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Nondualism. Bal Chandra Luitel. Dualism first. Philosophical belief that reality is essentially divided into two distinct kinds/labels. One concept in each pair is often deemed superior to the other… Mind - Body, Self - Other, Action - Actor, I - They. … Nondualism then.
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Nondualism Bal Chandra Luitel
Dualism first • Philosophical belief that reality is essentially divided into two distinct kinds/labels. One concept in each pair is often deemed superior to the other… • Mind - Body, Self - Other, Action - Actor, I - They
… Nondualism then • Plotinus, a Greek Philosopher of antiquity says There were not two; beholder was one with beheld; it was not a vision compassed but a unity apprehended (cited in Loy, 1997)
Simple definition • Nondualism may be viewed as the belief that dualism or dichotomy are illusory phenomena. Examples of dualisms include self/other, mind/body, male/female, good/evil, active/passive, and many others (wikipedia). • Is it (nondual experience) in our mundane details? Or at our ‘Supra’ thinking level?
…provocative Nagarjuna says Without relation to good there is no bad, in dependence on which we form the idea of good. Therefore good is unintelligible. There is no good unrelated to bad; yet we form our idea on bad in dependence on it. There is therefore no bad (Cited in Loy, 1997) • How about the dual tension between self-other? Self is formed on the basis of other, which unintelligible and hence self becomes unattainable.
…and this Katha Upanishad, a Hindu Epic says What is here, the same is there; and what is there, the same is here. He goes death to death and who sees any difference here. By the mind alone is Brahman/ The Ultimate to be realised, then one does not see in It any multiplicity whatsoever. He goes from death to death who sees any multiplicity in It (Cited in Loy, 1997). • What about the phenomenal world? Where is it? Is it in our construction or out there?
…also Tao Te Ching Gaze at it; there is nothing to see. It is called the formless. Heed it; there is nothing to hear. It is called the soundless. Grasp it; there is nothing to hold onto. It is called the immaterial…. ……………………………… Invisible, it/Self/Tao cannot be called by any name. It returns again to nothingness. Thus we call it the form of the formless. The image of the imageless. (cited in Loy, 1997)
Type of nondualities • The negation of dualistic thinking • The non-plurality of the world • Non-difference of subject and object • The nonduality of duality and non-duality • Mystical unity between God and man (Loy, 1997)
….Nondual Inquiry • Self inquiry? • Inquiry that blurs the demarcation between self and other. • Holistic approach to understanding (for example, seven modes of inquiry). • Besides conversation, it also involves body-sensing, perceptual exercises, visualizations, meditations, readings, and just being (nondualinquiry.com). • Looking for Prajnya (wisdom)
…in my research • I will be using nondualism, perhaps, as a worldview of a blend of seen and seer: In so doing I will be looking Self within other and other with Self. • To me the autoethnographic method of inquiry can adapt the nondual perspective to a large extent… I will be using autoethnography as a method of inquiry • Also looking for a blend between dialectical thinking and nondualism • Non/dualism
