The Glorious Both/And

Yes, there are narrative elements to our sense of self, but in a real dimension of reality. Narrativity is simply part of the nature of what being a person is, and saying  just a story is used as a means of belittling, trivializing it, and of course having a negative attitude towards it, more accurately this language is used to de-realize it. Taking on this reductionist connotation to "story," and applying it to the entirety of what oneself and others are, is a powerful way to shift your perception and experience, to suddenly experience ontological dis-reality in a radically jarring way that can have lasting consequences, some positive and others extremely negative. A key to my own unbecoming of “just a story” has been understanding the nature of what is meant by "story," and its synonyms (narrative, language, ideas, concepts, constructs, etc.) in a new way, in which I no longer view any of these as ontologically “false” constructs, but real  ones that exist on the...

       I want to suggest to those who have gone deeply/dissolved into a so-called "prior," transcendent-only immateriality, or "absolute" "pure" Beingness, and taken that as (their) "true nature," with everything else being "false" or less real... that this split leads to a partial experience of reality, while convincing us of an absolute wholeness. That it keeps us from a beholding  all  of what that primal Beingness is, now . And I want to support people who would like to end this true nature/false nature split inside and outside of them that either/or nonduality inevitably creates. Who no longer want to experience a palpable split between a "true self" (good, correct, or better self) and a "false self" (bad, wrong, or lesser self) that are fundamentally at odds with one another. In my life, I could only do this by healing a hidden fundamentally  dualistic  rift that either/or non-dual perception carved between see...