What nonduality is (bliss) and isn't (no bliss)...

Ramana Maharshi

"Nonduality", is defined as "not two", "one undivided without a second" or "the multiplicity of the universe is reducible to one essential reality" (Espin, et al. (2007)), has become more popular, so many folk have rushed in to exploit the trend, which has generated many different versions of how it manifests and approaches to reach it.

Carl Jung 

The most credible contemporary source on advaita/nonduality is Ramana Maharshi.  Carl Jung, Margaret Bourke-White, Somerset Maugham, Paul Brunton, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Yogananda and the BBC covered him while "in form" and Eckhart Tolle and Ken Wilber cite him...he is broadly accepted.

At a/the major eastern US advaita center, Ramana's texts "Upadesa Saram", (in "Happiness Beyond Thought"), and "Sat Darshanam" are treated as "shruti"/most authoritative and a course is taught on one of them every year.   No other advaita teacher's work since Shankara (8th century CE) is taught.


Ramana Maharshi's key "markers" for nonduality:

          a)   persistent, uncaused bliss
          b)   persistent, effortless, no "problematic" thoughts
          c)   no free will, control or doership
          d)   self-inquiry practice
          e)   free, open teachings
          f)   "real world" functioning
          g)   living "now, now, now"
          h)   not religious
          i)    no "enlightenment"
         
       
As these are challenging, other "more pragmatic, reasonable" approaches manifested for those who want something easier and less "disruptive", often designed around what would "sell" and how far a particular teacher themselves got.

These "not nonduality" approaches include:

         a)   There are an infinite number of nondualities

This stretches the bounds of reason and logic.  How could there be an infinite number of "ones undivided without a second".   A fundamental nondual experience is "Everything is One".  How could there be an infinite number of them?

         b)   No practice is necessary

This core belief of the neo-advaitans has been conclusively disproved by cognitive neuroscience.  It does, however, retain great appeal to folk who don't want to do anything, but want to feel good about it.

Tony Parsons

 The blogposts "How the brain continually changes and reorganizes itself" and "How the changing brain changes our pleasures into addictions" describe how quickly the brain changes to adapt to changing environments, practice or otherwise.   A study by Merzenich showed that a monkey's brain's map of its face changes neuroplastically every week.

The blogposts on the importance of practice including "Are 10,000 hrs needed for awakening?  NO. How to practice better." and "The Eight Myths of Nonduality", give extensive research demonstrating that meditative practice changes the brain significantly.   The study @ Harvard by Hozel, et al. (2011) showed that two months of mindfulness meditation, 40 mins/day, produced measurable changes in 5 regions of the brain.

HWL Poonja
Poonjaji

The originators of "neo-advaita", Tony Parsons and H.W.L. Poonja/Poonjaji, did extensive spiritual practices for years before their "accidental" and "sudden" awakenings.  i asked Tony about this in a small group, and he stormed away saying "It wasn't that much!"   His book, "As It Is" documents otherwise.

It's like a concert violinist, free climber, or Olympic gymnast claiming that their amazing current performance had nothing to do with their years of practice.

Ramana on "practice", from "Talks" (free download):

         a)    That peace will be deeper and more prolonged with continued practice.  It will also lead to the goal.

        b)    By long practice the mind is controlled and made steady.

         c)   Practice alone will bring about continuity of awareness.

          c)   Thoughts are not a problem, just ignore them 

First, there are different types of thoughts.   The video "What 'no thoughts' means...3 different kinds of thoughts" and the blogpost "Three Neural Networks Dancing - 'blah, blah', tasking and control", discuss that the focus is on "problematic" thoughts which are "self-referential".   As many/most awakening traditions found, stopping these thoughts is critical to ending suffering as detailed in the blogpost "Who else believes 'no thoughts' is the goal of meditation?".

