Advaita or Nondualism

I have had a lot of ESP experiences, even though I don't pursue ESP. This blog was a good way for me to write of these experiences. Recently, however, I have become fascinated by Advaita or Nondualism and have been writing about this subject.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Where Is The Love?

As a student of Nondualism or Advaita who has never had the enlightenment experience, I have decided to take a sabbatical from this area of pursuit. I stopped reading books about Nondualism or Advaita. I am currently reading mystery fiction.

By personality, I am attracted to spiritual concepts that talk about love and helping others. Lessening the pain of others. Also, I am attracted to those approaches that talk about listening to the promptings of God, such as the Quaker approach.

By profession, I have worked for years for both governmental and nonprofit human service agencies that have helped children and adults with developmental disabilities or mental illness.

I am recently struggling with how Nondualism or Advaita pertains to love and helping others. I understand from the many books and years I have studied in this area about the impact of seeing Reality as it is.

But I guess I am questioning the value of seeing Reality as it is vs. loving and helping others. I do understand that this is not an either this or that answer — that some people who on seeing Reality as it is experience unboundless love and that others do not.

Besides Nondualism or Advaita, I am sure there are other approaches that lead to seeing Reality as it is. And that the other approaches start with loving and helping others. By personality, I may be looking more in this direction than Nondualism and Advaita.

Anyhow, this has been on my mind recently.

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posted by Brother Bob @ 7:18 AM  

9 Comments:

  • At July 28, 2009 at 9:54 AM, Blogger Roeland said…

    This comment has been removed by the author.

     

  • At July 28, 2009 at 9:56 AM, Blogger Roeland said…

    How about a Course in Miracles? This is a nondualistic approach which pays a lot of attention to love.
    I recently switched from advaita to a Course in Miracles because just like you I felt something missing in advaita.
    Also A Course in Miracles has a workbook that offers a systematic approach while the approach of Advaita seems to be a bit haphazard.

     

  • At July 31, 2009 at 8:22 AM, Blogger Brother Bob said…

    Yes, I also believe Advaita is also very hard. Where I believe a Course in Miracles and Advaita differ is the definition of the "I." Advaita believes in the big "I," while I believe a Course of Miracles plays into the small "I." But I am not that knowledgeable about the Course. I also believe the person many believe is talking in the Course is Jesus. I struggle with the concept of the Course being channeled by a psychologist. But then again anything is possible. I do agree with you that the Course does a nice job of talking about Love. I also admire greatly Marianne Williamson who helped promote the Course. I particularly like how Marianne is so outspoken on social equality.

     

  • At July 31, 2009 at 8:44 AM, Blogger Roeland said…

    Dear Bob,

    Thank you for your comment. The Course mentions that besides God nothing exists. This is non duality.

    Below are some lines out of a conversation I had with Michael Dawson about the similarity between the Course and advaita.

    His site is recommended. Here is a nice link with an article about the course
    http://www.acfip.org/art4.html


    In the course everything is seen as one. There are no seperate individuals. Jesus is just a name for a voice with represents universal energy and a symbol which with Helen was comfortable with.


    "Turning to Nisargadatta Maharaj we read:
    •A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part.
    Nisargadatta Maharaj from "I Am That" p.311

    •Pay no attention [to your thoughts]. Don’t fight them. Just do nothing about them, let them be, whatever they are. Your very fighting them gives them life. just disregard. Look through. Nisargadatta Maharaj from "I Am That p.241

    Here we have agreement with the Course:
    T-23.I.1. The memory of God comes to the quiet mind. 2 It cannot come where there is conflict, for a mind at war against itself remembers not eternal gentleness.

    T-28.I.11.The miracle comes quietly into the mind that stops an instant and is still.

    They are both saying a quiet mind is needed for truth to dawn. A mind filled with judgements cannot be quiet. Forgiveness quiets the mind.

    If we look at the Course's definition of forgiveness we get:
    Forgiveness ... is still, and quietly does nothing. .... It merely looks, and waits, and judges not. (W-pII.1.4:1,3)

    So Nisargadatta and the Course have virtually the same definitions for forgiveness - looking at the mind without judgement. He does not use the word forgiveness but it is implied.

     

  • At August 3, 2009 at 6:58 AM, Blogger Brother Bob said…

    Thanks, Roeland for the information on a Course of Miracles and Advaita. I will explore this more.

     

  • At October 14, 2009 at 3:55 PM, Blogger Martin said…

    Brother Bob, I appear to have had an Advaita experience and see in it the fulfillment of all seeking that has preoccupied my life for over 30 years. The first response to a Non-dual experience is to see all things as empty. But the second response is to see all things as equal, and compassion floods the heart/mind. Nonduality does not remove my responsibility to love - it makes everyone part of me - this is truly loving my neighbor. Hope this helps.

    Marty (Altar Ego)

     

  • At November 11, 2009 at 9:43 PM, Anonymous derek said…

    Don't be discouraged, Brother Bob. I can only speak from my own experience, which underwent a huge sudden shift (yeah, like you've been reading about in those books) after struggling to carry out the simple instruction of John Sherman's: "Just look at yourself" -- just when I'd reached the pitch of frustration from my own density & inability to understand what he wanted me to look at, KAPOW! It's like nothing that anything you've read could prepare you for. But John Sherman's injunction to "look at you" is absolutely the way to go, it's all the spiritual guidance necessary, and it's all you need to do. Everything else is distraction. Just do like John says: look at who's looking, and you'll see.

     

  • At January 3, 2010 at 3:54 PM, Blogger Brother Bob said…

    Derek,

    I do like John Sherman. He keeps faithful to the self inquiry approach. John has an interesting history. I find listening to him calming.

     

  • At January 19, 2010 at 3:28 PM, Blogger Blind Lemon said…

    The Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Hasidic movement, was a non-dualist and mystic in the Jewish tradition. And he stressed compassion as the outcome, at both the level of the heart and action, of the perception of unity.

    Some of his teachings are found on a Jewish meditation website called solitude-hisbodedus.blogspot.com.

    This approach is one way of uniting non-dualistic perception and service toward other creatures.

     

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