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iamomMaybe I should leave this to private discussion, but I'll just try briefly to put something out there about this.
It just dawned on me yesterday, I think it was, that I could be wrong. See, since I don't consider my "position" on this subject to be a bonafide position per se, I've been thinking to myself that I'm "right." I'm right, because I don't hold any one religious or spiritual tradition higher than any other, and I regard at them all equally as legitimate, different sides of the same coin. Frames of reference, points of view, different perspectives: all as valid or not given the circumstances at the time.
Long paragraph - let me pare it down a bit more. This "idea" of nondualism and nonduality has only really been fleshed out as a possible "tradition" in and of itself in the last few years. There are particular schools of Hindu philosophy called advaita, but those traditions still identify themselves with specific teachers, scriptures, and philosophies. Modern nonduality doesn't set out to attach itself to any one guru or scripture as such, and therefore considers itself to be all-inclusive, all-permeating, and just plain There; kind of like some of us might perceive God to be, really.
But man, is it ever hard even to talk about nonduality that much without it also sounding like a point of view. We might tease ourselves by calling it a point of view with no point of view, but what if that's just a trick of the language that we've constructed [subconsciously?] in our favour?
Can it possibly be "right?" I know, there is no right. There isn't even really a point of view. But there's still somebody sitting here at this computer writing those words. Sure, beneath and beyond my body and personality, there is nobody specific sitting here, but just saying that, too, is a point of view. There's really nothing at all that can be said about it (or anything?) that doesn't reduce it in an instant to a meaningless, earthly, human-generated Point Of View. By definition, it's all a goddamned point of view!
(deep breath)
I'm not trying to talk myself into this knot, here, but I have been considering this for about 24 hours and I'm not sure what to do with it yet. Ultimately, maybe nothing, since there is nothing actually to be done. But this is a hell of a double-edged sword we're wielding here, and I feel a need to be supremely careful with my language in order not to get my head lopped off.
It just dawned on me yesterday, I think it was, that I could be wrong. See, since I don't consider my "position" on this subject to be a bonafide position per se, I've been thinking to myself that I'm "right." I'm right, because I don't hold any one religious or spiritual tradition higher than any other, and I regard at them all equally as legitimate, different sides of the same coin. Frames of reference, points of view, different perspectives: all as valid or not given the circumstances at the time.
Long paragraph - let me pare it down a bit more. This "idea" of nondualism and nonduality has only really been fleshed out as a possible "tradition" in and of itself in the last few years. There are particular schools of Hindu philosophy called advaita, but those traditions still identify themselves with specific teachers, scriptures, and philosophies. Modern nonduality doesn't set out to attach itself to any one guru or scripture as such, and therefore considers itself to be all-inclusive, all-permeating, and just plain There; kind of like some of us might perceive God to be, really.
But man, is it ever hard even to talk about nonduality that much without it also sounding like a point of view. We might tease ourselves by calling it a point of view with no point of view, but what if that's just a trick of the language that we've constructed [subconsciously?] in our favour?
Can it possibly be "right?" I know, there is no right. There isn't even really a point of view. But there's still somebody sitting here at this computer writing those words. Sure, beneath and beyond my body and personality, there is nobody specific sitting here, but just saying that, too, is a point of view. There's really nothing at all that can be said about it (or anything?) that doesn't reduce it in an instant to a meaningless, earthly, human-generated Point Of View. By definition, it's all a goddamned point of view!
(deep breath)
I'm not trying to talk myself into this knot, here, but I have been considering this for about 24 hours and I'm not sure what to do with it yet. Ultimately, maybe nothing, since there is nothing actually to be done. But this is a hell of a double-edged sword we're wielding here, and I feel a need to be supremely careful with my language in order not to get my head lopped off.
