The n00bs guide to non duality

A few pertinent insights here, and clearly explained. The cause and effect thing is worth scrolling down for, and the ideas about time are, although there is only a very limited explanation. These are key aspects to investigating mental phenomena and I will produce a more full exposition on this aspect in due course. Ghost 2013



Hey
I read all of your other email and what a lot has happened to you! So you have come to the conclusion that everything that has happened to you is not happening to you but to something else? not really sure I get it! I did a philosophy module in second year and it was very interesting

No it didn't happen to me. Because there is no me per se. There was the experience of it happening, it was 100% experienced but there was no me to experience it, there was only the experience itself.

Ok there is a body, there is thought, there is the experience of life right now in the present moment. There are memories, there are desires. But the whole concept of a "you" behind the thinking or the actions is actually a fallacy. "you" do not actually exist.

You are experiencing life right now, you are sitting in front of a computer. What you see and hear is real. The body/ (bodies if your at uni) you can see are real. The thoughts that arise are real, the memories, the imagination, its all very real, its existing in reality right now. The only thing that isn't real is what you perceive as yourself, your life, your personality what you describe to others as "I" or your self etc..

It is not actually a real entity, it is actually only a thought, you do not actually exist whatsoever. No matter how incomprehensible this sounds, it can be demonstrated by looking in reality. It just simply isn't there whatsoever, it is an illusion. A very, very complex illusion that does not exist in any way shape or form.

Now you have had a whole life of thinking in this way and all your experience dictates that you are the thinker of thoughts or the doer of the actions that arise. For me it was 31 years worth, a long time. But the thing is, not once did we ever check to see if it was real. We just assumed we existed. It seems ridiculous to even test this premise because we are experiencing this life right now. Unfortunately we have been duped by a lie that there is an experiencer, thinker or doer behind the experiencing thinking and doing.

To put it simply your belief or frame reference you engage reality on is that "you" are having the experience of life. We even call it life experience to describe the experiences we have had. This in itself is dualistic, stating in language that there is actually a seperate entity from reality having this experience.

My new frame of reference is that "I" is the experience itself. I say "my new frame of reference" but there is no entity to have a frame of reference on reality.

There is no entity or "I" having the experience. The experience itself is all that there is in reality. There is only experience itself, there is nothing more than the experience itself.

Lets use a metaphor: Imagine if we objectify experience and we have an apple and label it EXPERIENCE. This would be the experience of life itself in the present moment.

Then suddenly you see me walk up and reach out and place my hand on the apple and look at it. I would have experience, the experience of having the apple in my hand and looking at it. I would own and would be observing or "having" the apple.

What I'm trying to communicate to you is that I am not there, this is an illusion. What there is, is only the apple itself, no "I" to lay a claim and own it. The apple is real, the me walking up to the apple and laying claim to it is not. The apple or EXPERIENCE is all that exists in reality.

This sounds like a load of new age clap trap and it would be nice to just suddenly decide to switch on this wavelength but it is not so difficult as you think. All you have to do is have an honest look in reality and you will discover this as truth.

but when it comes down to us as beings or time (time is very complicated) then I am a bit stumped! Like the idea of what you believe but not sure if I buy it, only because I think I am not as open minded as others are ): lol.

Ok there is a body, there is thought, there is the experience of life right now in the present moment. There are memories, there are desires that arise in certain moments but they are only experienced in the present moment. Nothing exists outside of the present moment, aboslutely nothing. 

The past is no more and the future has not happened yet.

They exist as a mental construct in the mind as there are projections of imagining the future and memories that have happened. But only the present moment can be experienced.

With me so far?

The image of a thought about the future is experienced in the present. This gives the illusion that we have a future that we own.

The paradox is how can we own something that doesn't exist? Time is merely a measurement used on earth. Physicists call it space time to describe measurements in the cosmos.

It has already been proven that space time is not constant and can be warped. The GPS satellites have to use the general theory of relativity to correct quantum time dilations (fluctuations in space time) or else the whole system would be a worthless and innacurate fail! These fluctuations arise because of quantum gravity.

All of this is a nice distraction about quantum space time dilation but we have strayed off topic.

The whole premise is, our concept of time is only a measurement. We can only exist in the present moment but we can use time to describe changes from moment to moment of any length we can conceive, be it billions of years or the time it takes to blink our eyes.

How do we get time perception then if we exist in the present?
This is where we get to cause and effect and show how in reality it actually fails as a premise:

CAUSE + EFFECT

Before you were even conscious of any memories, you have been primed through conditioning to live in a world in terms of cause and effect. If you drop the cup on the floor, that’s cause and effect. The cup is dropped and it breaks. Simple as it is. Do this = this happens. This is great, this is how we interact with the world on a base level.

We have a lens in place that allows us to interact with the world as we go about our lives.

“If I walk out in the road without looking, I will get run over”.

“If I don't do this, I will get shouted at”. 

This mechanism is necessary for survival and making judgements about the world as they arise from moment to moment.

Cause and effect is how we analyse the world but this is looking at cause and effect through a microscopic lens however. We are conditioned to look at cause and effect in terms of; this action now has this outcome, or x action generates y outcome. In other words that’s just how the mind sees things in reality. The mind makes a snapshot of reality dependent on external stimuli that is constantly being updated.

Take the first model presented:


The cup is dropped = cup smashes in to pieces

Cause ------------> Effect ----------------> Cause -------->

So how about this.... you complain about the smashed cup and get a bag to put the pieces in. You get down on your knees and pick up the shards. Whilst picking up the shards you cut yourself badly. you have to phone a friend who takes you to A+E. You are stuck at A+E for 2 hours waiting in the queue to get stitches in the wound.

You don't go to to the nightclub until later on and consequently you meet a different future spouse. You get married and have the son who became the prime minister in 40 years time.

This son caused the world to destruct as he started a nuclear war because he was consumed by a lie... All this because of a broken cup.

You could go backwards in time too if you like. I could say; what would have happened if my father beat me as a child, what if he caught the flu and didn't meet my mum, what if my Granddad had of been shot down in WW2? His plane got hit by flak but they made it home, what if the pilot was out on the heading by 0.00001 degrees? What if the plane took off a fraction of a second earlier. What if my great grandfather didn't narrowly avoid an accident, what if my mediaeval ancestors got burnt at the stake, what about if my caveman ancestors didn't find that injured mammoth to kill and narrowly avert starvation, what about my primate ancestors, the big bang? Would they have any effect on whether I was there to drop the cup or not?

As you can see, its difficult to draw a line and put a label on the cause and effect of each event. Of course there is causality but our minds simple method of cause and effect begins to break down as an objective model at this point. When you make a cup of tea, does it ever cross your mind that you are depleting the worlds fossil fuel reserves? Of course not, we are only ever operating on this basic level of cause and effect. I turn the kettle on = the water boils. Really, this model is inadequate to explain anything apart from labelling objective experience. So whilst it has a place and is useful to us, its not so good for relying on it as the explaination for things.

So there you go me preaching again. I'm going to blog this response to you anyway, don't worry I won't include your name or email lol!!! Some of it is from the book I'm writing thats why its so long! But take a look and tell me if you see a "you"? Does a "you" exist? If so describe it to me, tell me what you see when you look....