Note: All questions are genuine, and were taken from Emails sent either privately or posted to various mailing lists. The people who have asked the questions will remain anonymous. The answers may have been changed or altered here for purposes of clarity.
Dear Questioner,
The following message is sort of a "teaching mode" message. I don't intend to lecture you, just want to help sort out some of the confusion you indicate here...
Omkara: But the question arises: Are we living in a dual world? It seems to appear that way, but many things appear true that are not.
Q: This is the part that drives me crazy sometimes. My duality thinking is so strong and everyone else I come into contact with thinks in duality.
Omkara: Well, thought certainly seems "dual." But upon reflection, in a homogenous (nondual) reality, where is the room for thought? The only reasonable conclusion is that thought "seems" to occur, but does not. And the only way to truly realize this is to be the observer of thought, rather than the thinker.
Q: Seemingly, if I can see past the illusion and drop the body, drop the me, drop the ego,
Omkara: STOP. Hold right there. "You" *ARE* the ego. Therefore, "you" cannot drop the ego. "You," AS THE EGO, must drop, just as we discussed the dropping of the desire to smoke (cigarettes), rather than adding "the desire to quit."
Just see that, don't try to drop anything. The ego cannot drop the ego.
Q: In me, there is still some fear of doing this.
Omkara: Take it on trust, from personal experience, that there is absolutely nothing to fear.
Q: If all others disappear, then my life, the lives of my children, who are six and five, have no meaning,
Omkara: No. Only the clinging and attachment drops.
Examine deeply the impermanence of all things. How you will suffer if your children get into a car wreck and die. You need not abandon the love of your children, simply EXPAND that love to include ALL children, all life, humanity. Then if your children die and/or your life ends, you will not suffer. Attachment to the *particulars* brings suffering. Attachment to anything brings suffering, because nothing is permanent, nothing lasts. See this fact deeply and completely.
This takes some dispassion, which is not developed overnight. But you can make a start.
Q: I feel I am missing the final chapter from going from duality to nonduality but it has not arrived yet, maybe it will, maybe it won't.
Omkara: It will "arrive" when you want it to. Actually, "nonduality" has never left. "It" pervades all things. Examine "what am I?" to its fullest extent. Examine the brief and temporary nature of all things, especially the physical body.
Five seconds after reading this line, you may well drop dead of a heart attack. Five seconds after writing it, this body may drop dead.
Face these facts, don't run.
Q: Apparently, it is not up to me for it do so.
Omkara: You're jumping ahead of yourself, as I see it. As long as there is "you," there will be the sense of personal volition and the ability to act.
"You" appear as a tangle of confusion. You need to unravel this tangle, this web of concepts. Begin to do so NOW. There's no other time!!!
Q: I have died many deaths based on who I thought I was and the suffering each time has been severe. I want to live truth, not seek it.
Omkara: Then live it. What's stopping you?
Q: I want to be truth, not fake it.
Omkara: You already ARE truth. What's preventing you from seeing that? "You" are. The presence of "you" is the absence of truth.
Q: By screwed up I mean that at times I have been mentally and emotionally incapacitated.
Omkara: Yes, I can relate. I went through 4+ years of severe panic attacks and chronic depression, even panicking in my sleep. I was in and out of hospitals and halfway houses. I've been homeless for months. I know suffering, and total mental/emotional incapacitation (especially emotional).
Do not let it stop you. It's as brief and temporary as anything else. You have to find courage. Courage is the only prerequisite, and if it's lacking, there's no chance of permanently discovering anything beyond "duality." You seem like the lion in the Wizard of Oz. You have the courage, yet you seek it outside yourself.
Q: All I could do was just breathe and even that was difficult.
Omkara: That feeling is known here. Perhaps even worse. Stop resisting what IS.
Q: I had much anger rise up. I felt abandoned. I felt sucidal. I felt like I didn't exist and there was no reason for me to go on.
Omkara: Keep on keeping on. Your sufferings (and mine) are nothing compared to many, whether you believe it or not. I am all of Humanity, I know it's sufferings, and have personally met people who have been through hells neither of us could possibly imagine, conceive of or comprehend. Be grateful things aren't any worse. Be grateful for what you have, rather than regretting what you lack.
Perhaps something like working at a hospital for permanently disabled children might be of help. Or voluntarily going homeless for a few months. Sounds drastic, but you might be surprised at the rewards.
Q: I don't anyone who has gone insane, some who thought they were. I know some who have quit their jobs, divorced their spouses, become obsessed with a guru, been taken advantage of by a guru, etc, because of a wrong understanding of nondual concepts.
Omkara: Ultimately none of this matters. It's all taking place in something that does not change. The flow of events cannot be influenced. The filmstrip unreels, nothing stops it, nothing CAN stop it.
