The Glorious Both/And

"Clearing away the relative plane—cultural conditionings for example—is very important at a certain point in the spiritual path. But unless the relative world is seen on an equal plane with the absolute, unless the many are seen as holy as the one, then we never arrive at the great secret: that the many and the one are a single thing! " - Jason Shulman ...... ​ A conversation on youtube between  a famous neo-advaita teacher and Swami Sarvapriyananda (of Vedanta New York) in which they discuss  non-dual consciousness randomly starting playing on my laptop today. On Vedanta New York's website I skimmed an article written by Swami  Sarvapriyananda called  "The Concept of Soul or Self in Vedanta."  A quote from the article " Behind the world of multiplicity there is essential unity and interconnectedness." What flabbergasts me now that I've come to understand that the one and the many are a single thing - that reality is a oneness of multiplicity -  i...

     One day I realized with a shock that when I de-realized  the existence of something in the name of god (or whatever word you like), for example the ego/personal self, individuation, I was turning  away  from   god/the "absolute" by rejecting its' manifestations, because the manifest world is  formlessness enformed!  God reveals itself AS this world of form!      After this, I had to accept that that god/the divine is not purely peaceful, bright and blissful, joyful, or even  likeable  and that it cannot be relegated to or sanctified in a dimension that is cut off from anything else.  This can be disillusioning to us when we're clinging to a vision/experience of the formless as the untarnished, transcendent/absolute  only,  separate from suffering. To recognize this is to admit that it is  not  entirely perfect, at least not in the way that we tend to see perfection as something that ...

You  climbed a ladder to the sky and for a long time, you marveled while gazing down at the world from so high up.  Now that you're ready to come back to the ground, you discover that the ladder beneath you is gone. You're suspended in the air, so you can't even fall. Now you're stuck up here, looking down from the great heights that afforded you a view you'd like to take with you but not be limited to.  I reached out to Stephen, a well-known psychotherapist and esteemed self-negating nonduality teacher, when I was in the throes of a spiritual emergency catalyzed by my ego dissolution path.  I was dis-oriented, disassociated and de-personalized, struggling to shore up a sense of personal agency, embodiment, and most importantly,  to get back a sense of solid ground beneath my feet.  I was especially terrified by what became a harrowing sense of dis-reality both of my own personal identity and in-solidity of the world, because while I'd experienced depersona...

Neo-Advaita is not your typical cult with a central physical location/in-person community, with one leader. Yet the system of it is extremely cult-like, including the authoritarian nature of the belief system/ideology, and in so many cases, the patterns of teachers' behavior and the teacher-follower dynamic very clearly fits many of the tell-tale signs of cult-like, authoritarian leadership, and the community of followers that they gain influence over. Recognizing this doesn't mean there's nothing positive people gain from it. It's because there is, that cults are able to attract people in the first place! Cult-like groups provide many things that are helpful and positively transformative for people, especially in the short-term, but to a large degree, the healthy elements are outweighed or overshadowed by the toxic ones. As one person described, it's like nectar mixed with poison. If it was only poison, no one would drink it. Part of what makes it so cult-like is b...

From   https://secularliturgies.wordpress.com/2020/02/24/the-25-signs-youre-in-a-high-control-group-or-cult-by-anastasia-somerville-wong/ You are in a spiritual cult or high-control group if: There is opposition to critical thought, And self-doubt is encouraged. Leaders claim to have special insight and supreme knowledge. The leadership is authoritarian, charismatic and narcissistic,  Their events involve mind-altering practices. Leaders are not accountable to other authorities. But the leaders are held to a different set of moral standards than others And the group as a whole is elitist Slandering and dismissing members who leave Outsiders or outsider groups are looked down on as unenlightened, ignorant, etc. Members become increasingly isolated from former companions, Members frequently experience feelings of shame, guilt, fear. And show zealous commitment, loyalty and dependence upon their leaders. They target the vulnerable with with idealistic goals. Deception is normalis...

I step out of my apartment on a chilly fall morning, and struck by the very reality of the world, I am thrilled by a curiously profound and buoyant sense of awe. Suddenly I hear the Nisargadatta's voice echoing through time, "Refuse this dream the stamp of reality!"  ​ But I can no longer heed this call because today life is no longer just a dream, not a bubble to burst, but dramatically, mind-blowingly real, and in its precious  is ness, everything radiates significance. My soul flutters with delight watching god interact with itself everywhere I look. Everything a piece of god that contains all of god! Then, I hear Ram Das's voice whisper, "Everything is god in drag!" W hile it's a lovely statement, it doesn't fully ring true anymore because now I see that god doesn't wear any masks, and the world is not just an appearance. This world of form no longer conceals god, but reveals him/her/it everywhere, all of this is the revelation of god, it IS...