KWL book club

Nonduality: "In spirituality, nondualism, also called non-duality, means "not two" or "one undivided without a second".[1][2] Nondualism primarily refers to a mature state of consciousness, in which the dichotomy of I-other is "transcended", and awareness is described as "centerless" and "without dichotomies". Although this state of consciousness may seem to appear spontaneous,[note 1] it usually follows prolonged preparation through ascetic or meditative/contemplative practice, which may include ethical injunctions."

That gets me thinking about Monism, the idea that there is one thing, and everything is an aspect of that one thing.

That also gets me thinking about Heisenberg Principle, and the limits of what we can know and measure. That gets me thinking about Godel's Theorem. 

Loy first quotes Plotinus (204 – 270), a Roman philosopher who lived in Egypt. "His metaphysical writings have inspired centuries of Pagan, Jewish, Christian, Gnostic, and Islamic metaphysicians and mystics, including developing precepts that influence mainstream theological concepts within religions, such as his work on duality of the One in two metaphysical states." 

I'd like to add Buddhism, but I think he's a western example, and I think the Buddhists pondered over this before him.

Loy writes: "The nonduality of the seer and the seen: there is no philosophical or religious assertion more striking or counterintuitive..." (p. xv) Apparently William Blake noticed this, and others of note.

"The farthest we can remove ourselves is to "forget" this metaphysical understanding..." (p. xvi)

Western aren't nondoul. The eastern systems of Buddhism, Vedanta and Taoism allow it. In Buddhism, enlightenment is seeing nonduality.

"...the dualistic nature of conceptual knowledge means the nondual experience, if genuine, must transcend philosophy itself and all it's ontological claims." (p. xix)

I have had this experience. I experienced the wind, the tree blowing in the wind, the soil holding the tree, as one thing with me and everything else in the universe. I thought it was derealization, a kind of hallucination, and didn't talk about it until much later. Perhaps it was a moment of truly seeing reality for how it really is. In Zen this is called Kensho, I just learned reading this book.

There's a culture of not talking about deep experiences except to close spiritual friends. I believe in a more open source Buddhism, where you can talk about things in public. I like the funny story where the meditator thinks they're enlightened, and then say oh no, I can't be because I'm still thinking about me, enlightenment experience isn't like that supposedly. 

Deep meditative experiences have been similar to what my friend go in taking hallucinogens. He says he somehow can't meditate. I don't recommend hallucinogens because I haven't taken one and had a good experience or a spiritual experience, it was just drug using. I ended up writing on the dining table and using the word, "so-called" quite a lot. Then I kind of slept through a friend's visit, a missed opportunity I regret. I think in a spiritual retreat setting, it could be beneficial if you have the disposable income for some. People do all kinds of things. I also felt the great wave of love from the Buddha once when on a day retreat, it was really weird. My friend who did hallucinogens saw a green cloud of love. He has also made connections that I have made in therapy. 

There's no real telling what's going to happen to you when you meditate. Some get wild experience, and some get nothing. Please don't imagine nothing is happening if you put in the work. Even if you're just a little bit more centered, it's worth it, in my opinion, because those kinds of things are so hard to come by. I know people who refuse to meditate, and there are people who have bad experiences, and breaks with reality, negative mental events, and for that perhaps you need to work it through with a mental health professional. You are the owner of your spiritual life and you also know what is going on so you need to be the one who protects yourself. The people who have challenging mental events need a lot of support and they need to communicate with others. There are also people who just don't want to have to meditate at work, and don't join in the group meditation at work and I think that is OK.

Joanna Macy talks about systems theory, that even the smallest person can influence the systems. That you can influence the world, there is no excuse for political apathy perhaps, to say, "who am I, I am just a small person." 

I would also wonder how you would know that an intervention would be good, but we think of heroes like MLK or Harriet Tubman or Frederick Douglass just telling his story or maybe even violent John Brown, unwilling to allow the immorality of slavery to continue, in terms of working on racial justice, and their influences were quite big. 

Today we think about Greta Thunberg and her pointing out how inept our current thinking is, and that her autism has given her a kind of clarity about the dangers we are facing by our actions towards the environment. Meanwhile China tries to fat shame her (Independent)

It's hard not to see most politicians as a bunch of compromisers or if they're a little bit more clear like Obama, then the opposition sets up to just obstruct them, constantly negatively spin everything against them. The promise of Obama's campaign and the reality of his presidency are at stark contrast. He's the only president I thought to read his memoir because he wasn't a complete weasel. 

Clinton was more right wing than Nixon, and fell into the mythology of Kennedy, and didn't notice we don't allow presidents to get away with promiscuity any more. The right will do anything now, they are ruthless to the point of nihilism, cultism and out and out lying because nobody is paying attention. 

All politicians fib and slant the truth, but lying as a strategy to obstruct, distract and confuse the populace feels like the legacy of Trump that is being carried forward today by disgusting politicians: Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Ted Cruz--I almost don't want them getting attention because they seem to thrive off the lurid exposure of their horrors.  Green says Jews shoot lasers from orbit. Gaetz has copied Trumps egregious sexual misconduct and participation in sexual slavery, and Ted Cruz flew off on vacation when his state was in crisis, among other things like regurgitating Russian political talking points as if he's part of Russia, not representing America. It's hard to imagine with the hysteria of anti-communism history in America, how he can be such a shill for Russia. Nobody has any memory, nobody is paying attention, that's how they get away with this. 

At least to me. 73 million Americans did not find the disgust I did when they voted for Trump in 2020, who argued with Epstein about who raped the 16 year old girl tied up in the bedroom, first (Mother Jones). 

They are more disgusted by the liberal imagination then all the people that died from Covid necessarily (New Zealand had 35 deaths), and will do anything it seems to stymie it, not it get a foothold, even if on the raw category of just saving lives, it would be more utilitarian. There are already enough people, they would cynically point out, too many liberals and voting democrats. In all these big systems it's hard to see what I could do beyond the rather impotent act of voting and paying attention, but actually voting and paying attention is quite a big political act in this day and age. (Here is a list of elections that turned on one vote.)

There's a subreddit called r/againstpolarization. I got into what I thought was a debate about being against polarization that was too polarizing. I've also been permanently banned from r/socialism because I used the ironic "commie", and been muted from complaining to the mods for a day and then a month. It's really hard to discuss things even online anonymously.

What does this all have with nonduality? I'd say a fundamental feeling of lack of connection to the world is the nihilism behind all these shenanigans. They imagine they can do this harm and not be affected by it. Like they all won't have deathbed confessions like Lee Atwater, or the recent ones of a police officer who admitted to being involved in killing MLK and Malcolm X (Gothamist).