You can’t start from dual & get to nondual

 Cee
Cee

Some have asked the question over the years, “I’m in meditation and I feel this peace, and then as soon as I get up and walk around I don’t feel it anymore, and I want to hold on to it. I want to keep it. How do I bring this joy and peace that I feel in meditation into my everyday life?”

Well, let’s talk about meditation a bit first. In our way there is not a point in the distance that one must reach, and so meditation is not a progressive means to get somewhere else other than where we are. As Master Nome has pointed out, you can’t start from something dual and get to something nondual. If there seems to be duality and a sense of separateness then we only need to clear up that mistaken notion. There’s actually no distance traveled.

Yet wise seekers who find themselves yearning for the truth because they have confused themselves with the physical form, or they are suffering, have turned to meditation as recommended by their teachers and by the great traditions. And the number of people who awakened without any meditation are small in comparison to those who have used meditation as a tool to find the truth.

We sit, we are still, we look inside ourselves, taking all attention from outer things like worries, cares, and our own physical form. Sometimes we say we “park” the body, because we put no attention on the body when we meditate. We go IN. And it may take you awhile to understand what IN is, but IN is profound. Some people think it’s a rejection of “out” but actually we just use it to understand what’s real.

We finally come to a realization that there is absolutely no division between in and out, no one to have such a thought and no division between anything. We come to the utter and complete joy and peace of pure existence, pure being. And it’s not like we come to it – it’s more like uncovering it. Uncovering what’s real and just taking away the false assumptions.

So the way we do this is (as recommended by Ramana Maharshi and taught to me by my own teacher Nome – the wonderful Nome who’s taught for 25 years with the greatest humility and brightness. They recommended, and I assure you this is the most direct way), look into your own existence. We use the simple words, “who am I?” The words don’t matter. It’s the fierce intention of looking to see who you REALLY are.

Don’t you think this is a good endeavor in this lifetime? To know who you are before you start living it and running off with all kinds of assumptions of who you are?
So find a way to park this physical form for a while and delve into your own existence. I can’t tell you what this means. You have got to find it out for yourself. I can point, I can urge, but you must do it yourself. I can’t give you yourself. Only you can find yourself.

A student of Nome and Ramana Maharshi, Cee meets with people and holds retreats in the quiet, still, and lush town of Hana, Maui.