It's ridiculously difficult and daunting to wade into the waters of trying to explain what makes contemporary non-dual teaching world so treacherous. Although its' worldview is an either/or perspective, the question of whether it is "good" for people or "bad" for them is extremely complex and to really get a full picture you need to look with with eyes that look for nuance. While I know that the harm is too harmful and outweighs the good, given the severity and rate of harm that's happening, I did benefit wildly from these teachings for many years, and this is exactly why I think I can do a good job of teasing apart the nuances and I attempt to show counter-arguments for my own, as much as possible.
Not knowing where to begin has kept me from beginning to share what I've learned over the 5 years of investigating my own experience, doing hours of research and speaking with hundreds of people to really try to understand what made a path that started out so outrageously positive and even heavenly, turn into such an unthinkably horrible and hellish one, to fully back it up when I say to people to be careful what you wish for when following these "no self, no suffering" teachings, and that you're better off looking for an alternate path for alleviating suffering and spiritual awakening. Though most teachers adamantly advise against it, encouraging you to throw all caution to the wind (that's just ego resistance, they say) I'm saying to look before you take the leap and hope you'll see something convincing enough to see that self-protection, and even resistance when based in wise discernment is a wonderful, crucial and sacred thing! I hope you'll at least pause to consider if it's worth it.
To give myself some structure, I'm going to start with this:
In my view, they are 3 main reasons - we can also see them as motivations/desires/expectations - behind why people dive into contemporary non-dual "no self, no suffering" teachings, which are also what is being promised/advertised by those who teach it and/or claim to have had these promises fulfilled:
The ultimate TL:DR; is that these teachings do not liberate you from all suffering, and often create new forms of it, nor do they teach you the Ultimate Truth, though at best they do show you partial truth, but they do often lead to an astonishing perceptual shift, "mystical" if you like that word, that will either elevate or harm your long term wellbeing based on many factors.
To address the promise/expectation of liberation from suffering, I'll be focusing on the ways in which it's known to increase suffering and how and why it is harming so many people in our world today. I do this without minimizing the ways that it positively impacts many people but to show why the harm often offsets whatever one has gained, to a great degree.
In these sections the primary focus is on the ways people are harmed by involvement in these teachings, rather than on metaphysics.
To address the question of whether or not they are based on Ultimate Truth, I'll be deep diving into de-constructing the imbalanced ideologies the teachings are based on, and specifically, the either/or paradigm of non-duality, and showing how a both/and paradigm in which non-duality points to the unity of opposites, is a more compelling perspective of what is true, and the far-reaching implications of choosing to see a both/and reality. This will lead us through deconstructing the reductionist worldview and replacing it with an evolutionary, emergentist one.
These sections will also focus on why the ideology itself, including it's assumptions, values and goals, and especially the attitudes it promotes is harmful not just for individuals but collectively and for society at large, and making a compelling case for why it's urgent for us to make a transition to a both/and worldview based on the unity of opposites, because this old view cannot transform and heal what is most ailing us and threatening humanity, only the both/and can.
Not knowing where to begin has kept me from beginning to share what I've learned over the 5 years of investigating my own experience, doing hours of research and speaking with hundreds of people to really try to understand what made a path that started out so outrageously positive and even heavenly, turn into such an unthinkably horrible and hellish one, to fully back it up when I say to people to be careful what you wish for when following these "no self, no suffering" teachings, and that you're better off looking for an alternate path for alleviating suffering and spiritual awakening. Though most teachers adamantly advise against it, encouraging you to throw all caution to the wind (that's just ego resistance, they say) I'm saying to look before you take the leap and hope you'll see something convincing enough to see that self-protection, and even resistance when based in wise discernment is a wonderful, crucial and sacred thing! I hope you'll at least pause to consider if it's worth it.
To give myself some structure, I'm going to start with this:
In my view, they are 3 main reasons - we can also see them as motivations/desires/expectations - behind why people dive into contemporary non-dual "no self, no suffering" teachings, which are also what is being promised/advertised by those who teach it and/or claim to have had these promises fulfilled:
- To end (or least alleviate!) their suffering
- To learn the Ultimate Truth
- To have a mystical experience
The ultimate TL:DR; is that these teachings do not liberate you from all suffering, and often create new forms of it, nor do they teach you the Ultimate Truth, though at best they do show you partial truth, but they do often lead to an astonishing perceptual shift, "mystical" if you like that word, that will either elevate or harm your long term wellbeing based on many factors.
To address the promise/expectation of liberation from suffering, I'll be focusing on the ways in which it's known to increase suffering and how and why it is harming so many people in our world today. I do this without minimizing the ways that it positively impacts many people but to show why the harm often offsets whatever one has gained, to a great degree.
In these sections the primary focus is on the ways people are harmed by involvement in these teachings, rather than on metaphysics.
To address the question of whether or not they are based on Ultimate Truth, I'll be deep diving into de-constructing the imbalanced ideologies the teachings are based on, and specifically, the either/or paradigm of non-duality, and showing how a both/and paradigm in which non-duality points to the unity of opposites, is a more compelling perspective of what is true, and the far-reaching implications of choosing to see a both/and reality. This will lead us through deconstructing the reductionist worldview and replacing it with an evolutionary, emergentist one.
These sections will also focus on why the ideology itself, including it's assumptions, values and goals, and especially the attitudes it promotes is harmful not just for individuals but collectively and for society at large, and making a compelling case for why it's urgent for us to make a transition to a both/and worldview based on the unity of opposites, because this old view cannot transform and heal what is most ailing us and threatening humanity, only the both/and can.