Dear Friend,
After spending many years engrossed in the spiritual philosophy of nondualism, Jessica Nathanson grew disillusioned with its' limitations some of its more dehumanising tenants. Jessica now runs a blog called The Glorious Both/And, where she collaboratively reflects upon spirituality going wrong, and what a more humane and wholesome approach might look like.
Different metaphysical / mystical maps
explore different ways of framing non-dual reality, of oneness, that you might not have known existed that inspire a different experience of it, that give rise to different qualities,
experiences and interpretations of reality that have a different agenda, not to interpret it in a way that helps us escape suffering, but for different ones - healing, to become unividuals, to feel more deeply
there are two people I know offering different mapsd
Mystical Maps and Why They Matter -
If you have a framework or map that opens you to the universal in service of trivializing the particulars
Vs to gain new perspective and appreciation for them
Mystical maps often described as leading to liberation , enlightenment , freedom from suffering , escapes , ways to detach , to transcendent this world
But there are mystical maps (immanence) that aren’t about ending suffering or escaping anything , are about engaging with that in a new way, and making it more meaningful
… write here what these are about in contrast
Some are truth maps based on how to see *ultimate* truth
Maps don’t have to dispel the mystery!
Neo is a treasure map to the holy grail, to get you to samadhi, the end of suffering in dissolving into pure awareness
new view that created a new reality for me to step inside and that I want to invite others to do too
they draw on pre-existing frameworks, but bring in their own newness, and have created something
What reality are YOU creating?
A narrative that brings you to an experience that narrative has no innate existence
Yes, part of my calling is to help bring the dark side of contemporary non-dualism into the light. My intention however is not to just point at it saying look at all this darkness! but rather hey, look at all of this darkness we can bring into the light in a constructive way. A great deal of suffering is alleviated by the "no self, no suffering" approach, and at the same time, an equal amount is unintentionally created, and if anything is to be done about it, we have to look closely with a discerning mind and open heart at what exactly is contributing to what I hope to prove has become a sub-cultural crisis. As one example, we need to shine a light on why a movement fervently dedicated to eradicating feelings of separateness eventually make so many people feel profoundly isolated and dis-connected from themselves, other human beings, and the world around them. I hope that in sharing my own experience of the promises and pitfalls of self-negating non-dualism, and that of countless others I have met, that we can collectively address what has gone so tragically awry.
I hope to do this in a way that encourages us to embrace a fundamental non-dual reality that is overlooked or denied in either/or perspectives - that just like all polarities, darkness and light come as a pair, and in a way that reveals how the attempt to drive out darkness once and for all always increases it exponentially. If we can instead come to honor their inter-dependence, we can stop trying to deny and run from what will always be right here, and lighten the shadow load we pass on to the next generation, while exemplifying the new way of courage to face the darkness and heal what is there that can be healed.
We can also only ever know non-dual wholeness when we embrace this co-arising relationship of darkness and light. The whole picture.
I hope as well, to do the best I can to spread awareness of the ways people are harmed by non-relational spirituality with a new way of approaching and exposing what lies in the collective shadow - in a way that can encourage the both/and, that light and darkness can and must be able to co-exist, that our light must be able to tolerate and even seek out the darkness not to eradicate it, but in an embrace. To lead us to another kind of light. Another way of exposing what is in the shadows that does so while offering solutions, to come bearing not just the horrors of the shadows, but solutions that bring an optimistic outlook. I want to do this in a way that encourages us to draw upon the ability to expand our vision to take in a transcendent view, in which we can see the greater context that challenges exist within, but instead of doing this with the goal of rising above to trivialize, as many non-dual paths encourage, but to zoom out in service of engaging more skillfully and creatively with the particulars, while uncovering the greater significance of the situation in light of seeing how it is inter-connected with everything else, and the true impact that it has, for example on society, so that we can we can with respond with compassionate immediacy to reduce suffering that is caused by having too myopic or too transcendent a view, so that we can move forward in a more positive direction.
Dwelling without drowning
Just like with fixating on brightness only, there's a real tragedy and danger in fixating on and taking up full residence in the shadows and drowning in darkness, but I hope to communicate that we must be willing to at least dwell temporarily in the darkness if we want to fully understand it in service of healing what is there. This is not easy, and luckily what I've discovered on my path from non-relational oneness to relational unity, that while we'll have to sit inside our shadows alone at times, when we approach them together, greater courage, and be able to hold what we find there when we do it together, in a conscious way. You may even find, as I did, god and the divine is the shadows, and that if you can see god there, you'll see god everywhere, and have a new way to engage with the shadows, in a way that knows you are helping to heal the divine itself, in opening up to god's dark side.
Light only can harden our hearts
Sometimes when we become partial to the light only, our hearts end up hardened to anything that can make us vulnerable to the darkness of suffering, but when we have been through enough darkness to know it is the partner of light, and to see that struggle in everyone, our hearts break open for more compassion to flow for the heaviness we all carry from the darkness.
