Many spiritual paths ask us to leave the ego,
the sense of a separate, personal self, behind.
The problem isn't the ego but the fact that the
ego does not see itself as the beauty it truly is!
-Jason Shulman-
the sense of a separate, personal self, behind.
The problem isn't the ego but the fact that the
ego does not see itself as the beauty it truly is!
-Jason Shulman-
Dear Friends,
I'm so happy you're here! My deepest desire is to join others and invite others to join in exploring a non-dual reality quite different from that of most Eastern Enlightenment traditions and Western appropriations of them, which is better described as uni-duality in which we can play a role in the universe coming to realize itself as us, and discover how human connection, relationship, and life itself changes when we experience ourselves not as a formless ground of Being we dissolve into, but as that ground of Being risen up through evolution into a conscious relationship with itself as human. And I hope I can help others by sharing how I emerged from the ashes of self-negating non-duality to realize it was not actually non-duality, and to discover a dramatic shift into the glorious both/and of oneness and separate co-dependently arising, and the immanence of the transcendent.*
To share how this helped me heal and move on from the common de-humanizing, self-effacing paradigms non-duality, and to offer this an alternative to non-relational liberation through self-negation or "ego death. " One that brings oneness and consciousness expansion without absolutism, self-extinction or spiritual perfectionism. I want to share this experience of divine immanence in which the spiritual is the material and vice versa, and we find sacredness in everything including the most painful emotions we've tried to transcend and exclude. The focus shifts from collapsing form into formlessness to the evolution of formlessness flourishing into (and as!) form, and we become enthralled by the grand trajectory of Being becoming. Continuing on from only separate, to only one, to the third best experience that emerges when we feel viscerally how separateness and oneness co-arise along with all polarities. A "oneness of multiplicity" giving rise to the revelation of how significant we are, simply because we exist, as unfathomable expressions of one universe that's evolved not to simply dissolve back into it's formless origin, but to look in the mirror and see itself looking back at itself with human eyes, awe-struck by what it took 14 billion years to become!
So many of us aren't aware (I was not!) that there are non-dual paths that don't begin where you end, and which show you how precious all of you is, including your personal self which isn't non-existent, but a real part of the greater whole of what you are, a whole that has a hole in it when you remove yourself from the picture. There are non-dual paths that reveal how our bodies, minds, souls are not illusions to overcome, but are manifestations whatever words you use for god. Paths that reveal how oneness has nothing to do with your non-existence as a person, and that since it's based on relationship, it has everything to do with your individual, "personal plus" presence. Yes, it relies on you and me being both separate and one at the same time. This is the wholeness that excludes nothing , instead holding more, not getting rid of "the ego" but healing unhealthy patterns and tending to the wounds that limit us with self-compassion. We become more inspired to turn towards them when we recognize our painful emotions as parts of god's humanity, and god itself! When it comes to suffering, when we experience divine immanence, we know that our suffering is simultaneously gods suffering, and we want to embrace it in love, knowing that whenever we reject parts of ourselves, we simultaneously reject elements of god. Paths on which we don't look through form to see its true nature, because we look right at its true nature as formlessness enformed.
So many of us aren't aware (I was not!) that there are non-dual paths that don't begin where you end, and which show you how precious all of you is, including your personal self which isn't non-existent, but a real part of the greater whole of what you are, a whole that has a hole in it when you remove yourself from the picture. There are non-dual paths that reveal how our bodies, minds, souls are not illusions to overcome, but are manifestations whatever words you use for god. Paths that reveal how oneness has nothing to do with your non-existence as a person, and that since it's based on relationship, it has everything to do with your individual, "personal plus" presence. Yes, it relies on you and me being both separate and one at the same time. This is the wholeness that excludes nothing , instead holding more, not getting rid of "the ego" but healing unhealthy patterns and tending to the wounds that limit us with self-compassion. We become more inspired to turn towards them when we recognize our painful emotions as parts of god's humanity, and god itself! When it comes to suffering, when we experience divine immanence, we know that our suffering is simultaneously gods suffering, and we want to embrace it in love, knowing that whenever we reject parts of ourselves, we simultaneously reject elements of god. Paths on which we don't look through form to see its true nature, because we look right at its true nature as formlessness enformed.
We'll explore all of this philosophically and experientially within the paradigm of evolutionary spirituality* and what Tim Freke calls "emergent spirituality," which integrates science and spirituality in a new way, leaving behind the worst of them and carrying forward the best, dispensing with both scientific and spiritual reductionism, so that we can experience the process of evolution as the process of Being becoming.
Neo-Advaita Awareness
In tandem with exploring this new paradigm of non-duality, I'm compelled to spread awareness and encourage a wider conversation in the non-dual community about the dangerous pitfalls of Neo-Advaita, "insta-enlightenment" and other mis-appropriations of renunciate Eastern teachings by Westerners, by describing from my own experiences and those of many others, the new forms of profound suffering that await many of us who lose ourselves in them. This is a plea to join us in understanding which aspects of these teachings, that in the name of ending suffering, are inadvertently causing so much affliction, so that we can minimize the harm. This is the most compassionate response 🙏🏼
Myself and others have lost too much of our precious souls to it, and I re-emerged from my own ashes with a desire to help others avoid it by choosing richly human and relational alternatives, and support people in recovering from the damage done. This includes the possibility for conscious self re-construction.
