The absolute non-dual understanding can actually be expressed through the mind/body/world

 

The more I share non-duality, the more I come across people who stick exclusively to the absolute. To them, Being is the only Truth, and everything else is irrelevant or non-existent. 

 

From an absolute perspective, that is true. Indeed, Being is all that there is, and it knows only itself. All thought is then not known as thought, but as Being. As such it does not even appear as thought. The same is true for everything else. 

 

However, when Being takes a human perspective, there is the appearance of thinking/feeling/acting. And because of this, absolute non-duality is not the final stage of the understanding. “There is no self” is a statement that suppresses the illusion of being human instead of embracing it fully, which contradicts the statement that “Being is all that there is”, and implies that Being is somehow impacted and diminished by the so-called human experience. 

 

Being cannot be enlightened, but the mind and the body can be. An enlightened body/mind is simply one that acts out of love under all circumstances. Sometimes, that means being with all the difficult thoughts and tensions that arise. Other times, it means sharing non-duality, or simply being with someone, accepting them exactly as they are. 

 

The problem that sometimes occurs with statements such as “there is no self” is that when difficult thoughts arise because of tensions in the body, they are acted out. In those cases, the doer says “there is no doer”, and the ego has taken over the non-dual understanding. As soon as a sense of separation is perceived to exist, free will appears in the equation, and that free will must eventually be used to turn against itself and surrender to what is, which often involves a process (such as self-enquiry, forgiveness, meditation, resting as Awareness). 

 

This process of enlightening the mind/body does not have an end. As such, there are two journeys - one in which we recognise our true nature as Awareness (which is also its end), and the other endless journey in which we realign our mind/bodies with this understanding.