And my solutions to bring, include new unity consciousness paradigms of psycho-spiritual growth that are grounded in the both/and - a new both/and - and a shift from non-dual to uni-dual to the third thing and the ground of Being blooming. From reductionism to emergentism, from ego death as final to ego death as stage in process of sacred re-birth and re-construction. Shift to awakening for personal freedom alone, to relational.
-from either/or non-duality to both/and uni-duality - this is "the third thing" that goes from all is separate to all is one to all is both separate and one. maps that get you there...
-from non-relational oneness (oneness of merging) to relational unity (one with)
-from numerical oneness to
-to the third thing
-from the ground of being only to the ground of being blooming
-from reductionist spirituality to emergent spirituality - the ground of being blooming
-from transcend and exclude to transcend and include
-from egoless to more than ego
-from self-rejection to self-compassion
-from meaning from suffering found in destroying the one who suffers, to meaning in suffering found in sacred communion.
-from freedom from to freedom to
-from ego dissolution as an end goal to ego dissolution as a stage in a sacred process of re-birth and conscious re-construction
-from permanent self destruction to self transformation
-from detachment to deeper immersion
-from mattering less, to mattering more
The Glorious Both/And - "A Single Thing"
There are different ways of perceiving and conceiving of both/and non-duality, and what I mean by it is critically different from how it's often described in popular non-dual discourse. Even when non-dual teachers embrace what's described as a both/and perspective, in which the relative and the absolute are both granted reality, there is often still a subtle or overt division between them! The absolute is still behind, beyond, beneath a relative world that continues to be described as veiling the absolute and which needs to be seen through or cleared away to behold the absolute, so there's still a reality in which the absolute can exist in isolation from the relative. The relative world can still be reduced to the absolute, manifestation boiled down to essence. In the both/and perspective that I'm sharing, the absolute and the relative are a single thing (which I think of as a third thing), the manifest world isn't blocking or veiling the un-manifest. The world of form can't be reduced to formlessness, because it is formlessness enformed. It can't be reduced to the ground of Being, because the evolving manifest world is the ground of Being blooming! I hope to share how this difference feels, and the difference that it makes for humanity.
There are a scarce few people I'm aware of today who invite us to understand and experience non-duality this way, and because it's so important to me, I want to share what they offer us! The two individuals who have helped me step into this paradigm are Tim Freke and Jason Shulman, both of whom came to this understanding after many years of experiencing non-duality in the common either/or way and realizing its' limitations and serious pitfalls.
In Tim's world, we're invited into emergent spirituality in which reality is the One, or the universe, in relationship with itself, a uni-duality that unites each of us as uni-viduals who know ourselfes as both separate and one, which gives rise to qualities of benevolence, personal responsibility, acting as a part of the whole on behalf of the whole, profound significance of our individuality, and celebration of the preciousness of personhood, and an invitation to a sense of purpose in playing a role in a self-realizing universe which now, as us, has the opportunity to evolve consciously instead of unconsciously, towards greater good.
In Jason's world, we're invited to treasure the absolute beauty of the healing ego, the precious isness of bittersweet reality, self-compassion, and the true union of polarities, a oneness that includes everything that most non-dualisms exclude, and a wholeness that includes brokenness, and a world in which the greatest miracle to savor is manifestation itself!
These are celebrations of manifestation irreducible to essence, preciousness of the bittersweetness, embrace and dignifying the individual, emphasizing that the world is (made of) relationship, inter-connection, oneness not of disappearance, so we can experience oneness with, and spiritual growth is about experiencing tender-hearted poignancy in the bittersweetness, and what I see as transimmanence. Both offer communion with the divine, relationship between what is also one, the holiness of everything, god in/as suffering itself, and re-pair and healing and evolution as purpose, offering rapture, devotion to what is both self and other, to personal power infused with our universal power, and ultimately to being personal expressions of the universe.
I've noticed that many popular non-dual teachers have evolved from a rigid either/or perspective in which the "absolute," "formlessness," et al. is more real and valued over the relative world of form, to one in which "the relative" is granted reality and value but is still less real, less important, etc. Also, there'res
That we shouldn't be surprised by shadows, and need to be less afraid of seeing them within ourselves and others, and collectives, knowing that they are natural, so what is there doesn't fester in our understandable avoidance of them. But the most problematic is to think that the darkness could not exist. That anything we don't like could not exist, which is itself a big part of why either/or non-dualism creates so much suffering.
The future to look forward to isn't leaving the ego behind, but expanding our personal sense of self to include all of what we are - the entire universe as a person. Being blooming. To include an ego that knows it is both separate from and one with all that is, because what you and the entire world are, is the ground of Being blooming.
I want to invite you to explore a new reality in which what you really are is a personal expression of the universe, but Being in bloom.
eing is blooming, and when we don’t know that, and divide what’s one into two warring parts, is the tragedy, we try to uproot the garden (of paradoxical beauty) ripping the flowers out with the weeds.
