No separation: a plain introduction to non-duality
The simple, old pointer at the heart of HHUK: what you are looking for is not somewhere else. It is what is looking.
“Non-dual” means “not two”. Many traditions, in their own languages, point to the same thing: the sense of being a separate someone, looking out at a separate world, is a thought. When that thought is seen as a thought, what is left is not nothing. It is this: seeing, hearing, feeling, with no gap between the knower and the known.
This is not a belief to adopt or a state to reach. Nobody can give it to you, because nothing is missing. A teacher, a talk or a meditation can only point. The looking is yours.
Where the pointer comes from
- Advaita Vedanta (India): “not two”, the Self and the whole as one.
- Buddhist schools such as Zen, Dzogchen and Mahamudra: the nature of mind, empty and aware.
- Taoism: the way that cannot be named, and acting without forcing (wu wei).
- Sufism: the oneness of being, and the falling away of the separate self (fana).
- Christian mystics, such as Meister Eckhart and The Cloud of Unknowing: a God nearer than your own breath.
- Modern teachers in many countries who speak about it in everyday words, including Vern.
Try this now (60 seconds)
- Notice a sound. Now notice: where does the hearing happen? Can you find an edge where “you” stop and the sound starts?
- Look for the one who is looking. Not the body, not a thought about yourself: the looker. What do you actually find?
- Rest as whatever noticed that. Nothing to hold on to, nothing to do.
Be kind to yourself
Inquiry can feel strange or unsettling for some people. Go gently, keep your eyes open if you like, and stop whenever you want. If you are going through a hard time, talk to someone you trust or to your GP.
Try a practice
Credit: Pointers shared across Advaita Vedanta, Zen, Dzogchen, Taoism, Sufism and Christian mysticism, retold in our own words.