Real-World Nonduality
Page 13
But there is an undercurrent of sadness in the tale. The difficulty leaving family and friends in Holland to travel and care for this person was profound for Dorine, but she was compelled by the pressure and the desire to be of service. Even though Mr. MacLaren immensely appreciated her company and her talents, it was hard to let go of the desire to attend university, to forgo a family of her own, to give up choosing her own life.
She writes about visiting the many Philosophy Schools in far-away countries and how the women would gather around her to ask questions when she arrived. They told her about feeling cast aside, ignored because they were female. Living conditions that were at times dismal and years of sleepless nights on call 24/7 to this man took a toll on her health. And then there’s the time Mr. MacLaren slapped her across the face after she expressed homesickness at Christmas time.
I recently watched a little film online, All About Nothing,47 by a Dutchman named Paul Smit. It’s a well intentioned mish-mash of vignettes meant to edify us on the virtues of nondual teachings. While the male characters in the piece are mostly brilliant and thoughtful, the females, save for one older woman, are portrayed as shallow dimwits.
I was appalled watching that movie, as were the savvy friends who told me about it. What’s shocking is how many people commented in glowing terms about the film. They were oblivious to the sexist attitude that’s so clear to me and my friends. And then there are the posts, videos, jokes, and photos that demean women that come up in Facebook groups often, even where the focus is on nondual teachings.
Liberation from the one thing that everything points to
By now it might seem that I was put off the direct path and Advaita teachings because of the patriarchal and sexist views I encountered while following them. I could make a case for those views being embedded in the teaching itself. I think there are dangers in paths that posit one thing that everything points to, whether it’s an Atman, the Absolute, or awareness. Direct-path teachings state that consciousness alone is immune to change. All else is referred to as objects.
The passages in Atmananda’s books and notes that clarify the difference between consciousness and the things that appear to it are beautiful, but a superficial reading that privileges consciousness on high, and considers bodies, feelings and so forth, as mere categories of delusion, can be tricky. Can I stand as awareness when my child is missing for 24 hours? When I learn my precious new friend was sexually assaulted?
Nondual teachings can be seen to discount minds, bodies, thoughts, and feelings in favor of an overarching something else. Essentialist teachings mirror the age-old concept of a supreme authority that’s been in place in every aspect of society and culture we know: family, religion, government, and everything in between.
I think the fact that the emptiness teachings offer no reference to a thing, either man or god, concept or substance, that all things lead back to was liberating for me, even if the process was instinctive when I first encountered the teaching. Objects, people, and things are all seen as the same in emptiness teachings, meaning they lack inherent existence. That levels the playing field from the get-go: no ultimate consciousness to look back to—no father image, either. No one to answer to or to worry about pleasing.
I first learned about emptiness teachings by way of the Madhyamaka School but went on to study other Buddhist teachings, including Vipassana, Theravada, and Zen. I didn’t find sexist and patriarchal elements in the sanghas and temples during my visits or in conversations with friends I made there. I did encounter a more diverse population of people of color and gender than I did in the Advaita groups I attended. I learned practices like metta, the loving-kindness meditation, and found a sense of inclusiveness, ease, and comfort.
Emptiness and compassion
All of this points to one of the basic tenets of Buddhism, the concept of compassion. It’s built into the teaching and is a major focus of most schools of Buddhist thought. All beings are suffering and looking for a way out. Not one of us is free from the pain of suffering. Therefore, compassion for others is taught. If I consider the suffering of countless others compared to the suffering of this one single person, me, maybe I can get to an understanding of having compassion for others, to consider them even before myself.
I learned that the concept of compassion works in tandem with the concept of the two truths. The ultimate truth of our nature is emptiness. But as conventional beings we do exist, dependent on conditions. In fact, since conventional beings are the only ones that do exist, we’re all deserving of love, compassion, and understanding.
There’s a wonderful irony in the way emptiness, a teaching that posits a lack of ultimate existence, can seem so inclusive, welcoming, and free. What I absorbed from my experience and study of Buddhism and emptiness teachings created an impression of kindness and equanimity and a distinct lack of authoritarian views.
So when I look at these two paths and my own experiences, I have to ask: are nondual teachings sexist and patriarchal while Buddhist teachings aren’t? It can seem that way, and my experiences point to that. But others have different experiences that create impressions that influence their actions and propel their lives. And I have to consider the strong feminists, men and women both, who love and practice nondual teachings with integrity and self-awareness. Some are among the most brilliant and admirable people I know. And there are many stories of Buddhist teachers who’ve taken advantage of women in their sanghas in ways that are reprehensible.
Liberation from struggling to find the “right path”
Unfortunately, sexist and patriarchal ways are alive and well just about everywhere. My heart aches for the women and girls who are abused because of these attitudes and beliefs. Still, I have to remember that these ways and behaviors are dependent arisings; they occur because of causes and conditions. And that means they can change.
