Non-Duality Questions, Non-Duality Answers: Exploring Spirituality and Existence in the Modern World by Richard Sylvester examines the author’s uncompromising stance on non-duality. This books is a series questions asked and answered by via email. There is no particular order to the emails. There is a great deal of repetition. If you are unfamiliar with Sylvester’s view on non-duality, this is not necessarily bad; the repetition reinforces the topics, which are difficult to express in words.
Sylvester offers no system or strategy to “see” our non-dual status. We are already there, so there is nothing to be done. We may be offered an experience of non-duality, and from that see that the world of our perceptions is like a “walking dream” and there is no self. For many, that experience leads to depression. If the world of phenomenon, where most of us get our vital reinforcement, is empty or a “walking dream,” then what is the point of anything?
But Sylvester explains that a second “state” can often arise, where we see meaning, or love, in the emptiness. Beyond those two things, the author eschews any system (if these two points can even be called any program at all). People are “awakened” to non-duality with often profound results. Others simply see it as a given, and it has a minimal impact on them. Still others plunge into crisis.
I don’t agree with all that Sylvester writes. I still think certain religious practices can help us understand our non-dual state. He mentions Kabbalah in a limited, dismissively sense with apparently no much knowledge of the tradition. But I understand Sylvester’s skepticism of methods. Some people use them and they work; others do, and they fail to work. A great deal of emotional discord can be created by the spiritual quest. We must be careful to not be always 'questing.'
In the end, Sylvester has the same advice for most of his correspondents who are undergoing a crisis or striving to understand non-dualism. Take a walk in the park. Have a cup of tea and a cookie. There is good reason he tells us this: we can’t intellectually or emotionally understand non-duality. Perhaps the best places to 'experience' it are in simple tasks divorced from any process. For this author, there is no difference from seeing the face of God and having a cup of tea.
Sylvester offers no system or strategy to “see” our non-dual status. We are already there, so there is nothing to be done. We may be offered an experience of non-duality, and from that see that the world of our perceptions is like a “walking dream” and there is no self. For many, that experience leads to depression. If the world of phenomenon, where most of us get our vital reinforcement, is empty or a “walking dream,” then what is the point of anything?
But Sylvester explains that a second “state” can often arise, where we see meaning, or love, in the emptiness. Beyond those two things, the author eschews any system (if these two points can even be called any program at all). People are “awakened” to non-duality with often profound results. Others simply see it as a given, and it has a minimal impact on them. Still others plunge into crisis.
I don’t agree with all that Sylvester writes. I still think certain religious practices can help us understand our non-dual state. He mentions Kabbalah in a limited, dismissively sense with apparently no much knowledge of the tradition. But I understand Sylvester’s skepticism of methods. Some people use them and they work; others do, and they fail to work. A great deal of emotional discord can be created by the spiritual quest. We must be careful to not be always 'questing.'
In the end, Sylvester has the same advice for most of his correspondents who are undergoing a crisis or striving to understand non-dualism. Take a walk in the park. Have a cup of tea and a cookie. There is good reason he tells us this: we can’t intellectually or emotionally understand non-duality. Perhaps the best places to 'experience' it are in simple tasks divorced from any process. For this author, there is no difference from seeing the face of God and having a cup of tea.
No comments:
Post a Comment