What Is Nonduality And How To Experience It?

What is Nonduality?

Nonduality means “not two”, and it points to the fundamental oneness or unity of everything. The apparent separation between subject and object, self and other, or mind and world is a mental construct or illusion. Put simply, nonduality refers to the unity that underlies all the seemingly separate things that we ordinarily perceive.

How is Nondual Awareness Different?

Nondual awareness is a higher/subtler level of consciousness that can perceive deeper into reality than regular (dualistic) awareness can. It can sense below the surface of reality to experience the underlying unity of everything. Regular awareness belongs to our conceptual mind, whereas nondual awareness is our soul’s awareness (or higher mind). The conceptual mind, by definition, has to conceptualise things in order to relate to them. Our soul’s awareness (or higher mind) is non-conceptual, so it can perceive the fullness, wholeness or oneness of reality:

• The conceptual mind doesn’t have the capacity to experience the wholeness of reality, so it has to mentally break that wholeness down into manageable chunks (objects). It breaks reality down into manageable chunks by conceptualising pieces of reality into distinct “thought-forms” – one for each object it perceives. It’s this conceptualising process that creates the apparent separation between objects, because the mind has pulled them out of the wholeness and made them appear separate.
• The soul (or higher mind), on the other hand, does have the capacity to experience the wholeness of reality, so it experiences reality as a unified whole, in one unified experience.

To recap, our conceptual mind, pulls objects out of the unified field (of our consciousness), and mentally defines them as distinct and separate things. In order to make sense of reality, our mind must translate reality into concepts. So, concepts are the language of our conceptual mind. Concepts are “thought-forms” that give objects “form”, which makes them appear distinct and separate from everything else. The conceptual mind is only capable of perceiving these “forms”, whereas the soul’s non-conceptual awareness is capable of perceiving the underlying wholeness and formlessness.

Nondual Experiencing is Direct Experiencing

Nondual experiencing is direct experiencing, whereas regular (dualistic) experiencing is indirect experiencing. The soul experiences reality directly, not through the conceptualising lens of the regular mind. So, the regular / conceptual mind can be compared to a wearing a pair of glasses that makes things look and feel separate, or dualistic. When our level of consciousness rises from the mind level to the soul level, at enlightenment, we take off those dualistic glasses and are able to perceive the inherent nondual nature of reality.

But Objects Are Physically Separate!

That’s correct. Objects aren’t connected to everything else at the physical level, but they are all connected, unified or “one” at a more fundamental level of reality. At the physical level, there is space between objects, but to the soul’s higher mind, all the objects and all the space all appear as a unified whole on the screen of our consciousness.

You might be thinking “I can see it both ways – Does that mean I have nondual awareness?” Probably not. The conceptual mind can see the image as a whole, but it’s still being conceptualised into an object (the image). True nondual awareness doesn’t conceptualise the image, because it’s just a part of the totality of our experience. The image is noticed, but it doesn’t need to be conceptualised into an object in order to be understood and related to.

The Purpose of Duality (Apparent Separation)

• The Spiritual Answer: The purpose of duality or apparent separation is to enable consciousness to experience itself in ways it can’t from its innate state of oneness. In nondual traditions and spiritual teachings, the One (God or universal consciousness) manifests duality – subject and object, self and other, light and dark – so it can explore and evolve through contrast and relationship. Without separation, there would be no perspective, no growth and no story – just undifferentiated being.
• The Physical Answer: The conceptual mind is designed to “pattern-match”, i.e. look for things it recognises, so it can make sense of the world, spot dangers and keep us alive. We don’t need nondual experiencing to keep us alive and safe. We only benefit from the higher, nondual perspective when our consciousness nears the end of its journey through the human kingdom and prepares for a less physical, more spiritual path.

What Blocks Nonduality?

The conceptual mind doesn’t just conceptualise external people and objects – it also conceptualises “you” (into your conceptual-self or ego-self). So, there’s a separate subject (you) and separate objects. Both of these aspects of separation (self and other) keep you in duality, and both can be worked on to prepare your consciousness for nonduality. But ultimately, the regular mind itself must be transcended, due to its conceptualising nature.

Practices to Develop Nonduality

We can’t train our conceptual mind to perceive non-conceptually, because it just doesn’t have that capability. To experience nonduality we have to raise our level of consciousness to the point where it ascends from our conceptual mind (ego-self) up to our non-conceptual mind (soul). The following practices can help to expedite that process, but it’s neither quick or easy.

1. Inner Work. Do lots and lots of inner work to clear your psychological baggage and develop your spiritual presence.
2. Live Consciously. Consciousness evolves through experiencing, so living with more conscious awareness and embodied presence means we experience life with more intensity, depth and colour, so we evolve faster.
3. Recover Quickly: When you get triggered, notice it and actively work at returning yourself to a centred state. Don’t get caught up in the energy, the story, the blame or the shame. Instead, just breath slowly, feel into the feeling, or down into your body to ground yourself in presence. Practice embodied presence and pure awareness to gradually disidentify from your mind and its beliefs.
4. Disidentify from Mind & Thoughts: When the mind conceptualises things, it often also applies a subtle judgement, e.g. good/bad or pretty/ugly. Use conscious awareness to break that conditioned habit of believing your thoughts, and your identification with your mind. Simply say “That’s not me” (in your head) every time your mind conceptualises or judges anything. I did this for a couple of days, and my mind suddenly became a lot quieter, permanently.
5. Nondual Practice: Softly gaze at an object, and imagine you can feel it within your chest. There is no separation because both you and the object are being experienced within your consciousness. Then feel that the distance between you and the object collapsing, because the space isn’t real either. The object is virtual, you are virtual, the space between is virtual – it’s all being rendered by your consciousness.

Additional practices are described in this article: What is Enlightenment? And How To Attain It?

Living with Nonduality

We all experience periods of nonduality on a daily basis, when our self-consciousness (identification with our conceptual sense of self) temporarily drops away, but we aren’t present enough to be aware of it. We get conscious tastes of nonduality prior to enlightenment, and after enlightenment, it becomes our permanent experience. At that point, we don’t lose the ability to conceptualise things. Our soul/higher mind still has the ability to break reality down into conceptual objects, but it does so in the background. So, the conceptual experience isn’t in the foreground all the time like it was previously, but it’s still there for when we need it.