These problematic thoughts originate in the Default Mode Network.  The planning, problem solving and analytical thoughts, which feel very different and are non-problematic, originate in the tasking circuit.   Also, "self-referential" thoughts are a clear indication that there is still a "self/I/ego" there, so you haven't reached nonduality.

           d)   Religion is linked to nonduality

The major religions are fundamentally "dualistic", i.e. "me" and "God/Jesus/Buddha, etc.".   However, all evolved a mystical, nondual sect, as that is likely what their founder experienced.   Often, the dualistic majority persecutes the nondualistic minority.

An indicator of "dualistic" teachings/folk is how much it matters to you what the founder said, "exactly".   This is a fundamental tenet in religions like Theravada Buddhism and Fundamental Christianity, although in both cases, we don't really know what the Buddha or Jesus said.

Jesus's teachings were collected only after he passed and went through several languages and countless translators. Buddha's were collected only after he passed in a language that he didn't teach in, and handed down orally for 400 years before they were written down.

No one even knows, or cares, who wrote the Bhagavad Gita, a principal advaita text, perhaps because "no one" wrote it.

Ramana in "Talks":

     "The ultimate truth is so simple.  It is nothing more than being in the pristine state.  This is all that need be said.  Still, it is a wonder that to teach this simple Truth there should come into being so many religions, creeds, methods and disputes among them and so on!  Oh the pity!  Oh the pity!"


         e)   Nonduality is "going in and out of cessation a hundred times. Time and space punctuated with nothing" in a half hour. 

This is from one of the leading Buddhist meditation teachers on his nonduality.   This is not persistent nonduality, and it never gives the brain a chance to "learn" the nondual state and generate the endogenous opioids to create the bliss and "lock in" that state.  That's why he experiences "nothing" rather than "bliss".  


         f)   Nonduality requires constant meditation

Some Buddhist teachers use the nondual "holding two things at the same time" practice, described in my "Nondual awakening meditation - opposites and spaces" where one tries to hold two, or more, opposites, like "inner and outer", or "expand and contract", simultaneously in consciousness.
   
But the brain can't do this, i.e. you can't multi-task consciously, so it results in a nondual experience. To maintain it requires a constant "doing" and "doer".   With time, this requires less effort, but if concentration is disrupted or challenged, it breaks down.

Discussing this approach w/a teacher who is a strong proponent, he said it became "like driving a car".   When i pointed out this "doership", he strongly replied, "You always pick out the weak point in someone's argument!"  i replied "you can't text and drive."

         g)  Enlightenment is whatever you want it to be or optimize for

This is the default for enlightenment sellers unable to reach persistent nonduality, who just changed the goal to however far they could go.  This is discussed in the video "Is Enlightenment Whatever You Want It To Be?".   As expected, the "bliss" isn't there, and the suffering remains.

Ramana's approach was "Maharshi does not seek enlightenment." (Talks, 21 Mar 1938).

Ramana Maharshi

Life magazine article
May 1949 

Ramana's favorite early advaitic text was "Ribhu Gita". One refrain is "anandam param manam" or "Bliss is the primary measure".   "Bliss" is also central in Nirvana Shatakam.

Folk who've been practicing self-inquiry, ask me, "Where's the bliss?".  When asked about their practice, they say "not doing much".  No practice, no bliss.

As the blogpost "Which is more pleasurable...psychedelics, the nondual state or sex" discusses, persistent nonduality "wins" over, sex, drugs and rock and roll.   However, the brain continues neuroplastically changing until a persistent nondual state is reached.  Only then will it generate the opioids to reinforce this neural configuration so that there will be no incentive to leave it.

Selfie with Stefan Schwartz 

Stefan Schwartz, the award-winning film director, based in France, visited for a weekend to work on his practices.  he was shooting "The Americans" in New York City, and plans to return when he resumes shooting.

i was amazed at how deeply Stefan "gets" and works from the presence and creativity of nonduality.   he has a strong Jungian background which fits together well with this work.  he insisted on a "selfie".