Don't let them tell you that you're no one and nothing! Please don't rip out the flowers with the weeds of suffering - Being wants to be blooming as human. Maybe this is what evolution has always been - a bittersweet garden of Being blossoming.
This is where either/or non-duality is dualistic, because it takes something that is one - the formless ground of being and the manifest world it’s become, and divides it unnecessarily into two…pitting it at odds with itself and pitting us agianst ourselvs.
The healing of that fracture, is healing that divide, and it’s within ourselves too, where we pit the shadows against the light, what we like against what we don’t like, and on the greater scale, we’re reconciling form and formlessness, healing the rupture between an “absolute” and a “relative” reality that have never been separate. Neither of them are an illusion, the false dichotomy is. When you see the ground of being is blossoming, separateness and oneness, the universal and the particular are blended, the parts and the whole are what make the
only because of uni-duality is Being blooming - without relationality the garden of Being withers away!
When we realize that the manifest world is a oneness of multiplicity, is formlessness enformed, we see that we’ve been trying to see the whole picture by tearing it in two!
Because this either/or perspective of non-duality is such a partial view that leads deprives us of the whole, of seeing Being in bloom, and has so many tragic pitfalls, that I want to help make the both/and view, which saved me (and made me want to give up detached serenity for the bittersweet of my full humanity) more known and accessible for those who want to avoid either/or or find themselves stuck in it, or have gotten what they can from it and want to go to the next stage.
I want to bring together everyone who is exploring the both/and of being becoming, divine immanence, uni-duality, etc. to help us experience ourselves together, as being in blooming to help us blossom together as being in bloom.
I want to share the philosophical both/and frameworks (that leave no room for separation between a relative and an absolute) that helped me unlock the garden of being in bloom, including Jason Shulman (in which the healing ego...) and Tim Freke's (unividuality and emergence of a self-realizing universe) ,complimentary perspectives that leave behind the worst and bring the best of science and spirituality together to light a path that leads to wet/fertile with the transcendent, rain of transcendence in which flowers rise up from the soil of transcendenc, transcendent soil tender-hearted view, on which everything is invited to walk beside us, open of our divinity as god's humanity profound inter-connection, and the fullest expression of ourselves as personal manifestations of the universe.
that see the beauty of the ego and personal self as expressions of what we think of as god. and all dimensions, including what's considered the surface, are worthy of wonder and delight, and matter and mind and worlds worthy of enthusiastically discover the relationship between...where the surface has depth...opens up the true depth of what seems to be a superficial surface layer
where celebrating the significance of our littleness is what makes room for the rushing river , for our simultaneous enormity of our lif our greatness to flow through
where there's no unity consciousness without relationship , and the intimacy between two who know they are also one, which doesn't always make our suffering stop, but makes it more bearable, honorable, and heals the dual pain of being only separate, or only one. transmutes the suffering into tender-hearted compassion. what makes us feel most alive is the intimacy " " that helps us hold our shared darkness in our collective light,
where feeling the interconnected relationship between the whole and it's parts
Where you can't disappear into true oneness, because that would be oneness with a hole in it, you can only disappear to experience the world without you in it, it needs you
dry, flat, impersonal non-dual spirituality is a result of dividing the indivisible and choosing one side to reject in favor of the other. getting us away from impersonal spirituality and the belief that awakening requires becoming less of a person, and the erosion of individuality.
that it's about becoming less enthusiastic about the inter-prsonal world
get us away from the notion that we have to, and the illusion that we could reach true wholeness through...If you have a framework or map that opens you to the universal in service of trivializing the particulars
Vs to gain new perspective and appreciation for them
Mystical maps often described as leading to liberation , enlightenment , freedom from suffering , escapes , ways to detach , to transcendent this world
But there are mystical maps (immanence) that aren’t about ending suffering or escaping anything , are about engaging with that in a new way, and making it more meaningful
… write here what these are about in contrast
Some are truth maps based on how to see *ultimate* truth
Maps don’t have to dispel the mystery!
Neo is a treasure map to the holy grail, to get you to samadhi, the end of suffering in dissolving into pure awareness
Different metaphysical / mystical maps
explore different ways of framing non-dual reality, of oneness, that you might not have known existed that inspire a different experience of it, that give rise to different qualities,
experiences and interpretations of reality that have a different agenda, not to interpret it in a way that helps us escape suffering, but for different ones - healing, to become unividuals, to feel more deeply
there are two people I know offering different mapsd
Mystical Maps and Why They Matter -
If you have a framework or map that opens you to the universal in service of trivializing the particulars
Vs to gain new perspective and appreciation for them
Mystical maps often described as leading to liberation , enlightenment , freedom from suffering , escapes , ways to detach , to transcendent this world
But there are mystical maps (immanence) that aren’t about ending suffering or escaping anything , are about engaging with that in a new way, and making it more meaningful
… write here what these are about in contrast
Some are truth maps based on how to see *ultimate* truth
Maps don’t have to dispel the mystery!
