What will change in our daily life, if we expand our vision of the true nature of reality towards a non-dualistic paradigm, thus overcoming our strong belief of each existing as a separate entity? The world around us will remain mostly the same, but our reading of all events and thus our personal life experience and our inner state will be quite different. This is due to the new sense that every aspect of reality will have for us: not only what is happening in the present moment, but also what has already occurred in the past and now is part of our memories. Understanding the non-dualistic nature of reality, and setting such comprehension as the foundation of our vision of existence, will therefore influence our life at all levels. In fact, most of the personal issues that we face in our individual growth process and in our relationships are precisely based on our firm dualistic belief with its subtle effects on our identity and its expression.
Let’s consider, for example, the fear of death and the anxiety or anguish about what we consider as the end of our biological life, of the living body we are identified with. Usually, the underlying processes generated but such concern, working in the depth of the unconscious, generate a constant state of alert in the subject, activating the sympathetic nervous system, and this leads in turn to somatic tensions and consumption of vital energy, causing the panic attacks so common nowadays in Western societies. Vivekananda says in his Jnana Yoga: “The fear of death can only be overcome when man realizes that so long as there is life in the universe he is living. When he can say: «I am in every thing, in every body, I am in all lives, I am the universe and this whole universe is my body, how can I die so long as one particle remains? Who says ‘I will die’?» Then only comes the state of fearlessness.” So, what different effect might be produced by a vision of existence where each individual is considered as being an intrinsic part of the same vital flow, compared to the common dualistic vision describing us all as separate entities, entirely coincident with an impermanent physical body, whose existence is limited in time and space? This is a change of perspective that generates an instinctive, different inner disposition towards life and death, less charged with anxiety and tension.
Expanding our vision of reality towards a unitary model, will also affect more specific issues than that of life and death, such as, for instance, our self-esteem, or the subjective perception of one’s own value. Again, what different effect the idea that we are all contributing to the same, unitary process of the manifestation of existence, each on their part, can produce on our disposition towards life and, consequently, on our inner state, rather than the vision defining us all as individuals whose only purpose is to achieve one’s own life goals, and whose personal accomplishment is the measure of one’s own value? Perhaps our role in the common unitary manifestation of reality is not immediately clear and evident to us, but thanks to the new non-dualistic awareness we will be able to acknowledge that it is as important as anybody else’s, at all levels. In fact, everybody’s contribution is fundamental to enable the manifestation of reality in the specific form it has at any moment, and with just one person missing, or having not existed in the past, the current reality would inevitably be different. To accept that when the flower on the branch of the tree blooms it is the whole tree blooming, and it does not matter if we are the root, the trunk, a branch, a leaf or the flower itself, is a change of vision allowing the acknowledgement of an equal value to all, with their specific function within the unitary process of “plant growth.”
Eugenio Vignali for nearly forty years has studied Eastern and Western philosophies and sapiential traditions, focusing on nonduality in all its currents. He is the author of a book about the great Renaissance philosopher Nicholas of Cusa’s universal unity vision and of the book titled Understanding nonduality through color, where his unique method to develop a non-dualistic awareness is explained. He runs the blog unoassoluto.it, which is the largest online nonduality quotes database in Italian. He gives lectures, runs classes, and offers individual coaching sessions to learn the fundamentals about nonduality and how to make its intellectual understanding a true life-experience. More info in English at www.one-self.org The book Understanding nonduality through color is available as epub on Google Books and Itunes Store.