The Seer

“When the dream self is seen to be nothing but an illusion, physical death is no longer feared. The fear of death arises only because the dream self believes it is a real entity totally separate from the rest of life — an entity that can die. But your real identity is beyond the cycle of physical birth and death. When the fear of death dies, the fear of living goes with it. That is non-dual freedom.”

~ From: Reflections of the One Life, by Scott Kiloby

The Awakened Eye blog is about the eye that perceives without labeling — we could also call it the innocent eye, or the eye of beginner’s mind.

Many artists and artisans have understood that the practice of drawing and engaging in creative encounters in the visual arts can — by making obvious one’s conditioned reactions — open the mind to another way of seeing, a way that transcends habitual dualistic assumptions.

There have been, and are, many wise teachers who speak of this transcendence of duality as one’s original or true state — a state which we seem compelled to seek and reject simultaneously. Their teachings are sometimes referred to as Advaita, which means “one without a second” — or more simply, non-duality. In this context the awakened eye is synonymous with the awakened “I”; this topic forms the wider agenda of this blog.

This blog and the website have been conceived as places where ideas and teachings on this topic put forward by artists, educators, scientists, philosophers, sages and saints, can be accessed. There will also be personal notes from she-who-scribbles, and hopefully plenty of useful links.

The author, Miriam Louisa Simons, says: “As the website and this blog develop, I hope you find inspiration and encouragement there to support your inquiry, and that you realize that your awakened eye — your vast, open, non-dual understanding is here, this very moment, reading these words …”

Also, Matt King has just launched the Non-Duality America blog which is devoted to celebrating the message of nonduality and bringing it to a wider audience. This blog is characterized by openness, inclusion and the diversity of voices that are now speaking about the truth of our beingness.

“All the deep wisdom texts talk about nonduality,” Gil said. “Can you explain this to me?”

Hamid had become more preoccupied by Oy, who had stopped to photograph the paw prints of a large tiger that had preceeded us toward the pass …

Gil persisted. “Does it mean that whatever we see is actually taking place inside our heads and therefore does not really exist?”

“Something like that,” Hamid responded … “Enlightenment philosophy reveals that what appears as external and self-existing is ultimately a function of consciousness; it has not inherent existence. To say that reality is nondual doesn’t mean that all is illusion, but that appearances arise in conjunction with our perception. When we recognize that perception dictates our reality, the forces of greed, anger, and delusion lessen and we attain a freer responsiveness to the events around us.”

“You mean we don’t get attached?”

“Right, we just recognize them as the play of consciousness, a kind of virtual reality. This isn’t just artful fantasy,” Hamid continued. “Science recognizes the same thing; that reality does not exist separately from our perception.”

“So what’s real then?” Gil asked. “Just this collective and intersecting delusion?”

“No,” Hamid answered. “That’s the whole point of Enlightenment — to wake up from this collective dream and to recognize that there are no inherent boundaries between external reality and the circuitry of consciousnessness. If we could live in full awareness of this nondual reality, there would no longer be any basis for alienation, greed, anger, fear, and all the other mental poisons that the teaching speaks about. We would take responsibility for our own perceptions and begin to work with them, in full consciousness of our interconnectedness with other beings.”

~ From: The Heart of the World: A Journey to the Last Secret Place, by Ian Baker

Look, the Source is one and all that is;
But It has imaged forth a second, this cosmic array.
Eternally the one great Mind exists alone;
Its universal picture-show comes and goes,
An image on the screen of time.

Eternally, even as the stars play out their birth and death,
The One is undiminished, undivided, undismayed.
For, since the universal drama exists within the one great Mind,
There is no separation, no duality at all.

And yet, while we live and dance in time and space,
We inhabit an imaginary bubble of non-eternity,
Of transient bodies and volitional activities,
A secondary world, unreal.