Neo is a treasure map to the holy grail, to get you to samadhi, the end of suffering in dissolving into pure awareness
new view that created a new reality for me to step inside and that I want to invite others to do too
they draw on pre-existing frameworks, but bring in their own newness, and have created something
What reality are YOU creating?
A narrative that brings you to an experience that narrative has no innate existence
Yes, part of my calling is to help bring the dark side of contemporary non-dualism into the light. My intention however is not to just point at it saying look at all this darkness! but rather hey, look at all of this darkness we can bring into the light in a constructive way. A great deal of suffering is alleviated by the "no self, no suffering" approach, and at the same time, an equal amount is unintentionally created, and if anything is to be done about it, we have to look closely with a discerning mind and open heart at what exactly is contributing to what I hope to prove has become a sub-cultural crisis. As one example, we need to shine a light on why a movement fervently dedicated to eradicating feelings of separateness eventually make so many people feel profoundly isolated and dis-connected from themselves, other human beings, and the world around them. I hope that in sharing my own experience of the promises and pitfalls of self-negating non-dualism, and that of countless others I have met, that we can collectively address what has gone so tragically awry.
I hope to do this in a way that encourages us to embrace a fundamental non-dual reality that is overlooked or denied in either/or perspectives - that just like all polarities, darkness and light come as a pair, and in a way that reveals how the attempt to drive out darkness once and for all always increases it exponentially. If we can instead come to honor their inter-dependence, we can stop trying to deny and run from what will always be right here, and lighten the shadow load we pass on to the next generation, while exemplifying the new way of courage to face the darkness and heal what is there that can be healed.
We can also only ever know non-dual wholeness when we embrace this co-arising relationship of darkness and light. The whole picture.
I hope as well, to do the best I can to spread awareness of the ways people are harmed by non-relational spirituality with a new way of approaching and exposing what lies in the collective shadow - in a way that can encourage the both/and, that light and darkness can and must be able to co-exist, that our light must be able to tolerate and even seek out the darkness not to eradicate it, but in an embrace. To lead us to another kind of light. Another way of exposing what is in the shadows that does so while offering solutions, to come bearing not just the horrors of the shadows, but solutions that bring an optimistic outlook. I want to do this in a way that encourages us to draw upon the ability to expand our vision to take in a transcendent view, in which we can see the greater context that challenges exist within, but instead of doing this with the goal of rising above to trivialize, as many non-dual paths encourage, but to zoom out in service of engaging more skillfully and creatively with the particulars, while uncovering the greater significance of the situation in light of seeing how it is inter-connected with everything else, and the true impact that it has, for example on society, so that we can we can with respond with compassionate immediacy to reduce suffering that is caused by having too myopic or too transcendent a view, so that we can move forward in a more positive direction.
Dwelling without drowning
Just like with fixating on brightness only, there's a real tragedy and danger in fixating on and taking up full residence in the shadows and drowning in darkness, but I hope to communicate that we must be willing to at least dwell temporarily in the darkness if we want to fully understand it in service of healing what is there. This is not easy, and luckily what I've discovered on my path from non-relational oneness to relational unity, that while we'll have to sit inside our shadows alone at times, when we approach them together, greater courage, and be able to hold what we find there when we do it together, in a conscious way. You may even find, as I did, god and the divine is the shadows, and that if you can see god there, you'll see god everywhere, and have a new way to engage with the shadows, in a way that knows you are helping to heal the divine itself, in opening up to god's dark side.
Light only can harden our hearts
Sometimes when we become partial to the light only, our hearts end up hardened to anything that can make us vulnerable to the darkness of suffering, but when we have been through enough darkness to know it is the partner of light, and to see that struggle in everyone, our hearts break open for more compassion to flow for the heaviness we all carry from the darkness.
And my solutions to bring, include new unity consciousness paradigms of psycho-spiritual growth that are grounded in the both/and - a new both/and - and a shift from non-dual to uni-dual to the third thing and the ground of Being blooming. From reductionism to emergentism, from ego death as final to ego death as stage in process of sacred re-birth and re-construction. Shift to awakening for personal freedom alone, to relational.
-from either/or non-duality to both/and uni-duality - this is "the third thing" that goes from all is separate to all is one to all is both separate and one. maps that get you there...
-from non-relational oneness (oneness of merging) to relational unity (one with)
-from numerical oneness to
-to the third thing
-from the ground of being only to the ground of being blooming
-from reductionist spirituality to emergent spirituality - the ground of being blooming
-from transcend and exclude to transcend and include
-from egoless to more than ego
-from self-rejection to self-compassion
-from meaning from suffering found in destroying the one who suffers, to meaning in suffering found in sacred communion.
