Jerry Katz
photography & writings
The wind carves shapes into the beach sand
Nonduality
Greg is editor of Nondualism, Yogas and Personality Characteristics, author of Presence, and editor of the Buddhist Numbered Lists page.
Contents
Comments and suggestions welcome! Send mail to [email protected] or to Greg.
(Webmaster's note: Greg Goode's
webpage is entitled 'Presence')
Introduction
This page is not just about philosophy, and not just about
non-dualism. Its purpose is to assist in the intellectual understanding of
non-dualistic philosophy. Using the intellect in this way is a
time-honored tradition in Eastern spiritual paths such as orthodox Advaita
Vedanta and Madhyamika Buddhism. Spiritual teachers in the West, such as
Krishnamurti, Jean Klein and Francis Lucille, have also used this method.
The purpose of this method is never dialectic cleverness or the mastery of
a body of information. That is, the motive is not intellectual; it is
spiritual. The method is merely a tool, one among many, to remove
ignorance so that Truth is revealed in its full glory. Not everyone needs
this particular tool.
Who Can Use this Tool
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The one who can really use this particular tool is the one who desires to
deeply understand non-dualism but feels blocked, intellectually stuck on
certain points. For example, I have a friend who travels the world
attending non-dualist satsangs, asking question after question about free
will. He is troubled, believing that a clear non-dualist understanding
would deprive him of free will and hence steal the joy of voluntarily
meditating; he also believes that not having free will would turn him into
an irresponsible determinist. Another friend couldn't understand what
non-dualism was getting at because he had a strong belief that "I'm In
Here and the world is Out There." Another friend is very much in love with
his guru and even believes that understanding non-dualism will assist in
enlightenment. But he also believes that non-dual understanding and
enlightenment will put an end to his intensely spiritual and pleasureable
feelings.
Though these problems are not unmixed with emotional components, their
belief components are intellectual, and are amenable to philosophical
tools. For example, the "In Here/Out There" friend learned to see that
this duality depends on an arbitrary and dispensible dividing line between
inner and outer. Since the moment of that flash of insight, his
understanding, peace and happiness have improved dramatically. To
paraphrase Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, if the thorn in our foot is an
intellectual one, then perhaps an intellectual thorn can remove it. We
then throw both thorns away.
Western philosophers have less to say than Eastern philosophers about
non-duality as a thoroughgoing metaphysical view. A few Western schools
come close, such as the ancient Greek monists, the German idealists, and
modern antirepresentationalists such as Donald Davidson and Richard Rorty.
Instead, much of Western philosophy operates within the confines of the
perennial Western dualities.
Some Classic Western Dualities
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The biggest obstacle to an intellectual understanding of non-dualism is
the belief about a duality that it is philosophically necessary. It is the
belief that one side or the other of a duality is a true view. It is the
notion that our network of beliefs or philosophy of life would be chaotic
or intolerable if these dualites were dispensed with.
According to non-dualism however, all dualities can be resolved or
dissolved. Eastern philosophies have been accomplishing this for thousands
of years, as each generation discovers anew the great non-dualist
philosophers and sages such as the Buddha, Nagarjuna, Gaudapada, Shankara,
Hui Neng, Sengtsan, Shinran Shonin, Dogen, Yunmen, or in our own times,
the crystal-clear dialectics of Krishna Menon and the soft-spoken ideas of
Shunryu Suzuki.
How to Use Western Philosophy
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We can employ the method of Western philosophy one duality at a time, by
picking and choosing the arguments that will ease our intellectual tension
around a certain point. For example, we might feel tension about
non-duality because it seems to make the mental world more real than the
physical world, yet that pesky physical world just won't go away. Or we
might feel tension with non-dualism's seemingly irresponsible take on free
will and moral responsibility. Mental/physical and freedom/determinism --
both of these are deeply rooted, sticky Western dualities.
Many of our most stubborn and cherished dualities are the product of
Western philosophy! In using the Western philosophical method, we are
employing a medication that comes from the same part of the world as the
disease. We don't have to swallow the doctor's entire kit bag, just the
particular pill for our problem. For example, here is how Western
philosophers can help with some of the more intransigent Western
dualities. This list is certainly not exhaustive!
Western remedies to dualities
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Good portals to philosophy on-line
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WESTERN PHILOSOPHERS HELPFUL IN THE STUDY OF
NON-DUALISM (In chronological
order) (Go
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Ancient Greek Monist Philosophers
They argued that all of reality was composed of single substances, such
as:
Thales (ca 615-540) "All is water."
Anaximander (ca 600-540) All comes from the Boundless.
Anaximenes (ca 580-500) All comes from vapor.
Heraclitus (ca 540-480) All comes from fire.
Plato (427-347 BCE)
Perhaps the Western world's most infuential thinker, Plato is sometimes
considered a mystic, but rarely a non-dualist. Web resources include Plato
entry on Garth Kemerling's Philosophy Site.
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Lucretius (1st century B.C.)
Argued poetically that there are only atoms and the void - all other
phenomena are incidental properties of these. His principal work is De
Rerum Natura (On the Nature of the Universe). Web resources include this.
Plotinus (205-270)
Wrote in the Platonic tradition and argued that all of manifestation is an
emanation from the One, and so never separate from it. Web resources
include material from Plotinus's principal work, The Enneads, which can be
read on-line at The
Internet Classics Archive.
Meister Eckhart (1260-1327/8)
Web resources include the Meister
Eckhart Page.
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David Hume (1711-1776)
In A Treatise of Human Nature, Section I. i. 4, Hume argues that causality
is nothing more than the regular association of ideas. We infer causality
as follows: "F events have always been followed by G ones, and so when a
new F event occurs we predict a new G one." But it is unwarranted to think
that this inference entails causal powers in the things observed. Web
resources include Ty's
David Hume home page.