They can change from a painful past and present to a future that’s safer, kinder, and better—not just for women, but for society in general. Sexism doesn’t exist anywhere, including in nondual teachings, in an intrinsic way. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t cause harm. One of the most valuable insights the concept of emptiness provided for me is that knowing there isn’t anything final to attain or to land on applies to emptiness itself—meaning that nothing can be seen as uniquely right or wrong, good or bad, including paths and teachings. Ironically, I harbored a vague hypocrisy for longer than I realized, a thought that I’d found the “right” path and that teachings espousing an ultimate, like Brahman48 or awareness, didn’t point to the way we really are. The bias was subtle and it took a while for it to fade. When the implications of that understanding finally dawned, it was like a rising sun that never sets.
And it opened the door wider to an interest in other teachings. I like to bow to a lovely Buddha that sits on a shelf next to a sculpture of Ganesha, which is near a statue of the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva in my living room. I recently acquired a connection to the Holy Mother, and I like to hold a rosary when I meditate. It might seem confusing, even silly, but it isn’t to me. I love these icons and rituals, and each one of them has a particular usefulness and meaning for me. Rather than causing any break in devotion or scattering of sensibility, this practice makes me feel safe, comfortable, focused, and open.
Rediscovering the direct path in light of emptiness teachings
When the opportunity came up not long ago to take another look at the direct path, I figured, why not get reacquainted, like old friends who’d had a falling out. My books on the direct path came down from the shelf and new ones were added. As I read and re-read these books I had a desire to explore a direct version of a teaching I’d set aside long ago.
I decided to follow some of the practices and found I can still connect with the beauty of Advaitic teachings and what I learned from them all those years ago. But this inquiry is direct and precise, not incomplete and vague as it often seemed when I practiced back t
hen. I can stand as awareness and see how sensations like piercing grief and deep joy rise up and disappear in consciousness in the same way as the body and mind that seem so connected to them.
I have an affinity for the Heart Opener,49and I see the value of challenging the separate existence of the apparent objects of my senses. As I work my way through these exercises, from the world to body and mind, I notice there’s been a tendency to see some of those arisings as things to set aside or as objects that are not quite good enough to be “awareness.” Now I begin to see that of course they are a part of awareness. Everything is included. Nothing gets left out. There’s wholeness then, and peace.
Direct path and emptiness together
Having an interest in these two paths brings up a few other questions, such as whether a person can be devoted to more than one teaching. Are paths like emptiness teachings and the direct path mutually exclusive? Do these paths lead to the same end?
There’s an interesting debate as to the importance and relevance of ultimate goals in various religions and philosophical paths. I like the radical approach of S. Mark Heim in his book Salvations50, where he proposes a pluralistic perspective that embraces the value of another teaching while maintaining a preference for one’s own tradition and ultimate goal. Paths don’t need to be differing ways of relating to the same reality. Some paths may lead to the same ultimate end, and some may not. Religions and philosophic paths can have their own truths and their own ways of fulfilling them, and can even be open to their adherents participating in another spiritual view.
The case of the direct path and emptiness teachings is an interesting example of two views that overlap to some extent. They appear to have different goals, one awareness, the other Emptiness, and it’s possible to conflate the two goals, which would be a mistake. But both paths lead to liberation from the belief in a separate personal existence, and both use techniques of self-inquiry to get there.
I like looking into the direct path a little deeper than I’d considered up until now because having experiences of other possible ways I exist confirms firsthand that there isn’t just one way. I think a person can follow more than one teaching if there is respect for practices, history, and beliefs, in order to understand a path’s character. I have a new interest in direct-path teachings, but I would never turn away from emptiness teachings, because for me, that would be like trying to unlearn how to speak or deciding I don’t need food or water anymore.
I don’t think awareness teachings are for everyone. In my opinion there are aspects of nondual paths that make them susceptible to dogmatic tendencies, but they obviously can be taught and experienced in a way that steers clear of those pitfalls. In my case, I was drawn to both awareness teachings and emptiness teachings in ways that seemed natural at the time, and I’m convinced that either path can serve as a source of deep knowledge and joy for those who follow them.
And intuition? Is that what steered me away from one teaching and toward another when the timing was right? Intuition could be about connecting to something known before and forgotten, or maybe to what will be known in the future. I just read that Kierkegaard suggested that life must be understood backwards, but lived forwards. When I look back I have regrets. I wish I’d made better decisions and studied harder. I wish I’d been a more compassionate person and contributed more. There’s been sorrow, but there’s been so much love, and there’s been understanding, too.
So whatever intuition is—a word, a cliché, an arising to witnessing awareness—I like it when it shows up. I like the jolt of recognition, the magnetic pull that tells me to pay attention even when I don’t know why I should right then. I will likely keep trusting those sensations, deconstruct them when I can, and keep living forward, like Kierkegaard said. And I’ll remind myself that understanding has many different ways of unfolding, and fortunately I don’t have to unravel every single mystery that comes along.