-from freedom from to freedom to
-from ego dissolution as an end goal to ego dissolution as a stage in a sacred process of re-birth and conscious re-construction
-from permanent self destruction to self transformation
-from detachment to deeper immersion
-from mattering less, to mattering more
The Glorious Both/And - "A Single Thing"
There are different ways of perceiving and conceiving of both/and non-duality, and what I mean by it is critically different from how it's often described in popular non-dual discourse. Even when non-dual teachers embrace what's described as a both/and perspective, in which the relative and the absolute are both granted reality, there is often still a subtle or overt division between them! The absolute is still behind, beyond, beneath a relative world that continues to be described as veiling the absolute and which needs to be seen through or cleared away to behold the absolute, so there's still a reality in which the absolute can exist in isolation from the relative. The relative world can still be reduced to the absolute, manifestation boiled down to essence. In the both/and perspective that I'm sharing, the absolute and the relative are a single thing (which I think of as a third thing), the manifest world isn't blocking or veiling the un-manifest. The world of form can't be reduced to formlessness, because it is formlessness enformed. It can't be reduced to the ground of Being, because the evolving manifest world is the ground of Being blooming! I hope to share how this difference feels, and the difference that it makes for humanity.
There are a scarce few people I'm aware of today who invite us to understand and experience non-duality this way, and because it's so important to me, I want to share what they offer us! The two individuals who have helped me step into this paradigm are Tim Freke and Jason Shulman, both of whom came to this understanding after many years of experiencing non-duality in the common either/or way and realizing its' limitations and serious pitfalls.
In Tim's world, we're invited into emergent spirituality in which reality is the One, or the universe, in relationship with itself, a uni-duality that unites each of us as uni-viduals who know ourselfes as both separate and one, which gives rise to qualities of benevolence, personal responsibility, acting as a part of the whole on behalf of the whole, profound significance of our individuality, and celebration of the preciousness of personhood, and an invitation to a sense of purpose in playing a role in a self-realizing universe which now, as us, has the opportunity to evolve consciously instead of unconsciously, towards greater good.
In Jason's world, we're invited to treasure the absolute beauty of the healing ego, the precious isness of bittersweet reality, self-compassion, and the true union of polarities, a oneness that includes everything that most non-dualisms exclude, and a wholeness that includes brokenness, and a world in which the greatest miracle to savor is manifestation itself!
These are celebrations of manifestation irreducible to essence, preciousness of the bittersweetness, embrace and dignifying the individual, emphasizing that the world is (made of) relationship, inter-connection, oneness not of disappearance, so we can experience oneness with, and spiritual growth is about experiencing tender-hearted poignancy in the bittersweetness, and what I see as transimmanence. Both offer communion with the divine, relationship between what is also one, the holiness of everything, god in/as suffering itself, and re-pair and healing and evolution as purpose, offering rapture, devotion to what is both self and other, to personal power infused with our universal power, and ultimately to being personal expressions of the universe.
I've noticed that many popular non-dual teachers have evolved from a rigid either/or perspective in which the "absolute," "formlessness," et al. is more real and valued over the relative world of form, to one in which "the relative" is granted reality and value but is still less real, less important, etc. Also, there'res
That we shouldn't be surprised by shadows, and need to be less afraid of seeing them within ourselves and others, and collectives, knowing that they are natural, so what is there doesn't fester in our understandable avoidance of them. But the most problematic is to think that the darkness could not exist. That anything we don't like could not exist, which is itself a big part of why either/or non-dualism creates so much suffering.
The future to look forward to isn't leaving the ego behind, but expanding our personal sense of self to include all of what we are - the entire universe as a person. Being blooming. To include an ego that knows it is both separate from and one with all that is, because what you and the entire world are, is the ground of Being blooming.
I want to invite you to explore a new reality in which what you really are is a personal expression of the universe, but Being in bloom.
eing is blooming, and when we don’t know that, and divide what’s one into two warring parts, is the tragedy, we try to uproot the garden (of paradoxical beauty) ripping the flowers out with the weeds.
Don't let them tell you that you're no one and nothing! Please don't rip out the flowers with the weeds of suffering - Being wants to be blooming as human. Maybe this is what evolution has always been - a bittersweet garden of Being blossoming.
This is where either/or non-duality is dualistic, because it takes something that is one - the formless ground of being and the manifest world it’s become, and divides it unnecessarily into two…pitting it at odds with itself and pitting us agianst ourselvs.
The healing of that fracture, is healing that divide, and it’s within ourselves too, where we pit the shadows against the light, what we like against what we don’t like, and on the greater scale, we’re reconciling form and formlessness, healing the rupture between an “absolute” and a “relative” reality that have never been separate. Neither of them are an illusion, the false dichotomy is. When you see the ground of being is blossoming, separateness and oneness, the universal and the particular are blended, the parts and the whole are what make the
only because of uni-duality is Being blooming - without relationality the garden of Being withers away!
