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#4073 -
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Since I missed my
Wednesday issue, I've done two issue this Friday. This is the
second one!
The following is
reprinted from Nonduality America, with
permission from the author.
http://nondualityamerica.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/nondualism-in-western-philosophy/
Greg Goode –
Nondualism in Western Philosophy
This is a series of
pointers to how the Western approach can assist with one’s
self-inquiry. It is less a historical survey, and more a
collection of Western views that might serve as tools for
inquiry, along with suggestions on how these tools might be used.
The conclusion consists of a practical, forward-looking dialogue.
I haven’t included every philosopher in the Western
tradition to have written something that might be considered
nondual. Instead, my choices are pragmatic. I’ve chosen the
writers I have found most helpful in skillfully deconstructing
the classic dualisms that seem to block people doing nondual
inquiry.
So for example, the well
known Heidegger and Nietzsche are not covered, though they wrote
several things that can be helpful. Yet the lesser known writers
Brand Blanshard and Colin M. Turbayne are covered, as I find that
readers may regard their approaches as helpful.
Nondualism
Nondualism is an
experience, a mode of existence of the self and world, and a
metaphysical view about reality. As an experience, it is a sweet,
nonobjective sense of presence, of borderlessness, and lack of
separation. As a mode of existence of the self and world, it is
said to be a matter of fact. As a metaphysical view, nondualism
holds that reality is not composed of a multiplicity of things.
This seems vague, and it is because beyond this point, the
varieties of nondualism disagree. If reality is not a
multiplicity of things, is it then just one thing? Or less? Just
what is reality? Some nondualists say that reality is awareness.
Some say it is voidness. Some say it is a net of jewels, where
each jewel is composed of the reflections from all the other
jewels. And some nondualists say that the nature of reality is
that it has no nature.
What’s Wrong
with Dualism Anyway?
So why is nondualism a
goal? Does it feel better? Is it more true?
Most of the philosophers
who write on nondualism argue that dualism falsely claims to be
an accurate picture of our experience. They also argue that it
causes suffering. These are two slightly different approaches.
Nondualism’s
“false claim” argument challenges dualism’s claim
to correctly represent reality. Dualism claims to be a view about
how things really are, but when the view and its presuppositions
are looked into, they are found not to be in accord with our
experience. Our experience, say nondualists, is truly without
borders, edges or separation. Therefore, the notion that the
world is made up of divisions between self and other, good and
bad, here and there, past and future, does not make sense. We
only seem to experience these divisions. These divisions do not
really exist, so we do not really experience them. Nondualism, it
is argued, can correct the misinterpretation of our experience
and restore our original wholeness.
Nondualism’s
“argument from suffering” has to do with dualism’s
effects – dualism leads to suffering and misery. Nondualists
feel that a dualistic and divided experience of the world results
in feeling separated (separated from what we take to be external
objects, other people, the world, etc.). Feeling separated leads
to feeling finite and vulnerable. It leads to suffering. This can
be alleviated: a deep intuitive understanding of our nondual,
unbroken experience is the end of the experience of separation.
Therefore it is tantamount to the end of suffering.
Nondualism East
and West
Eastern and Western
approaches to nonduality reflect the more general differences
between Eastern and Western approaches to philosophy. Eastern
philosophy is most often pursued within the context of the
Eastern spiritual traditions. Western philosophy can occasionally
be found within Western spiritual traditions, but it is much more
active outside them.
Eastern philosophy has
very strong nondual traditions, which include Taoism, several
forms of Buddhism, and Advaita Vedanta (the nondual extension of
Hinduism). These traditions are also explicitly
“soteriological.” That is, their purpose is to resolve
the big questions of life and death, and to alleviate suffering.
The experiential resolution of these matters is regarded as
liberation or enlightenment. And the philosophies themselves are
illustrated by hundreds of stories in which teachers assist
students on their quest.
