Progressive paths, preparations and nonduality meetings - nonduality speak.

 

Progressive paths, preparations and meetings - nonduality speak

I sometimes get asked-- 'why do you focus on preparatory actions, or topics and practices that aren't directly related to nonduality, awareness approaches, or nondual enquiry etc.?'

The reason that I bang on so much about preparations, inner work, emotional mastery, embodiment, and progressive pathways.. nowawadays, as opposed to in previous years where I seemed to aim only at approaches directly related to Nonduality, is because all these preps and progressive steps are necessary for 99% of spiritual seekers!

It's all well and good to pick up any number of common nondual teaching approaches or talks or pointers or enquiries etc. .. of which there's so many around these days, Youtube, Zoom sessions, one-to-one, meetings, teachers, etc., and then run with these in the hope of getting a glimpse. The issue is that these small glimpses are experiences only. Temporary changes in perception, or belief, or the unlocking of some new understanding. These experiences come and go, and aren't permanent or abiding. The temptation then is to latch on to some belief system that maintains that underlying our current experience (of suffering) there's some absolute, eternal, peaceful state etc.. after all, 'didn't we just experience that?' This then leads to the common flip-flop syndrome where seekers are in and out of 'the experience'.. or even worse, some pick up the teacher role (along with their ego) and then start proclaiming they're done and jump into the 'blind-leading-the-blind' game of nonduality teaching.

 ALL traditional approaches, from traditional Dzogchen, to traditional Advaita Vedanta, or traditional Buddhist schools, or traditional Kashmir Shaivism, or devotional yoga, or contemporary or pragmatic dharma teachers, etc. aways advise of a rather length preparatory or gradual approach that combines a number of different 'modules', usually including some development in ethics, bodywork, philosophical framework (even minimally), ritual, emotional maturity, and other practices or work areas that are normally under the 'progressive paths' framework. These gradual steps ensure that there's no rock left unturned when the penny finally drops, and things are seen just as they are.

So in summary, these prep practices are really important in the long for success in this 'nondual understanding' endeavour. Without them, the road is dangerous, and it becomes just too easy to veer off into distractions, false awakenings, calling off the search too early, burn out, or allowing the ego to take control of the journey.

This needs to be said sometimes, as a reminder (antidote to all the contemporary misinformation out there) that the path is a gradual one, although the paradox is that recognition is instantaneous and only happens now, with things being always as they have been, including the story.

Thanks for reading this and your patience. My blessings to you on the path that is no path, and which is well worth the effort (or non-effort) so to speak.

Dean.

Suffering as a starting point.

"I teach suffering and the cessation of suffering." (reportedly The Buddha)

"In this world, all things come into being and perish, therefore there is the repeated experience of sorrow." (Sri Vasistha)

"The settling of the mind in its goal by turning away from the mass of objects, through observing their defects again and again, is known as peace." (Sankara)

"Suffering has made you dull; unable to see its entirety and enormity. Your first task is to see the sorrow in you and around you." (Nisargadatta)

"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." (Ecclesiastes 1)


The question often strikes me, when out and about mixing with society, 'How does one relate on a deeper level with those seeming 'others' we meet in our life? How can we relate to these strangers, apart from the concepts overlaid automatically by our own mind?'

Is there a way to relate to 'the other', which can bypass the conditioning and sabotaging of the ego that is only interested in obtaining something from others? Even altruism and so called self-less acts for others, in the end, seem empty, done usually for secret self-serving motives such as pleasant feelings, future rewards 'in heaven' etc.

One way which has been recommended by sages since time immemorial is that of recognising and working with suffering. We can find references to the use of suffering as a foundational base in many orthodox and esoteric spiritual traditions. The reason for this is manifold, but in essence, there are not so many other starting places which begin as close to the bone, ie. our ordinary, present experience as felt during our daily suffering existence.

This doesn't mean that one intentionally needs to find specific areas of suffering, such as physical pain, relationship conflicts and other problematic areas we all have, though it can include this. Rather, these teachings point to the UNIVERSALITY and all-pervasiveness of suffering and sorrow inherent in our very existence, which we all initially find ourselves, usually started from around age three; as separate physical entities living in a seemingly random universe. Despite our individual beliefs about the universe and our existence, the hard facts that we find when on the street or alone at home verify the truth that sages have taught in the past- life itself, and the body itself, IS suffering. "There is suffering."

But isn't this just another mental filter? Do not mystics also proclaim the unreality of "the dream" of existence? Yes, but we have no choice but to start from where we are. Attempting to start from a conceptual place of 'elsewhere', while ignoring our present state of affairs leads to further suffering down the track. As all things in existence are also temporary, then views and beliefs themselves, and attempts to circumvent our present state of affairs must end at some point, and appear as the awful truth we were attempting to escape from via our magical thinking. Follow up on any "Law of Attraction" devotee after a few years and find out whether they still have the energy and motivation to attempt to will unreality onto their reality. Fortunately, all of us have only a limited supply of energy, motivation and will-power, which will one day be exhausted and bring us to the ultimate discovery of suffering and its inescapable presence in our lives and in those around us, while we exist in a body.

Yet a strange thing happens once we embark on this via dolorosa and embrace the existence of suffering everywhere we look. We find that the separateness and power of the ego seems to diminish slightly. External objects and people are no longer simply objects of attainment. We join creation on a fundamental level and are united "in suffering" with others, high and low. Our heart opens up, even ever so slightly, in the form of compassion for those around us, as they are no longer "perfect" or idealised, or despised.. but merely other entities also "fighting the good fight" and trying as best they can to live with their own sufferings of existence.

Most importantly though, working with suffering and investigating its all-pervasiveness, may allow us to come to certain life-changing conclusions. Perhaps there is no solution to suffering within this reality we experience here. Perhaps all efforts to obtain "perfection" (physical, financial, emotional, intellectual and whatever your 'summum bonum' happens to be) are doomed to failure due to inherent limitations in existence- impermanence. Perhaps we've been looking in the wrong place for happiness and love all along, the wrong place being any external place whatsoever. As we become less enchanted with possible solutions and imaginations for a pleasant future, our desire for real, permanent liberation also increases. A doorway is opened, which previously did not exist.

We have no choice but to start where we are. Man is a machine, sages such as Gurdjieff tell us, man who sits in a public house drunk with dreams about himself. Yet there are clues and hints within the dream, as in the movie 'Inception'. As a dog that traces the scent of its master, we can trace the scent of Godhead if we truly desire. The subtle fragrances of love, kindness, contentment, and happiness float past a dozen times a day unnoticed, and often amongst the messiest of situations.

May we have the grace today to see ourselves as we truly are.