Once freed of duality’s deception,
We realize we’ve never left eternity’s bliss.
We’re one eternal Self, unbound, unsnared forever,
Complete in the completion of the boundless One,
A “we”, an “I” that stands triumphantly free, beyond imagined time.

~ Swami Abhayananda

Q: Non-duality seems to be a repudiation of free will. I am not doing anything. The divine acts through me. But what of the man who murders a child, or starts genocidal wars? It seems the world would often be better if people acted differently. Can you help me understand this?

A: Thanks for your question. It’s one of the most common concerns raised about the teachings of non-duality.

While there is just one reality or one Being here, the manifestations and movements of that one Being are as diverse as can be. Oneness seems to love to appear and dance as many. And there are also many levels of truth that operate within this amazing dance of life.

So your question about murder and war can be answered at different levels, and all of the answers would have some relevance. At the most relative level, there is the definite appearance of free will. It’s important what we do, and if people made better choices, this would be wonderful for the world.

If we shift to a more absolute perspective, we can see that all action is purely an illusion created by our consciousness. No action has ever harmed consciousness, and so the appearances of murder and war are just that: an appearance.

But to be complete, we also can experience how both of these perspectives are true, and also experience a perspective that is in between these two extremes. It turns out that when someone directly experiences their true nature as empty spacious presence, this doesn’t necessarily lead to a disinterest in the appearances and illusions of this world. In fact, the recognition that there’s no one here and no individual doing anything most often leads to the experience and expression of a deep love for this world and all of the illusions in it.

If it’s just an illusion, then why bother with murder or war? If you and your actions are just an illusion, then the pain and fears of the illusory ego simply do not matter anymore. If we see through the illusions of our personal story, then there are no longer any motivations that would lead to murder or war.

In the absence of a personal self, we are not left with nothing. There are many deeper qualities of true nature that are revealed as the ego loosens it’s grip on us. And it is perhaps a surprise to find out that they are all positive qualities like love, joy, peace, clarity, strength, and wisdom. I say it is perhaps a surprise because of the psychological view that our unconscious is filled with all kinds of repressed negative emotions that must be contained.

And while there is also some truth to this perspective, the missing piece in much of psychology is that underneath even our darkest unconscious emotions are these essential qualities of our Being. It turns out that at the core, we are loving, joyful and divine. This is not something that you can grasp intellectually, but it is something that you can experience as your sense of self is weakened or dissolved by direct inquiry.

It’s possible to have a purely intellectual grasp of the concept that there is no individual doer, and that the world is just an illusion. And like any belief or concept, it can just be believed and identified with and lead to all kinds of distortions and justifications for terrible actions.

For examples, just examine the history of religious fundamentalism where teachings about peace and love have been used to justify hatred, murder and war. Even a belief in there being no doer can lead to this kind of fundamentalism if it is just a belief. But in the actual experience of the dissolving of an egoic sense of self, there is an opening to the deeper realities of our essential Being, and beyond that to the mystery at the core of Being which can not be described or defined.

The positive qualities at the core of our Being are strangely found to be nondual also. At that depth of experience, it is seen that there is only goodness and that there is no opposite thing called badness. This is the important discovery that counterbalances any tendency of the ego to form a belief about nonduality that denies the importance or value of the world and its beautiful illusions.

It’s this essential core of goodness that loves the world and everything in it, and so makes it extremely unlikely that someone resting in their deepest essence would ever act to harm another. In fact there is a natural arising of a compassion and appreciation for all of life.

The concept of nonduality is just that: a concept. As such it can be distorted and co-opted by the ego and the mind to justify anything. But the reality of our nondual nature is not a concept, and the direct experience of it is filled with peace, love and joy beyond anything we could have imagined.

But don’t take my word for any of this. See what you find when you inquire deeply into this question of who it is that acts in this world. Do you find a complete lack of any love and concern for the world when you experience a more open and complete sense of your true nature, or do you find that there is no limit to the love and compassion that can be found within the empty spaces of your soul?

