The Illusion Of Separation: Direct Experience Of Non-Duality

We think of life in fragments.

We consider ourselves as one of the fragments as well.

Separate.

Individual.

Fragment.

Our mind is endowed with this power of abstraction.

Where because of our attention we focus only on one thing and while we focus on that thing everything else is blurred out giving an illusion that that thing is separate from the rest of the world.

Just like in a photograph the subject is in focus everything else is out of focus emphasizing the subject.

Our attention is something similar.

So the experience that we have had throughout our life has been one of fragment.

I am separate.

That thing is separate from the other thing.

That person is separate from me and everything is disconnected and separate.

Experientially everything exists together doesn't stop us from thinking that everything is separate.

We consider our body,

Ourselves as separate from the others.

Not only that we have divided our entire experience into two parts.

One is internal and the other is external.

Everything that seemingly happens within the skin is internal to me and that which happens outside of the skin is external to me.

Whatever is inside the skin is me.

Whatever is outside the skin is not me.

And this me not me this thing,

That thing this fragment,

That fragment is purely happening at our thought level.

Because when we perceive with our eyes all we see is one experience.

Yes we have ten thousand things that we name but being true to our first person experience of seeing we see only sight,

One sight.

It just happens to have five thousand things in it.

Yes we can abstract it out,

We can focus on one thing describe its form,

Have a name for it but that's just for explanation perspective.

From an experience perspective there is only one full experience that includes sights,

Sounds,

Tastes,

Textures,

Smells,

Sensations,

Thoughts.

At any given point our experience comprises of all of it or part of it but it's still one full experience without fragments.

Even right now you can verify it by opening your eyes and seeing that if you did not conceptualize,

Did not call out a chair,

A wall,

A knob a flower it's just one experience.

My voice is a part of that experience and you can't separate my voice from what you are seeing it's all projected on the same screen of awareness but the mind can come along and say you know what this is a sound and this is specifically Mitesh's voice the other sound is from the room outside what I'm seeing are these objects but as a matter of fact in this moment you are having the experience of sights,

Sounds and thoughts along with bodily sensations as one unfolding changing experience the experience is one but within that experience things are moving you are not feeling like your experience is changing your experience seems smooth intimate within it you will feel the sounds are evolving,

The bodily sensations are evolving of course your sights are evolving,

What is in focus,

What is not in focus is changing but there are no fragments in your experience fragmentation is a child of thought separation is a child of thought see the truth of my words in your own experience the commentary of your mind is a part of your experience just because someone is commenting doesn't mean it's outside your experience you are the witness of that commentary along with what the commentary is about experience the one that you are having right now is such a mind boggling phenomena the fact that we can have experience,

We can see perceive,

Feel,

Think fully be untouched by it so that the next unfolding that happens with the senses with the perceptions,

With the sensations,

With the thoughts you are fully available for it as if the previous experience did not leave any trace in you in you the awareness it's like you are one with your experience yet untouched by it and there is no separation between you and your experience the mind might tell you something otherwise fragment you out of your experience but can you ever have an experience without being present and where do you stop and your experience begin is there a border where you can say on this side of the border is me separate from my experience and on the other side there is experience the mind might conceptualize it as you know what my eyes are seeing my mind is processing,

My brain is doing this and that that's all a concept right now,

This moment,

Without referring to any prior knowledge because our experience is fresh right now we don't need anything prior to investigate,

To contemplate on our own experience in this here and now there is no separation between you and your experience there is no separation between sights and sounds and tastes and textures it's all one experience and even within that experience,

Even within the sights there is no separation between objects as long as you speak about objects,

There are 5000 objects when you look at experience,

There is one experience the duality appears right when abstraction appears duality appears when the mind says this and that me and not me me and the experience somehow thought has become a mediator between you and your experience whereas thought is a part of your experience it is conveniently cloaked and pretends to be innocent and yet we are fooled by it the smartest of us are fooled by it just like you are hearing my voice you are hearing the inner voice as well but somehow both the sounds are deemed to be different the inner is me,

The outer is not me the experience of the inner and outer is exactly the same it is being heard in the exact same place in the exact same way you do not need a mediator for your experience experience it directly the mind has even come up with some strange ways of telling us that part of my experience is me,

Separate individual personal and the other part is the world so the mind has stitched up the sight of our body along with the sense of feeling our body as sensations including the sound that comes from your body it has stitched it up and said this is me the sight of this body and the sight of that chair is no different yet the mind is using a different input stitching it up together and concluding that this is me and even within this body that the mind claims to be me only the head the eyes,

The brain is me everything else is my foot,

My leg my arm,

My torso and then the mind says oh my brain but I am in the brain the mind is a part of me to be honest we have no clue of what is me and what is not me the moment we start zooming in to mind's explanation about me and not me it's filled with holes your experience of me is crystal clear the formulation of me is messed up when I say that you are the witness of your experience,

You are awareness you know it as truth because you are aware you are present when we consider ourselves a fragment that is on zooming in is even more fragmented as a body,

As parts of body including the mind,

Including the brain including our skills,

Our profession,

Our roles the simple fact of being aware suddenly is dissected into few dozen fragments and because we consider ourselves a fragment,

