iamom | Elemental nonduality discussion (Reply)

The past number of months have been really busy for me, and I haven't always had time to keep up with my various favourite readings and writings on nonduality and spirituality. However, I often skim through my Nondual Highlights e-mails and set aside messages that I think are really good but that I don't have time to review in detail at the time. This morning I found myself drawn towards reading through some of these older messages, and I found a good one in Jerry's Issue #2473 from May 16, 2006. The message involves a Q&A session about nondual concepts, and starts with a question about a Nisargadatta quote. A link to a very popular video in the nonduality world called The Holographic Universe is also provided. All the text appearing after JK'S RESPONSE belongs to Jerry.

QUESTIONER:

I don't understand this quote by Nisargadatta.

"As I only know the contents of my consciousness, and as an outside world is unprovable, all perceivables are only in my mind."

Does this mean that the world exists is in [the writer's] mind? Does it mean that there are no starving people in Africa, no Tibet, no USA, since I'm not there right now to experience it?

I would be thankful for a reply to this one, since I have found myself thinking over this a lot.

JK'S RESPONSE:

See if the video at the link below makes any sense. I think it explains what Nisargadatta is saying. It tries to show that there is only the Absolute, or Truth, or Reality, or God, whatever term you prefer. In this video they use the term Allah. Just replace Allah with whatever term you like. It could be Christ, Krishna, God, Ultimate Reality, or whatever.

But, really, you might be in Africa holding a dying child in your arms, and he is looking into your eyes: what is that exactly, and where are you? Is it about Africa and starvation? Are you thinking, "Wow, I'm in Africa and here's a starving child." Where do those thoughts come from and do they express the actual reality of the moment? Anyway, check out this video if you feel like it:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4232897377629019446&q=holographic+universe&pl=true
To use a golden oldy of metaphors, God is like the ocean and everything else is like the waves. Every unique form, and they are infinite, is not separate from formless God, just as no wave is separate from the ocean. That's what the scriptures point to. That understanding resolves the doubts that arise when we think there are other things out there that are separate from our minds and awareness. The video is one way of getting to an understanding of the formless God that is not separate from the form of the human body, the form of world, and the form of all existence.
Nonduality means "not two," which means nothing is separate from God or awareness, though things appear to be separate. If you were absolutely certain that there was only God, first and last, and that what you perceived was not separate from God in any way, although they appear to be separate, would your questions arise?

The thing is to fully get the deal that there is only God and that nothing perceived is separate from God. That's an extremely ultimate and powerful thing to know. Knowing it, how could any questions arise, other than things like, "How do I get this damn digital camera to work?"