When we realize that the manifest world is a oneness of multiplicity, is formlessness enformed, we see that we’ve been trying to see the whole picture by tearing it in two!
Because this either/or perspective of non-duality is such a partial view that leads deprives us of the whole, of seeing Being in bloom, and has so many tragic pitfalls, that I want to help make the both/and view, which saved me (and made me want to give up detached serenity for the bittersweet of my full humanity) more known and accessible for those who want to avoid either/or or find themselves stuck in it, or have gotten what they can from it and want to go to the next stage.
I want to bring together everyone who is exploring the both/and of being becoming, divine immanence, uni-duality, etc. to help us experience ourselves together, as being in blooming to help us blossom together as being in bloom.
I want to share the philosophical both/and frameworks (that leave no room for separation between a relative and an absolute) that helped me unlock the garden of being in bloom, including Jason Shulman (in which the healing ego...) and Tim Freke's (unividuality and emergence of a self-realizing universe) ,complimentary perspectives that leave behind the worst and bring the best of science and spirituality together to light a path that leads to wet/fertile with the transcendent, rain of transcendence in which flowers rise up from the soil of transcendenc, transcendent soil tender-hearted view, on which everything is invited to walk beside us, open of our divinity as god's humanity profound inter-connection, and the fullest expression of ourselves as personal manifestations of the universe.
that see the beauty of the ego and personal self as expressions of what we think of as god. and all dimensions, including what's considered the surface, are worthy of wonder and delight, and matter and mind and worlds worthy of enthusiastically discover the relationship between...where the surface has depth...opens up the true depth of what seems to be a superficial surface layer
where celebrating the significance of our littleness is what makes room for the rushing river , for our simultaneous enormity of our lif our greatness to flow through
where there's no unity consciousness without relationship , and the intimacy between two who know they are also one, which doesn't always make our suffering stop, but makes it more bearable, honorable, and heals the dual pain of being only separate, or only one. transmutes the suffering into tender-hearted compassion. what makes us feel most alive is the intimacy " " that helps us hold our shared darkness in our collective light,
where feeling the interconnected relationship between the whole and it's parts
Where you can't disappear into true oneness, because that would be oneness with a hole in it, you can only disappear to experience the world without you in it, it needs you
dry, flat, impersonal non-dual spirituality is a result of dividing the indivisible and choosing one side to reject in favor of the other. getting us away from impersonal spirituality and the belief that awakening requires becoming less of a person, and the erosion of individuality.
that it's about becoming less enthusiastic about the inter-prsonal world
get us away from the notion that we have to, and the illusion that we could reach true wholeness through...If you have a framework or map that opens you to the universal in service of trivializing the particulars
Vs to gain new perspective and appreciation for them
Mystical maps often described as leading to liberation , enlightenment , freedom from suffering , escapes , ways to detach , to transcendent this world
But there are mystical maps (immanence) that aren’t about ending suffering or escaping anything , are about engaging with that in a new way, and making it more meaningful
… write here what these are about in contrast
Some are truth maps based on how to see *ultimate* truth
Maps don’t have to dispel the mystery!
Neo is a treasure map to the holy grail, to get you to samadhi, the end of suffering in dissolving into pure awareness
To start out short and bittersweet, I want to debunk my old motto of "no self, no suffering." my experience with self-negating non-dual spirituality that is so popular today, has been a profoundly double-edged sword. From years of seemingly ego-transcendent liberation to traumatic soul loss, its' seismic impact will accompany me throughout the res of my life, and it made me see that my old motto of "no self, suffering" is dangerously untrue. Because I know how much hangs in the balance, I want to share with all those drawn to popular self-negating non-duality as a path to liberation from suffering, why it's profoundly important to question the most fundamental assumptions of today’s popular non-dual paradigm, beginning with:
The most damage came from the fact that a path meant to destroy separateness, made me feel more separate and traumatically isolated from other humans than I ever could have imagined.
The most damage came from the fact that a path meant to destroy separateness, made me feel more separate and traumatically isolated from other humans than I ever could have imagined.
- the ego and the belief in a separate self is the cause of suffering to uproot - that seeing them as false liberates us from suffering,
- that we have a true self/true nature separate from it personal aspects of self
- the self, separateness, and the manifest world is just an illusion
- the popular Western notion of non-duality is truly non-dual, rather than a dualistic paradigm of reality
- that there is an inherent division between “an absolute” and a “relative” reality
- suffering is just a story created by a non-existent fictional character called “me”
- there is such a thing as the final end/total liberation from suffering
- that the modern non-dual path is free of concepts, narrativity and dogma
- that the purpose/meaning of suffering is to wake up to the non-existence of the one who suffers
- that the oneness and wholeness excludes you
On "Neo-Advaita" -- I'm considering a new way to describe
I've used the term Neo-Advaita, nihilistic non-duality, but to clarify, Neo is just the most extreme case of what I'm raising awareness about, which at the most general level is the phenomenon of indiscriminately encouraging a radical perceptual shift meant to *destabilize and obliterate* the foundation of one’s reality, without disclosure of known risks and screening/preparation/integration support and especially when your audience is known to be a vulnerable demographic. I don't feel this should be controversial among well-meaning humans. Unfortunately such a large percentage of modern non-dual teachers/authors/speakers who run the gamut of beliefs, and intentions, fall under this category, and I hope to convincingly explain why all of it has inherent pitfalls , to varying degrees, that must be addressed as soon as possible.