I'd wanted to move on from the eventual horrors of Neo-Advaita completely, but after this extreme ego dissolution path which initially offered radical freedom, led to deep soul loss (and culminated in a spiritual emergency that blurred the line between mystic and psychotic) I've heard from so many others who realized that they too had made a deal with the devil, in which the sacrifices outweigh the gains, leading to profound new forms of suffering, including suicidality. Having discovered this, I feel called to give us a voice, sharing what we've been through and giving us a way to connect with each other. Together, we can evolve beyond mis-guided non-dual paradigms that degrade our personhood, and welcome ourselves back into our hearts, minds and bodies, now as entirely real unividuals, paradoxically separate and one.
Read more about my experience, the world of Neo-Advaita, and how I envision bringing people together who have been harmed by it.
Myself and others have lost too much of our precious souls to it, and I re-emerged from my own ashes with a desire to help others avoid it by choosing richly human and relational alternatives, and support people in recovering from the damage done. This includes the possibility for conscious self re-construction.
I'd wanted to move on from the eventual horrors of Neo-Advaita completely, but after this extreme ego dissolution path which initially offered radical freedom, led to deep soul loss (and culminated in a spiritual emergency that blurred the line between mystic and psychotic) I've heard from so many others who realized that they too had made a deal with the devil, in which the sacrifices outweigh the gains, leading to profound new forms of suffering, including suicidality. Having discovered this, I feel called to give us a voice, sharing what we've been through and giving us a way to connect with each other. Together, we can evolve beyond mis-guided non-dual paradigms that degrade our personhood, and welcome ourselves back into our hearts, minds and bodies, now as entirely real unividuals, paradoxically separate and one.
Read more about my experience, the world of Neo-Advaita, and how I envision bringing people together who have been harmed by it.
Preventing and recovering from non-dual nihilism ❤️🩹
You don't get to oneness by erasing yourself,
that would be oneness with a hole in it!
-Tim Freke-
You don't get to oneness by erasing yourself,
that would be oneness with a hole in it!
-Tim Freke-
I step out of my apartment on a fall morning, filled with awe and tenderness in my heart, struck by the very reality of the world.
I hear Nisargadatta's voice echoing through time, "Refuse this dream the stamp of reality!" But I can no longer heed his call because today life is no longer just a dream, not a bubble to burst, but dramatically, mind-blowingly real, and in the light of this precious isness, everything radiates significance. My soul flutters with delight watching god interact with itself everywhere I look. Everyone a piece of god that contains all of god. Then, I hear Ram Das's lovely voice whisper, "Everything is god in drag!" but it doesn't fully ring true anymore because I now see that god doesn't wear masks, and the world is not just an appearance. This world of form no longer conceals god, but reveals him/her/it everywhere, all of this is the revelation of god, it IS god expressing itself in infinite ways, god, the multi-faceted! I smile to myself because today I don't need to peel anything back or strip anything away to look upon god's (many) face(s).
I step out of my apartment on a fall morning, filled with awe and tenderness in my heart, struck by the very reality of the world.
I hear Nisargadatta's voice echoing through time, "Refuse this dream the stamp of reality!" But I can no longer heed his call because today life is no longer just a dream, not a bubble to burst, but dramatically, mind-blowingly real, and in the light of this precious isness, everything radiates significance. My soul flutters with delight watching god interact with itself everywhere I look. Everyone a piece of god that contains all of god. Then, I hear Ram Das's lovely voice whisper, "Everything is god in drag!" but it doesn't fully ring true anymore because I now see that god doesn't wear masks, and the world is not just an appearance. This world of form no longer conceals god, but reveals him/her/it everywhere, all of this is the revelation of god, it IS god expressing itself in infinite ways, god, the multi-faceted! I smile to myself because today I don't need to peel anything back or strip anything away to look upon god's (many) face(s).
My trajectory, in a nutshell
Driving through the Arizona desert, I'm in the passenger seat staring out at the mountains slowly streaming by, trying to recall how it felt to merge with my surroundings back when becoming one with everything meant disappearing, meant swiping myself out of the picture and dissolving into thin air, becoming nothing and everything. Well, everything except for me, except for somebody. Only in hindsight can I say that most of the time when following those non-dual pointers, I wasn't actually becoming one with everything, I was disappearing into it and there's a world of difference between the two.....Read More
"Stop de-personalizing me!" - God
I am more interested in what we can do together than in what I can do alone. So please, send me your thoughts, questions, and ways we can collaborate!
Please share your story with me if you feel called to. It's true "you're not your story," but that's because you are more than your story, not less. I would love to hear yours, and validate it.
As a Spiritual Emergence Coach, I'm certified by IMHU to facilitate peer support groups for those going through a spiritual crisis of any kind, and especially those related to Neo-Advaita.
Please share your story with me if you feel called to. It's true "you're not your story," but that's because you are more than your story, not less. I would love to hear yours, and validate it.
As a Spiritual Emergence Coach, I'm certified by IMHU to facilitate peer support groups for those going through a spiritual crisis of any kind, and especially those related to Neo-Advaita.
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*Some modern non-dualists have started using the term evolutionary, but this is very different from what I mean by evolutionary.
In their view, the formless ground of Being evolved into form in order to collapse back into formlessness, rather than to experience itself, partake in itself in and as the world of form, and explore its potential to flourish as the form it has become.
*I fully realize that an alternate paradigm and experience of a oneness of multiplicity in which everything is included as divinely real, won't appeal to those mired, and invested, as I once was, in a liberation dependent on the world being a mere illusion. The reactive responses I'm receiving from absolutists, who I used to be among, make this very clear.
In order to live in this world, you must do three things: to love what is mortal, to hold it against your bones...and when the time comes to let it go..let it go - Mary Oliver