This may sound like a cold, cruel and harsh way of seeing things, but you can't really judge unless you've seen.
Stop resisting fear. Find a way to **stop the cycle of shirking the unpleasant and clinging to the pleasant**. Change the gestalt.
Q: They understand enough to be dangerous, which seems to me to be the case with many on the nonduality list. Many big egos...not many real masters.
Omkara: That much is a given. Don't become entangled with those egos, let them be. They'll come around in their own time. To everything there is a season. Give full attention to the only ego that matters... "you."
Q: I think Dan B. is the most enlightened one there....save when you are there.
Omkara: That may be or may not be. Turn the attention to yourself and off of others. Forget about others for awhile, to whatever extent possible.
Q: Now this isn't coffee shop talk, is it? On the other hand, how many people in a typical coffee shop would know what the hell I am talking about and wouldn't think I was totally off my damn rocker.
Omkara: More than you may imagine. You can't project based on preconceptions. Suffering is universal. Beyond the confines of political correctness, "politesse" and social customs, how many hearts have you looked DIRECTLY INTO?
Look into your own, accept what is there.
Q: Like it or not...we live in a dual world where the majority of people believe in separation and casting blame.
Omkara: Again, take the focus of attention off others and onto yourself. Every saint and sage, every single one worth his/her salt recommends "Who am I?" or "What am I?" as a starting point. You cannot know others without first knowing yourself... deeply and completely.
Q: Hell, we would probably both be crucified if we had been proposing these ideas 2,000 years ago...at the very least, burned at the stake.
Omkara: Yes, and so be it. Such are the "hazards" of wanting truth. 99.9% of humanity wants truth... THEIR VERSION OF TRUTH. Not the truth. Their truth.
Q: Always a pleasure, Tim,
Omkara: Namaste, I am with you more than you realize...
Love (not afraid to say it!),
Q: In my opinion, even though theoretically there is nothing to be done to become enlightened since you are already there, it may take a lot of bumbling about till one comes to this recognition.
A: Scrap the idea of needing to recognize it... simply accept it on trust (since you say "theoretically," you have apparently not done so yet). Can you accept on trust that you are already enlightened? If not, the teaching is worthless. If the makeup of your mind is such that you can accept nothing on the basis of trust, even for a brief period of time, there is little chance the teaching will be useful to you.
If you can accept, even a little, that you are already enlightened (and most importantly, *LET GO THE IDEA THAT YOU'RE TRYING TO REACH SOME FUTURE GOAL*)... then continue spiritual practice with the intent to *express* your true nature (again, not making a future goal out of it, just enjoying that practice NOW as an expression of your true nature)... the initial small amount of trust will grow stronger and stronger, until it becomes conviction. With the fire of this conviction, the "forest of ignorance" will burn down -- effortlessly and automatically.
If you need to, give it time... let the idea "I'm already the Absolute" grow on you. Ponder it awhile. Obviously you're existing in this universe. Everything in this universe is interconnected. This is even verified by science. So if you're "in this universe" then you are integrated with it as well... there are no "boundaries" except those in your mind.
Q: We all are or have been dabblers in the divine. Until one decides to get serious what happens? -- merely more dabbling. So the question is -- How does one get out of the dabbling mode? Is it even possible to get out of the dabbling mode? This gets right down once more to is there free will or are we merely pawns in the game of life?
A: The way to get out of dabbling mode is by dropping the dabbling, plain and simple. If the dabbling is fun, you may not want to drop it. If you don't want to drop it, you won't drop it. It's a matter of being honest with yourself. If you like dabbling, dabble. If you don't, stop. It sounds stupidly simple, but the fact is, we do what we want to do until we don't want to do it any longer, then we stop. Whether or not it's really "us" who is doing the choosing is a moot point... for all practical purposes, it's us.
To go beyond dabbling, the answer lies in your awareness. Obviously, you know you're aware (conscious) -- and now here's the thing: that simple awareness which allows you to think, see, hear, etc... is the divinity in you. The only real "you" is that awareness itself. That's why the masters say "it's closer to you than your own skin." Because of your awareness, you know you have skin!
Become aware of your awareness, and simply maintain awareness of awareness. Sounds tricky, because it's so simple. Here's something to try in meditation:
(1) Notice that you're aware. Because you're aware, you can see, hear, smell, taste, feel, and think. If you weren't aware, you could do none of these things.
(2) Remain aware of that awareness. That is not necessarily a relaxed state. Your body may become tense. But Awareness is fascinated with itself, so eventually it will become habitual if you practice it.
You may notice certain things going along with maintaining awareness of being aware. Feelings of bliss, a sense of lightness or disconnection with the body, a sense of tension in the body (it isn't easy to stay aware of awareness, there are a lot of distractions). Practice it awhile.
If you try this, let me know how it goes.