38 Vedanta: one of the six schools of Indian philosophy, based on ancient texts including the Upanishads, Vedanta includes living traditions such as Advaita Vedanta (nondualism), qualified nondualism and dualism. 39 Emptiness: “On the one hand, Sunyata [emptiness] is a very profound dimension of reality—the key to the supremely joyful state of complete freedom. Yet on the other, it is simply the uncontrived way things are, free from labels and reification. It is part of the natural state of everything”. Goode, G. and Sander, T. (2016) Emptiness and Joyful Freedom, Non-Duality Press 40 Sat Chit Ananda: literally truth, consciousness, bliss 41 Atman: the individual “soul”, self or essence which is at one with the universal principle or Brahman. 42 The Bhagavad Gita, known as “The Gita”, is a Hindu text over 2,000 years old. As part of the epic Mahabharata it sets out a synthesis of approaches to the conduct of life, spirituality and liberation. 43 The Upanishads are influential Indian spiritual/philosophical texts, some dating back 2,500 years. 44 Neti neti is a Sanskrit expression which means “not this, not this.” In Hinduism, particularly Advaita Vedanta, it is used as a meditation that aims to distinguish between the impermanent, relative world of Maya and the eternal Absolute Brahman. 45 See Reading List 46 Tolley, D. (2009) The Power Within, BookSurge 47 https://tinyurl.com/y9ea2wf5 [accessed 28 Nov 2018] 48Brahman: in Hinduism, the unchanging eternal reality that includes and subsumes all appearances. The Absolute. 49 See Appendix 50 Heim, S.M. (1995) Salvations: Truth and Difference in Religion, Orbis Books
Berkeley and Blake: An Extended Look at Objectivity
by John Lamont-Black
“ Whether understood as the products of perceptual triangulation or whatever, objects can still have meaning as things of beauty and utility and lots more besides, but we don’t have to believe that they are fundamentally existent as separate entities. And if they aren’t fundamentally separate or even extant…then are we?”
The cliffs of objectivity
Many years ago, around the time I was deciding whether to study science or engineering, I set out for a long walk in the direction of the coast to mull over this impending decision. Somewhere beneath the towering cliffs came an idea: “I want to know the true nature and structure of reality.” Even then I smiled at the pomposity of the suggestion, but I had to admit that it was the kind of thing a scientist might say.
The Seven Sisters cliffs are one of Britain’s most iconic landscapes. Stretching over 10 miles and rising to a height of over 160 metres above sea level, the swathe of bright white vertical chalk forms a stark visual and topographical disconnect between the gently textured surfaces of green fields and the blue-gray sea. This part of the coast is a beautiful and potentially dangerous place.
To some, these cliffs represent the quintessential border of England, and they have inspired film directors and painters towards high art, and some politicians towards base nationalism. To thousands of birds and millions of invertebrates, the nooks and crannies provide homes. To mercifully few, such as shipwrecked sailors, reckless climbers, and even despairing souls, these cliffs are places of death.
The cliffs have been featured in poems, paintings, and films over the centuries, but what they signify depends on who is doing the looking. On this theme of perspective, the eighteenth-century English poet, artist, and mystic William Blake observed:
I see Every thing I paint In This World, but Every body does not see alike… The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes of others only a Green thing that stands in the way… As a man is, So he Sees.51
“As a man is, So he Sees.” So indeed! To me on that afternoon, these cliffs were something complete, absorbing, joyful. Scientifically (geologically) understood, from the smallest nanoscopic coccolith to piles of carbonate mud hundreds of metres thick filling continental-scale tectonic sedimentary basins, they represented a local chapter in the origin and history of our planet and of all life upon it. Engineering, I thought, might be fine, but seriously, why would I want to study anything besides geol
ogy?
As it turned out, I have spent much of my working life as a scientist working closely with engineers; observing phenomena and seeking to explain their causal origins and predict their effects. Below I look at what happens when this habit of seeking explanations for things bumps up against objectivity itself.
The direct path
The basic model of dualism is that of a subject relating to an object. In the model of common-sense reality, this means a subject (me) knowing or experiencing by some means (thinking, sensing, perceiving) an object of some sort (mental, physical, emotional). Most of the time such a way of knowing is fine, but short moments or extended periods of sadness, suffering, or unhappiness seem to be linked by an amplified awareness of myself as separate or even isolated. The direct path has helped me to see in detail how I experience objectivity, to question the fundamental assumptions of separation, and therefore to gain insight into unhappiness.
I approached the direct path a bit like a scientist might; that is, by experiment and observation to test hypotheses, of which there seemed to be two. The first is that all we know of objects is our perceptions of them. The second is that there is no real separation between what we call perceptions and awareness, or that with which perceptions (and all things) are known.