There's the dangerously flawed truth paradigms to deconstruct and then there's the topic of what action CAN be taken. Not to censor bad ideas, but to call for more teacher accountability and integrity on behalf of those promoting these messages/teachings.
If it's a seasoned one, they likely do and there are understandable conflicts of interest. Having to back-track. Admit mistakes. Change their own viewpoint. Burst the bubble of infallibility.
Neo isn't a path containing landmines, it is a landmine. It's not a path, it's the end of the road. They are telling us that. It's going to be the end of our world, there's nothing for us to get...that is true to some extent, of the experience they are pointing to, but that is not oneness, it's disappearance. So you don't have "die" for spiritual awakening, you have to die for this one specific version of it that appeals to the self-loathing, and desperate needing a way out now
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compassionate plea for accountability on behalf of those who....^^
to get sober on what is going on here and why it's happening.
I've used the term Neo-Advaita, nihilistic non-duality, but to clarify, Neo is just the most extreme case of what I'm raising awareness about, which at the most general level is the phenomenon of indiscriminately encouraging a radical perceptual shift meant to *destabilize and obliterate* the foundation of one’s reality, without disclosure of known risks and screening/preparation/integration support and especially when your audience is known to be a vulnerable demographic. I don't feel this should be controversial among well-meaning humans. Unfortunately such a large percentage of modern non-dual teachers/authors/speakers who run the gamut of beliefs, and intentions, fall under this category, and I hope to convincingly explain why all of it has inherent pitfalls , to varying degrees, that must be addressed as soon as possible.
There's the dangerously flawed truth paradigms to deconstruct and then there's the topic of what action CAN be taken. Not to censor bad ideas, but to call for more teacher accountability and integrity on behalf of those promoting these messages/teachings.
If it's a seasoned one, they likely do and there are understandable conflicts of interest. Having to back-track. Admit mistakes. Change their own viewpoint. Burst the bubble of infallibility.
Neo isn't a path containing landmines, it is a landmine. It's not a path, it's the end of the road. They are telling us that. It's going to be the end of our world, there's nothing for us to get...that is true to some extent, of the experience they are pointing to, but that is not oneness, it's disappearance. So you don't have "die" for spiritual awakening, you have to die for this one specific version of it that appeals to the self-loathing, and desperate needing a way out now
------
compassionate plea for accountability on behalf of those who....^^
to get sober on what is going on here and why it's happening.
I'm so happy you're here. One of my goals is to help others avoid and recover from Neo-Advaita and other nihilistic types of modern non-duality that belittle the precious reality of our human lives, relationships and the world we live in. I've begun to do this with others, by exploring how these teachings have helped and profoundly harmed people, including myself. Over the years I've spent years exploring this, I've realized that to thoroughly understand and address the harmful impact they can have in a meaningful way, we need to dive into these questions...What is their historical context? What are their teachings? Who is teaching them and who is their audience? What are their teaching methods? What kind of suffering have they led to, and how widespread is the harm? The more we understand, the better we'll be able to answer the most important question: What would need to change in order to reduce this suffering?
I hope I can help others by sharing the paradigm shift that I went through on my path of "return" from the limiting freedom of divisive either/or non-duality (that mistakenly denies so much of what is precious in the name of oneness) to both/and "uni-duality" that feels like deep togetherness with each other and the whole, rather than of merging and disappearing, so that we can experience a new kind of profound intimacy that we can only feel when we know ourselves as both separate and one, and find freedom not in invulnerability, but in it feeling safe to be vulnerable. It starts with oneness that includes all and rejects nothing, and in which the one and the many are a single thing, and we stop looking through or beyond form to see it's true nature as formless, because we see the true nature of the manifest world as formlessness enformed. The implications of this shift are profound and far-reaching. It's a oneness of wholeness, experienced in togetherness, in deep human connection as whole humans, that self-negating non-duality doesn't have room for. In the universe, or the divine mystery coming into a conscious relationship with itself, as us.