George Berkeley (1685-1753)
Berkeley is the philosopher whose theory gives rise to the problem given
out in Philosophy 101 classes. "If a tree falls in the forest when there
is no one to hear it, does it make a sound?" Berkeley is said to answer
No. He argues that no material substance or object can exist apart from a
spirit or mind to perceive it. His most accessible work is the engagingly
written Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, in which Hylas (which
means "rock") is the materialist who is intrigued by the immaterialist
arguements of Philonous (means "lover of knowledge"), Berkeley's
protagonist.
Web resources include a great overall Berkeley
"portal" page, and a Comprehensive
Berkeley studies page.
Immanuel Swedenborg (1688-1771)
Christian mystic and esotericist. Web resources include the Swedenborg
Collection and works (site in German).
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Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814)
One of the more non-dual of the German idealists, Fichte sought in
Critique of all Revelation (1792) and Foundations of the Science of
Knowledge (1794-95) to dissolve the conventional duality between the
knowing metaphysical subject and the known object by seeing God's Being as
the only being, and manifestation as a picture or Schema. Web resources
and excerpts include the Fichte
entry on the Garth Kemerling's Philosophy Site.
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Schopenhauer's principal work is The World as Will and Idea (1819), in
which he sets forth his view on the internal reality of all manifestation
as will, arguing that this will is one and universal. Schopenhauer studied
Hinduism and Buddhism. Web resources include a good Schopenhauer
overview page which brings out his familiaritywith Buddhist and Vedic writings, and the Schopenhauer
page on the Island of Freedom Website.
William James (1842-1909)
James' most relevant works for the understanding of non-dualism are The
Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) and Essays in Radical Empiricism
(1912). The first book examines religious belief and mystical experiences;
the second book deals with the philosophical issues relating to
consciousness and objects of consciousness.
For an in-depth examination of James' treatment of the nature of
experience in its relation to solipsism, see Two Reflections
on William James, Duality and Radical Empiricism.
Web resources on James include Garth Kemerling's William
James entry.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
Among many other things, Wittgenstein demystified the notion that language
accurately refers to reality. Later in his career, he construed philosophy
as a way to "relieve the puzzlement generated by (philosophical) misuses
of ordinary language." This quote and one of the best Wittgenstein
resources from the Wittgenstein entry on Garth
Kemerling's Philosophy Pages. See Wittgenstein.
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Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
Sometimes difficult to read, Heidegger, comes closest to non-dual
investigations in Being and Time (1927). He explored the meaning of both
Being and of Nothing. As Garth Kemerling writes in his excellent Philosophy
Pages:
As abstract as this sounds, there are people who have actually utilized
Heidegger's writings in their spiritual investigations of non-dualist
understanding. One friend of mine wrote "He's helpful in understanding the
human sense of being within primordial nondual being, individual being in
the world, being in time, and that this individual being is essential to,
inseperable from, the whole of being."
Thanks to Andrew MacNab
for information on Heidegger. Web resources include Garth Kemerling's Heidegger page,
and lots of links on the Heidegger
Home Page.
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Franklin Merrell-Wolff (1887-1985)
Dr. Wolff was an American mathematician and philosopher who, after many
years of searching, had a series of transcendental experiences which led
to his formulation of a phlosophy which he called "Introceptualism." He
spent the last half of his very long life writing several books and many
essays, and teaching small groups who gathered around him at his remote
home on the slope of Mt. Whitney.
This is how Merell-Wolff describes his philosophy in his book The
Philosophy of Consciousness-Withut-An-Object:
Web resources include The
Official Joel Goldsmith/Infinite Way website.
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Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Catholic contemplative, who interpreted Eastern teachings to the West. Web
resources include the Columbia
University Thomas Merton Papers collection.
William Samuel (1924-1996)
An American original, William Samuel had been exposed to various Western
metaphysical teachings, and while stationed with the U.S. Army in Asia
during WWII, learned Taoism. He synthesized this understanding into a
compelling non-dual, heart-filled, down-home American idiom in his several
books. Although not widely known by the spiritual-seeking community,
Samuel wrote books, received visitors and corresponded with his readers
from his home in the American South for almost twenty years.
Web resources include the Official
William Samuel Foundation page.
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Richard Taylor, University of Rochester
Ameican philosopher and popular teacher who argues that good and evil are
not metaphysically basic or supernaturally founded, but rather,
conventional like rules of a game. At the University of Rochester, his
ethics class called Good 'n' Evil has perhaps the largest student
enrollment in all the humanities. The new edition of his book on this
topic is Good and Evil: A New Direction (Prometheus Books, November 1999).
Web resources include his
"http://origins.org/offices/billcraig/docs/craig-taylor0.html"Debate with
William Lane Craig on the basis of morality (link no longer working).
Richard Rorty (1931- )
Prominent philosopher and modern exponent of the work of John Dewey,
Donald Davidson and Wittgenstein, Rorty sometimes calls himself an
"antirepresentationalist." In Objectivity, relativism and truth, Vol. I
(Cambridge University Press, 1991), he argues that knowledge and inquiry
are a matter of a reworking the web of beliefs. Further, that beliefs do
not represent anything outside of the web. He is an energetic and engaging
writer. Web resources include an article on how not to read Rorty: www.
the-spa.com/thirteen/rortypap.htm (link may no longer working)
A Course in Miracles (ACIM)
Based very loosely on Christianity, ACIM is a way to see
the Truth of God as the truth that we are. There are many courses and
study guides available on-line, in bookstores, and through teaching
centers. Web resources include The Official
ACIM page, Foundation for a Course
in Miracles page.
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--Fin--