~ by Nirmala

“Dig in thine own field for this Pearl of Eternity that lies hidden in it; it cannot cost thee too much, nor canst thou buy it too dear; for it is ALL; and when thou hast found it, thou wilt know, that all which thou hast sold or given away (or ‘lost’) for it, is as a mere nothing, as a bubble upon the water.” ~ William Law

Centuries ago in China, Master Tsung-i would instruct others by saying, “The whole universe is One Bright Pearl.” (cf. ‘Consciousness is all there is’)

“One Bright Pearl” thoroughly expresses it even though not itself revealed in its name, and we can recognize it in its name.

“One Bright Pearl” directly transcends the eons, and because in eternal past it never ceased to be, it reaches up to the eternal present.

Though there is one’s mind now and one’s body now, they are just the One Bright Pearl. This grass or that tree are not grass and tree, nor are the mountains and rivers of the world mountains and rivers; they are One Bright Pearl.

Thus, the Bright Pearl, existing just so and being beginningless, transcends changes in time and place. The whole universe is One Bright Pearl.

We do not speak of two or three pearls, and so the entirety is one True Dharma Eye, the Body of Reality, One Expression. The entirety is Brilliant Light, One Mind.

When [the Bright Pearl] is the entirety, nothing hinders it. Round [like a pearl], it rolls around and around.

~ by Zen Master Dogen Ki-gen

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“What amazing grace to see clearly that the very thing that looked so heavy in the world of form, the very thing that seemed to be limiting me on all sides, that very thing is the doorway into the formless and into who I am beyond form. Limited form arises from limitless Spirit and that Spirit is the form each of us is at this moment. What grace to see now that ultimately they are one.”

~ Pete S.

In the dojo (meeting-room) at Gurukula is a large hand-embroided wall-hanging of the ‘Tree of Life,’ that was given to us by our daughter. It clearly depicts in stylized form, the whole tree — leaves, branches, trunk and even the exposed roots.

What is the hidden meaning of this symbolic tree? What deeper understanding does it offer us?

The way we see it, the leaves are the symbol of our individual identities. There are so many leaves and so many individuals on the tree of life. If each leaf is living for itself, then it is living in individual love.

When the leaf realizes it is connected to a branch, it moves into the collective identity and lives for its collective identity. This identity unites us with some and separates us from others, just as one branch is separated from another. In this level, our love becomes collective love. We live for our collective identity and may even be willing to die for our collective identity.

The trunk is the symbol of our universal mind. All branches and leaves are attached to the trunk, but at the same time it transcends them. Here our love becomes universal love.

At the level of the roots — the unitive mind or consciousness or God — our love becomes divine love or unitive love.

Each of us is a leaf for we are a unique physical being. Each of us is a branch in as much as we belong to a particular nation, culture or tradition. And each of us is the roots in as much as we are one with the divine or absolute … whether we realize it fully or not.

To accept intellectually the truth that we are, right now, each grounded inseparably in and as the divine is one thing, but to actually see It, even briefly, is another thing, and to experience this unitive vision continuously is quite another altogether and joy unspeakable.

There have always been a few of these visionaries in every age whose lives seem to correspond with the whole tree of life … including the trunk.

There is only one trunk and one universal mind. The trunk or the universal mind is the mediator between the roots, which represent the unitive mind, and the branches and leaves.

The trunk receives from the roots and nourishes the branches and the leaves. It speaks to the roots in the name of the leaves and the branches and it speaks to the branches and the leaves in the name of the roots.

The trunk lives for all. The Buddha, Jesus, Shankara and Ramana Mahashi etc. could be described as ‘universal persons’, who lived for all humankind. These are the way-showers, the truth-revealers or the mediators, as it were, between the the roots and the leaves / branches of their time.

We are fortunate to be served by a growing number of contemporary spiritual teachers who are fulfilling much the same function today. These are the teachers we respect and attend to at Gurukula.