We suffer the fate of a fragment suffering is inevitable for a fragment in the process we have started believing the narrator the mediator of our experience aka our mind telling us you are separate being separate you are not good enough you need to achieve that once you get that you can rest this voice in our head is somehow emphasized as something important it's merely another sound that we are aware of albeit happening intimately within us quote unquote within us but you don't need a mediator this mediator voice is just like a lingering piece of our mind that is not needed actually it is needed when used consciously as a tool unconsciously it's not necessary you can see without a mediator you can hear my voice,

Understand my words without a mediator the truth is not in the mediation the truth is in your experience that is one complete experience unfragmented and this experience includes everything you see hear,

Taste,

Touch,

Smell,

Think and feel including this body that you are seeing,

Hearing,

Feeling for you the awareness everything that you are aware of is the same that's what the experience of love and empathy is where we experience the other person as us the fact that we are able to do that means in those moments it is revealed to us that I am not a fragment I am all of it but only in those moments I am open to it my experience is not fragmented there is no separation between me and my experience there are no borders between inside me and outside me the mediator,

The thoughts,

The narrator the voice in my head is a part of my experience all separation is purely conceptual having lived a fragmented life for decades this concept has penetrated our body as a felt experience where we feel separate from the other person we have drank the Kool-Aid for so long that we have hypnotized into believing the separation between us and everything else and the worst part is that the narrator,

The mediator the ego occasionally for some of us,

Very frequently for most of us it keeps scolding us it keeps judging us it keeps criticizing us so even within ourselves we have created fragments where there is a jury that is constantly finding us guilty and punishing us all this precipitates because of not understanding our experience,

The non-duality of our experience this illusion of the attention that is able to focus on individual isolated things seemingly isolated things along with the illusion of the mind that can believe anything it wants and will fight vehemently for its own beliefs even if they are completely false and non-experiential this is called Maya in the Indian tradition I like to call it the matrix that we have plugged into out of the ignorance of who we actually are what our experience actually is and as long as we are plugged into the matrix as long as we are believing to be a fragment suffering is inevitable because there is a constant fear of survival the abstraction,

The separation the seemingly separation that mind creates is so sneaky that you don't even realize that you have stepped into your mind and are thinking about the other person as a separate object in your mind and the moment you are thinking about someone else as separate you have implied that you are not that although there is no proof in your experience that you are separate because what you are seeing,

What you are perceiving what you are thinking,

What you are feeling includes everything I am sure the mind must be rebelling how can I be the glass yes,

You,

The body cannot be the glass as long as you are the body you cannot be the glass as long as you are the mind you cannot be the glass but when you are awareness you are the glass you are the body,

You are the mind and you are everything else that's why it's so important to discover who we really are and just because the mind believes that it is separate doesn't mean you become separate it's only a belief as long as you believe you get appropriate thoughts proportionate thoughts and proportionate to those thoughts and actions you have proportionate feelings inevitably those are feelings of separation and suffering and thoughts of suffering if we really paid attention to our thoughts all the thoughts that bring us suffering are about I,

Me,

Myself being separate from everything else that is hurt that needs more,

That has been deprived of something or the other when you are the body when things and people leave you there is suffering,

When you are the mind when things don't happen according to your expectation there is suffering when you are the intellect and all the knowledge and information that you have accumulated somebody challenging that is suffering at every level suffering is about being separate but when we stand as awareness when we stand as presence and we look for proof of how am I separate where does the separation begin we only reach skin the only experiential explanation that the mind can come up with is the separation at the skin level but the skin doesn't exist in isolation you are seeing your skin as simply as you are seeing everything else within that argument is a bias that I am this and not that even if we don't see the truth of it right away as long as we are open for it as long as we are not blindsided by our existing beliefs the truth can reveal itself either layer by layer or all at once the surety,

The certainty of me being fragment needs to be doubted in this understanding thinking cannot tell you anything about you only you can tell anything about yourself and as long as we are ourselves,

We are always ourselves even if thinking is telling us something else but when we knowingly take the stand of awareness in this stand there are no borders all borders are conceptual if your eyes are open and if I asked you where do you end and where does your seeing begin where does your seeing end and where do you begin there is no experiential answer for it it's one seamless experience if your mind is chit chatting and you are hearing my words where does my words end and the sound of your voice begin is there a border,

Is there an experienceable border and when we relate with this understanding with our loved ones that there is no border when I look at them there is no border between me and them a different level of letting go happens as if your guards fall off because that's the experience of love every time the mind is thinking about I I,

I,

I,

There is no love every time the feeling has withdrawn from the openness there is seclusion separation at a feeling level as long as we are open love friendship oneness is a living reality and when we enter this virtual world of our mind where every character is separate hostile we hypnotize ourselves into believing it and we suffer the consequences of that belief so I want to leave you with this experiment to observe the nature of your thoughts when you suffer is that suffering revolving around a separate ego that sometimes identifies with this body sometimes with the mind and sometimes with the possessions of this body and mind and if you do find the truth that yes I am suffering because of this ego what is the proof in my experience of any separation the mediator is a part of my experience and there is no separation between me and my experience where is any separation inner me,

Outer me,

Me and experience this and that if there was no mind and in this now,

In this moment there is no mind there is no thought because for thought to happen you have to enter your mind so to speak and you can never think about this now thinking is always about the past or the future in this now there is no thought in this now where is separation and if there is no separation what happens to my suffering because if there is no separation I am full I am perfect I have everything because I am everything what happens to my suffering when I am everything thank you