note that, on the other hand, dissonance or dissociation (feeling removed from experience) is a possible danger of misunderstanding or misapplying "non-identification" that is not widely discussed).
My thinking here is greatly influenced by Rupert Spira's work/books and Dharma Talks.
I'll add that this specific flavor of experimentation happened for me after years of sitting with Anata-type practices that resemble the ones outlined in this essay, and that I can't speak to the necessity or non-necessity of this order of practice development (first non-identification and only then full "identification").
And also that this is another shiny piece in the mosaic and that I'm sharing it out of love for both the practice and anyone encountering it.
A wonderful overview - especially including the pitfalls. I compiled some notes on my journey as well: https://ejhong.medium.com/nonduality-algorithms-23e27fea2aa5
Weirdly enough, I'm now reading abt such stuff. I find "Shock Amazement" and "Spectrum of Ecstasy" incredibly useful.
"Roaring Silence" didn't do so much for me though. Maybe it will feel differently when I re-read it.
I am a software developer so I am inclined towards STEM-y topics and STEM-y approaches towards non STEM-y topics.
I don't quite like the typical religious/superstitious/vague/hand-wavvy descriptions/approaches about this topic.
Though both titles I have recommended are written by a person with training in a religious context, the precision in these two books appeal to my STEM-y mind.
I also had a meditational experience (I'm using this term as described in Shock Amazement. I'm abt 70% certain I'm using this term correctly) that was triggered by stress many years ago, so I know there's something "there". What exactly is over "there" -- that I'm less certain of.
That experience led to a kind of relaxing that sounds awfully similar to your "mental move". IT lasted about a week or so for me.
Best description i have for it is it feels like walking on air.
Sadly, I have not been able to replicate it.
Tl;dr; mu
Great read. I would recommend checking out the Youtube channel Simply Always Awake for those who are interested.
I think a good therapy session was the catalyst led me down path of self inquiry and to eventually discover non duality - took about a month.. and has since made therapy more productive