I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together

[GliderGuider]

Something I've noticed as I skid down the slippery slope to nondualism is that I no longer see the world as consisting of opposites -- good vs. bad, us vs. them, advantage vs. disadvantage, or even self vs. other. Instead, I see the world as a matrix of interactions, where actors and actions have no intrinsic value. Things, people and events simply ARE, and any value they have is assigned by the actors themselves in accordance with their personal needs or preferences at the moment. This is very different from our standard cultural view, where the notion of opposites is embedded to such an extent that it seems like an absolute truth to most of us.

Our culture (modern scientific culture, not just Western culture) teaches us a dualistic viewpoint from the moment we become aware that we are not our mothers. We are taught to see differences rather than similarities, separation instead of connection. Most of us are are taught from the beginning that life is a zero sum game -- that there are winners and losers in every transaction in life, and that my interests are axiomatically separate from yours. A look at any natural ecology demonstrates the untruth of this concept. Our culture teaches us that we are exempt from these natural rules of universal interconnection, and our resulting perception of a separation of man from nature is mirrored in all our beliefs and behaviour.

The implications of adopting a non-dualistic outlook are significant. For example I no longer feel that the death of individuals (even myself) is that big a deal, or that winning or losing is important. In fact I don't feel that I am separate from anything else in the universe. Even people who actively oppose my world view are not different from me -- to me they simply represent aspects of myself that I must accept and integrate in order to continue my journey toward wholeness.

I believe that the idea of keeping secrets, whether personal or institutional, is not just a bad idea but an outright impossibility. Since there is no difference between you and me, or indeed between me and anyone, the idea of keeping secrets from you seems as ridiculous as the idea of keeping secrets from myself. I am also dubious about the idea of secrecy because I believe the deception it breeds (the illusory sense of separation and isolation) is far more harmful to the general well-being than anything that would result from knowledge being freely available.

I understand that most people don't see things like this, and I know that this may all sound pretty strange, but there it is. It's very difficult to convince those who are still embraced by the dualistic conventions of our culture that such a world view is "normal". Of course that's as it should be because we are all playing our chosen roles in this dance of life. Think of this as an invitation to contemplate how else we might see the world.

[chillspike]

1. Beautifully said

I'm still working on accepting people who actively oppose my view, though. That's a toughy. The impulse is to defend but that just makes it worse.

[ZombieHorde]

2. Oh great, another Obama = Bush thread.

Just kidding.

You may enjoy this Wikipedia page on mereological nihilism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mereological_nihilism