In sharing my return path, which is not returning to a previous state but returning to the same places with new eyes and a heart broken open to humanity's shared experience of suffering, have been able to heal and return to personhood and suffering in a new way, with a new philosophical paradigm and experience of unity consciousness. The understanding is that non-duality is all about relationship, healing and celebrating our individual selves, and breathing poignancy into the mystery of the entire manifest, inter-personal world. New notions of non-duality that require a conscious, or healing ego...a both/and paradigm...an emergent/evolutionary perspective...self-compassion...ultimately arriving at how suffering's purpose isn't to wake us up to the non-existence of the sufferer and a rejection-based notion of "liberation" from it, but to bring us closer to one another, our shared humanity, to god, and to a deeper reverence to to the bitter-sweetness of life. it starts with oneness that includes all and rejects nothing, and in which the one and the many are a single thing, and we stop looking through or beyond form to see it's true nature as formless because we see the true nature of the manifest world as formlessness enformed. The implications of this shift are profound and far-reaching. It's a oneness of wholeness, experienced in togetherness, in deep human connection as whole humans, that self-negating nonduality doesn't have room for. In the universe, or the divine mystery coming into a conscious relationship with itself, as us, one which we call play a vital role in whether we realize it or not!
I hope I can help others by sharing the paradigm shift that I went through on my path of "return" from the limiting freedom of divisive either/or non-duality (that mistakenly denies so much of what is precious in the name of oneness) to both/and "uni-duality" that feels like deep togetherness with each other and the whole, rather than of merging and disappearing, so that we can experience a new kind of profound intimacy that we can only feel when we know ourselves as both separate and one, and find freedom not in invulnerability, but in it feeling safe to be vulnerable. It starts with oneness that includes all and rejects nothing, and in which the one and the many are a single thing, and we stop looking through or beyond form to see it's true nature as formless, because we see the true nature of the manifest world as formlessness enformed. The implications of this shift are profound and far-reaching. It's a oneness of wholeness, experienced in togetherness, in deep human connection as whole humans, that self-negating non-duality doesn't have room for. In the universe, or the divine mystery coming into a conscious relationship with itself, as us.
In sharing my return path, which is not returning to a previous state but returning to the same places with new eyes and a heart broken open to humanity's shared experience of suffering, have been able to heal and return to personhood and suffering in a new way, with a new philosophical paradigm and experience of unity consciousness. The understanding is that non-duality is all about relationship, healing and celebrating our individual selves, and breathing poignancy into the mystery of the entire manifest, inter-personal world. New notions of non-duality that require a conscious, or healing ego...a both/and paradigm...an emergent/evolutionary perspective...self-compassion...ultimately arriving at how suffering's purpose isn't to wake us up to the non-existence of the sufferer and a rejection-based notion of "liberation" from it, but to bring us closer to one another, our shared humanity, to god, and to a deeper reverence to to the bitter-sweetness of life. it starts with oneness that includes all and rejects nothing, and in which the one and the many are a single thing, and we stop looking through or beyond form to see it's true nature as formless because we see the true nature of the manifest world as formlessness enformed. The implications of this shift are profound and far-reaching. It's a oneness of wholeness, experienced in togetherness, in deep human connection as whole humans, that self-negating nonduality doesn't have room for. In the universe, or the divine mystery coming into a conscious relationship with itself, as us, one which we call play a vital role in whether we realize it or not!
Conversation with Tim Freke
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You don't get to oneness by erasing yourself, that would be oneness with a hole in it! -Tim Freke |
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We talk about why we need to move beyond non-dual spirituality that denigrates the individual, towards both/and uni-duality, "emergent" spirituality and the evolution of a self-realizing universe, and why the experience of unividuality is so important.
What got me here, how my either/or awakening and ego dissolution path freed me and then came to harm me, i.e. the promises and pitfalls of either/or "ego dissolution" paths, Neo-Advaita trap and what inspires me to spread awareness about the dangers of radical either/or non-dualisms...Sharing my experience of the promises and pitfalls of self-negating non-dualisms, and how spiritual emergency inspires me to spread awareness about the dangers of Neo-Advaita, and the need for balanced paths.that self-negating neo advaita, that are dry and dettached
What got me here, how my either/or awakening and ego dissolution path freed me and then came to harm me, i.e. the promises and pitfalls of either/or "ego dissolution" paths, Neo-Advaita trap and what inspires me to spread awareness about the dangers of radical either/or non-dualisms...Sharing my experience of the promises and pitfalls of self-negating non-dualisms, and how spiritual emergency inspires me to spread awareness about the dangers of Neo-Advaita, and the need for balanced paths.that self-negating neo advaita, that are dry and dettached
I am more interested in what we can do together than in what I can do alone. So please send collaboration ideas!
Send a message if you're interested in joining a peer support group for people harmed by nihilistic non-dual paths.
I'm also looking for people who would like to share their story in a recorded interview. These interviews will help many souls!
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
Send a message if you're interested in joining a peer support group for people harmed by nihilistic non-dual paths.
I'm also looking for people who would like to share their story in a recorded interview. These interviews will help many souls!
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
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I'll send links to new conversations, and other ways to explore and experience both/and non-duality :)
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