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This issue features an article by Dr. Gino
Yu and introduces nonduality to readers of the Huffington Post
and leads into the Science and Nonduality Conference being held
in October. One byproduct of this conference is that nonduality
is being introduced to a broader spirituality audience.
I was involved in the very initial
organizing and will be giving a talk on stumbling into
nonduality. I figure everyone basically stumbles into nonduality,
usually more than once. I've been stumbling onto some good ideas
for the talk. If you want to share your story of stumbling, send
it to me.
For those who are interested in the social,
business, or developmental side of nonduality, this should be a
great opportunity. There is already a lot of coming together
happening in the world of nonduality among various players, and
out of that coming together certain spinoffs are bound to happen.
As well, players from the periphery of nonduality will join the
core nonduality players to create a bigger fusion.
Talking about
Nonduality
by Dr. Gino Yu
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-gino-yu/talking-about-nonduality_b_267890.html
"Reality is
merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."-Albert
Einstein
In late October, many
luminaries of the nondual community will be gathering in San
Rafael, California, at the Science and Nonduality Conference. For
those unfamiliar with the term, nonduality is like the final
destination for those wanting to uncover the ultimate Socratic
quest to "know thyself." Nonduality is the sudden and
absolute realization that all perceived separation is entirely
illusory, and that, instead, everything that you experience is,
quintessentially, only One. To explain this sense of unicity that
underlies the multitudinous universe, nondualists often resort to
the metaphor of a movie that's being projected on an infinite
screen. Even though the characters and the scenery appear to be
separate and interactive, the only thing that's really real is
the white, seamless screen that's accepting the melodramatic and
illusory story that's being projected upon it. Nondualists claim
that, instead of you being just a small and limited character
playing a part in your life's story, that, in truth, you're
actually the entire infinite screen itself! From their point of
view, you are the very context in which ALL of life itself is
showing up in. According to the nondualist, your fundamental
nature is Pure Consciousness, Itself. In short,
"you-are-what-is."
Obviously, a non-dual
perspective like that has a built in problem: the moment that you
start talking about nonduality is the very same moment that
you've re-entered the wonderfully wacky world of duality. So the
logical question then becomes; what are all of these non-dualists
going to be talking about anyway??
Well, the issues that are
addressed often take the form of the ultimate, primordial
questions of life itself: e.g. Who or what am I? Am I my
feelings, or do I just have feelings. Am I my thoughts, or do I
just have thoughts. Can there be thoughts without a Thinker. Can
there be feelings without a Feeler? And, of course, WHO is the
one who's asking all of these questions, anyway? In short,
"who's the who?" Nondualists claim that, by tracing the
origin on the "I" thought back to its true source,
these answers can be found. But, in these amorphous areas, the
answers cannot be clearly articulated in ways that make sense to
our logical minds. The realization of this absolute Oneness that
underlies everything is more of a kind of "knowingness"
than it is a scientific conclusion that's been arrived at through
any form of linear cerebration. And, because its base position is
logically "un-figure-out-able," it's not something that
is, well....debatable. Either you get it or you don't get it. And
here's the real kicker: nondualism has absolutely nothing to do
with "belief."
In fact, it's this very
belief in the separation of all things that is the root cause of
much of the suffering in the world. Separation creates borders
which in turn, invites defenses, both internal and external.
Instead of having beliefs, we then make an inward shift to, in a
sense, becoming those beliefs After that unfortunate reframing,
then any perceived attack on my beliefs is likely to be
experienced as a personal attack upon my own self and will be
answered accordingly.
Most people struggle with
the possibility that they are not their body. This belief is a
lot tougher to let go of because our experience is of peering out
into the world though these two holes in our skulls. Our senses
seem to validate that we are walking through the world and that,
in turn only reinforces our beliefs that we are separate and
alone.
But the nondualists tell
us that we are really the underlying fabric from which
all-that-IS mysteriously emerges. You are, they insist, the
entire context in which the entire universe shows up in to play
in your play. In other words, you are not as much in the world as
much as the world is in you.
Indeed, the scientific
evidence is beginning to show that we live in a holographic
universe where everything is contained in everything else. From
that perspective, there are no separate parts. There's only the
One indivisible whole that appears to be fragmented and separate.
When enough people really get this Truth, the understanding would
radically alter the way in which we interrelate. That's what
makes conferences such as the Science and Nonduality Conference
so important.
Media and culture play an
important role in shaping how we perceive reality. Today's media
promotes fear, consumerism, and a "dualistic" (or
"multiplistic") worldview. Fortunately, the subject of
Nonduality is making its way into films and new media. The
Science and Nonduality Conference also includes a film festival
which will include a new film, The Quantum Activist, about the
work of Amit Goswami who will be tying the science of quantum
mechanics to consciousness and to the many world's religious
traditions. Professor Goswami will also be in attendance.
My friend, author Chuck
Hillig wrote a book called Enlightenment for Beginners that will
be shown as a short animated film at the October conference in
San Rafael. His talk will include how and why we began this
playful game with nothingness. Chuck's website is: www.chuckhillig.com.
Isaac Allan and Chad
Cameron, the co-producers of the Leap! Movies will also be
screening their latest movie called Leap 3.0. which further
explores this whole idea of the material world as illusion.
Among the speakers
participating in the event are authors Stephen Wolinsky and
Jeffrey Martin, Stuart Hameroff the director of the Center for
Consciousness Studies, Marilyn Schlitz who heads up the Institute
of Noetic Sciences, Futurist Peter Russell , Master Teacher Olga
Louchakova, and investigators into altered states of
consciousness including Frank Echenhofer, Reality Sandwich maker
Daniel Pinchbeck, and Tom Ray just to name a few.
For more information
about the exciting lineup the organizers have planned at the
upcoming Science and Nonduality Conference which will be held
from October 21-25, 2009, at the Embassy Suites/Marin Civic
Center in San Rafael, California, please visit their website at http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1010851
Follow Dr. Gino Yu on Twitter: www.twitter.com/phusikoi