No one is outside this tree and no ideology, religion or belief-system is outside this tree that is ‘life’ Itself.

There’s only one way, one truth and one life. This is the way of the tree, the way of unity and non-duality. This way embraces different levels of truth, the un-manifested truth and manifested truth.

The great transition or shift isn’t about an individual entering into a branch (belief-system) or moving from one branch (belief-system) to another branch (belief-system).

It’s an invitation to make the leap in consciousness from the branches to the trunk and from there to the roots. Now that’s radical!

Once there were four boatmen living in a small village on the bank of a very wide river in India. It took all four of them to row a few people and their goods from one side of the river to the other. Every day they used to get around 40 persons. They charged 5 Rupees per passenger, so they earned on average 200 Rupees per day which was divided equally among them. At the end of the day they prayed like this:

The first boatman prayed: O God, I am very grateful to you for sending 40 fares today so that I can earn 50 Rupees. Please send more fares tomorrow so that I can earn more money and become rich. Thank you for today’s 50 Rupees.

The second one prayed: O God, I thank you so much because today I could take 40 of my countrymen and their goods from this side to the other side. I am so happy that I can be at the service of my countrymen. Please send more of them tomorrow so that I can serve them too. Thank you for giving me 50 Rupees to maintain my family today.

The third one prayed: O God, I am so happy today because I could take you from this side to the other side so many times. Please come more often tomorrow so that I can serve you even more. Thank you for giving me 50 Rupees today to take care of my family.

The fourth person prayed: O God, please forgive me for making this prayer. I realize that you alone exist. You are in me and you are in the others. It is you who are taking yourself from this side to the other side. The work which I do is not mine, but you who live in me do all the work. I am blessed to have this vision and to be your instrument. Thank you for giving me today 50 Rupees to take care of my family.

All the boatmen did the same work and earned the same amount of money, but their motives were different. The first boatman lived in individual love, the second boatman lived for collective love, the third boatman lived in universal love, and the fourth boatman lived for divine love. Our spiritual journey is to grow from individual love to the love which is divine.

~ by Br. J. M. Sahajananda

An imagined hasidic master, Reb Yerachmiel ben Yisrael writes to his student who has moved from the old country to America:

“It rained heavily during the night, and our village is thick with mud. I walked to the Beit Midrash (House of Learning) this morning and stopped to watch a group of little children playing in a puddle of mud.

They sat in the puddle, oblivious to the damp, and made dozens of mud figures: houses, animals, and towers. From their talk it was clear that they imagined an identity for each: a story that told the figure’s past and foretold its future.

For a while the mud figures took on independence, a life separate and unique. But they are still just mud. Mud is their source, and mud is their substance.

From the perspective of the children wrapped up in the play of separate figures their mud creations had separate selves. From the point of view of a casual observer it is clear that the separate self is an illusion, that in fact they are all just mud.

It is the same with us and God: “Adonai (the Lord) alone is God in heaven above and on earth below, there is none else” (Deuteronomy 4:39). Ayn od — there is none else — meaning that there is nothing else in heaven or on earth but God.

Can this be? When I look at the world I do not see God. I see trees of varying kinds, people of all types, houses, fields, lakes, cows, horses, chickens, and on and on. In this I am like the children at play seeing real figures and not simply mud. Where in all this is God?

Some would argue that God is a divine spark inside each being, some would say only within human beings. Others would argue that God is above and outside creation. But I teach neither position.

God is not inside or outside, God is the very thing itself! And when there is no thing, but only empty space? God is that as well.”

Also, from, the non-dual point of view, the first two of the Ten Commandments (Ex 20: 1-7) are extremely powerful non-dual statements, i.e., neither permitting images before the “I” sense, nor allowing the use of the subject “I” together with an identity to images.

~ From, Open Secrets: The Letters of Reb Yerachniel ben Yisrael, by Rami M. Shapiro