Non-dual Awareness

Hola mi gente,

I am going to have to pay more attention to my state of mind. My new job puts me into contact with some deep shit, and it does so in a very unsupportive environment. Time to put experience into play.

Non-Dual Awareness, Dreams, and Intuition

The only real valuable thing is intuition.

-- Albert Einstein (1879–1955)

Have you ever had the experience of non-dual consciousness? I know, you’re probably going, “Huh?” Let me rephrase: have you ever had the experience of being as one with an object? Have you ever taken a walk and felt deeply your connection to your external environment or nature. Have you ever been so absorbed in a project or activity that time ceased to exist and when you looked up hours passed without you even being aware of it?

An Australian bushman will, after “communing” with nature, pack his family up and travel treacherous miles through unforgiving territory to find water. And most of the time, he will be correct. Ancient sailors navigated huge distances across uncharted waters using only their “feelings,” water currents, and change in temperature. How many of us either experienced or heard about a premonition of danger that resulted in saving someone’s life?

That’s what I mean by non-dual awareness. It’s an experience that’s rarely studied and is taken for granted. In fact, the little research into this state of mind shows that it holds tremendous potential for healing and points to an ability of which we have little knowledge. 

In contrast to scientific opinion, polls find most Americans believing in intuition, precognition, and the validity of dreams as a source of valid information. Actually, the fact of nonconceptual knowing is so ingrained in popular culture that we take it for granted. Yet we have no educational methodology for developing these abilities. Even those who report having refined these abilities have no way of speaking of this in a way that makes logical sense.

One night, according to an ex-lover, I awoke from sleep and talked to her extensively about a synopsis for a novel I was considering. She told me that I spoke at length and in detail for about forty-five minutes. She also told me that the idea blew her away. In her words, she was utterly shocked by the breadth and range of my thinking for the premise of this novel.

The next day when I awoke, she was all excited and asked me when I would start working on the novel, had I begun to write anything, and could she read any rough drafts. I looked at her as if she had grown a third eye. I had no clue as to what she was talking about. She thought I was teasing her, but the fact is that I have no recollection of that conversation. Of course, she didn’t take any freakin’ notes, so there goes any aspirations I had about being the next Stephen King. LOL!

Like my dream, most altered states of consciousness slip away, as one returns to ordinary thinking. What happens is that the peak experience is rationalized or forgotten, but the question still nags “How did that happen?” followed by the wish of, “How can I return to it?”

There are countless stories of non-dual awareness but they all have a common element and that is they were usually accompanied by a deep attentional state or a state of complete absorption. I believe this is where training for intuitive knowledge can begin. Modern science is now acknowledging that meditative states have positive side effects that range from the physical (e.g., blood pressure and stressed-induced diseases) to the psychological (increased focus, lowered depression, increasing states of happiness).

I know that as my meditative practice deepens, I come into closer contact to that part of me that creates, invents, and feels. I’m better able to listen to others without the noise of the incessant internal, judgmental, inner conversation. I’m also able to connect to people in ways that amazes me.

How about you -- have you ever had an experience of non-dual awareness?

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…