Most people I know live their lives in “Duality“ consciousness. I knew what the word duality meant, however, never had I pondered it. Duality thinking is an “us vs. them“ syndrome. It’s viewing “Self” as SEPARATE. It smells of a self-righteous judgmental view and leads to the inflexibility to see another’s perspective other than your own.
This is a bacterium that, once it matures, leads into victim hood mentality, which in turn crushes the notion of realizing your own Divinity. It’s easier to keep limiting beliefs than it is to ghostbust the established old nature. The old man feels comfortable and safe.
Great suffering is usually a catalyst that can lead to a spiritual awakening which can cause a change in beliefs. Only by the grace of God do I see God in a new way. I’m grasping a new paradigm philosophy of mind that totally makes sense to me, and the fruit is “Joy.”
Through suffering, my beliefs matured and evolved. I stepped out of victim hood and became fearless. I’m in gratitude for this grace. “Dualism” is the belief that mind and body are in some categorical way SEPARATE from each other, and that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical in nature.
I began testing my own limiting beliefs after studying personal development and, by doing so, it led me to go soul searching. Learning about the subconscious mind and the power of thought caused me to deduce that everything was within. I discovered that the vehicle for traveling to the “Within” is “meditation.”
Jesus said, while being crucified, “The Kingdom is within.” Getting still and focusing on breath with no thought allows the conscious mind and subconscious mind to marry. Words are inadequate to describe the revelations that were downloaded when I first began meditating regularly. When I first became present in the moment, as I listened to my heart beat, I felt an immediate calmness and the awareness became ineffable. Then came the feeling and knowing of “Oneness;” Non-Duality.
The fruit of this transformed me. I had seriously fought spirituality my entire life. I had identified as a proud materialist. As I began meditating daily, the Rubik’s cube of my mind began lining up to a clarity I had never experienced. I have seen a paradox in this reality. In the word itself, “Non-duality vs. Duality,” we have a physical body; however, we are not our bodies. There is only one“Isness.”
Most of us are deluded with the illusion of Separateness. “No man is an island.” Everything is connected through the “Isness.” As I tapped into the understanding of “Non-duality” and Self, I realized my Divinity. The clarity of thought that the “I Am” God Is Awareness, is Infinite intelligence, is Consciousness, and is the “One” unified whole of existence which encompasses everything includes me. That means that there is nowhere “Is” is not.
This was a non-dual Epiphany. Logic cannot grasp Non-duality. Only through meditation and self- reflection can our human mind take this truth as truth. I saw my “Self” as a concept, a concept in the mind of God, a thought that thinks, thus creating expansion for the pleasure of the All.
Mind chatter preoccupies the self with the past and future which is illusory except as a memory or imagination. Living in the present awareness allows you to enter into reality which is timeless. I see time through a new lens, maybe rose-colored compared to the cloudy cataracts that have been removed from my old self.
Learning to live in the timeless whilst still being aware of linear time is a gift. My desire is to stay unentangled with the deception of separateness and to savor this brief incarnation in “joy.” Consciously, I’m choosing to appreciate my senses and live in the moment. Sharing these realizations with others who are ready excites me and, for many, will end suffering.
~ Debra Rasberry