Western philosophy was
originally practiced in a very similar way. “Know
thyself” was inscribed on the forecourt of the Temple of
Apollo at Delphi in ancient Greece. Practiced famously by
Socrates, philosophy was engaged as a sort of care of the self,
or an investigation into the way the self and world exist. The
philosophies of the Stoics, the Epicureans, the Skeptics, and
Boethius were avowedly therapeutic. But after the 18th century,
philosophy became more and more academicized; it was removed from
practical, personal and transformational use. Western
philosophy’s goal became to discover the grounds of
scientific truth and the limits of mans’ ability to know it.
Western philosophy became
more a scientific than a salvific enterprise. These days, there
is not a generally accepted goal in Western philosophy
corresponding to liberation or enlightenment. Whereas Eastern
philosophy is practiced in temples and ashrams, Western
philosophy is studied in libraries and academies. The West has
most often left its life-and-death questions to the churches,
cathedrals, synagogues and hospitals.
Western Mysticism
Before examining the
nondualist strands in Western philosophy, we should say a few
words about Western mysticism. The writings of the great Western
mystics tend to overlap both philosophy and religion. Their
writings are not as logically precise as philosophy; neither do
they require the same level of faith as religious writings.
Mysticism is often
pursued by the nondual inquirer for the depth of its wisdom and
how it penetrates man’s most subtle experiences. To pursue
the mystical path, one does not so much follow a line of
argumentation; rather one enters openly and whole-heartedly into
experience. Mysticism and philosophy compliment each other. Many
people find it more effective to engage both modes than either
one alone.
Notable Western mystics
and their works include The Gospel of Thomas and other works in
the Nag Hammadi Library; the writings of Rabbi Akiva (40-135);
The Zohar (150CE) by Shimon Bar Yochai (fl. 135 – 170); the
Sepher Yetzirah; or The Book Of Creation (before 6th Cent.);
Dionysius, the Pseudo-Areopagite (BCE 500); Origines Adamantius
(Origen) (c. 185-254); the monks of the Philokalia (c200-600);
Meister Johannes Eckhart (1260-1327/8); The Cloud of Unknowing
(14th Cent.); Theresa of Avila (1515-1582); St. John of the Cross
(1524-1591); or Brother Lawrence (c. 1605-1691).
How Nondualism is
Done in the West
Proving the nondual
nature of reality is not an overall goal for Western philosophy.
A few philosophers have created nondual metaphysical theories;
and others have argued against metaphysics altogether. But most
philosophers who dissolve or dismiss dualities are not
nondualists. The dualities left in the dust by these writers are
merely casualties of their other work. In fact, the cleverest and
most persuasive arguments tend to come from the works focused on
narrow and specific issues, and don’t discuss all of reality
at once. These arguments can be very helpful in the course of
one’s nondual inquiry. As the old-time news editors used to
say, “We can use it!”
We will examine some of
the best known arguments that can be helpful in nondual inquiry,
even if a given argument is not used by its author to
establish nondualism.
~ ~ ~
Read the rest of the
article at
http://nondualityamerica.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/nondualism-in-western-philosophy/
Greg Goode
has been a philosophical counselor since 1996 and has extensive
experience with online consultation. As a philosophical
counselor, Greg is nationally certified by the American
Philosophical Practitioners Association, trained by Prof. Lou
Marinoff, author of the well-known Plato Not Prozac! and by
Greg is a well-known
innovator for having combined the ancient “direct-path”
method of self-inquiry with modern electronic media. Nondual
inquiry includes the powerful teachings of Advaita Vedanta and
Mahayana Buddhism. Greg studied Advaita Vedanta through the
Chinmaya Mission, Sri Atmananda, Jean Klein, and Francis Lucille.
He studied the Mahayana teachings of Pure Land Buddhism through
Jodo-Shinshu, and studied Chinese Middle-Way Buddhism through the
lineage of the pre-eminent scholar of Chinese Buddhism, Master
Yin-Shun of Taiwan, P.R.C., author of The Way to Buddhahood.
All text herein copyright
Greg Goode, 2007. All rights reserved. Except for brief
quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this
monograph may be reproduced in any manner without prior
permission from the author.