Nonduality is usually treated as a spiritual teaching. And while nonduality doesn’t complain about such treatment, it leads to misunderstandings.

Nonduality isn’t about lofty ideas or mystical experiences or smart-ass finessing or esoteric teachings or wise gurus or [insert whatever you believe it’s about].

It’s a lot simpler than that. In plain English nonduality simply means not-two.

In other and a few more words, there are not two or three or 143 things actually existing. You might think it means there is only one thing existing but even that is off the mark.

There isn’t even one thing.

If we admit to one thing, we’d have to admit to a second thing, and third, and so on, until we end up with the ten thousand things, to paraphrase Lao Tsu.

What this whole nonduality thing points to is the obvious and evident non-conceptual being-knowing that is present no matter what else seems to be happening.

That’s the essence of the “teaching.”

Of course such a radical notion has vast implications.

Where a lot of people go wrong is that they’re primarily concerned with the implications. They hear the good news and instead of stopping there and letting that sink in, venture back into conceptual labyrinths about what it all means.

If we’ve been at this for a while we might become exceedingly frustrated. We tried it all with sincerity. We feel like we understand what it’s about and we don’t know what else there is to get. And yet, something still seems amiss. But we don’t know what we’re missing (or not missing).

That’s actually a good point to be in. It means the mind has exhausted its conceptual tricks and realized the futility of those tricks.

No One-sided Coin

Now you’re ready to stop overshooting the goal and to see that you’re not only already at the goal but you are that goal.

Trying to get your mind to provide you with conceptual certainty about your non-conceptual existence is like a police officer burgling himself and then calling the police (himself) to help him figure out who burgled him.

It’s absurd and kind of funny.

So instead of snitching on yourself to yourself in the hopes of getting yourself to tell you who you are, get clear on the two main points.

The most important point is that you are that ever-present non-conceptual awareness. Don’t breeze over this point as if going: duh! now what? just to jump straight back into attempting to find yourself in concepts. Stay with this point. Get clear on it and everything else follows on its own. This is the main act.

The second most important point is that you are not a separate individual self because there is no separate individual self. The you you think you are is the shadow, the fata morgana, the bird in the empty cage, etc.

These two points are the two main nondual pointers. The positive and negative aspects of it — the two sides of the nondual coin. Ultimately there are no sides to this coin but putting it like this might prove to be a useful pointer for some.

Seekers are usually stuck on one or the other side. But as you know, you can’t have a one-sided coin. You can’t have tails without heads or vice versa.

The Solution

One side might say: “I know there is no me. I looked far and wide and there really is no separate self. But there is still all this me-stuff going on.”

The other side might say: “I know I am pure awareness. But I still feel like a distinct player in the game, like I’m still this separate point of sentience.”

Both of these statements point to the same solution: Get clear on what you are.

For the first group it might be important to hear that knowing what you are not is not the same as knowing what you are. That would be like holding tails up to your face and wondering why you’re not seeing heads.

If you claim that you know there is no “me,” then why are you still making concessions to it? Why are you trying to get rid of the shadow with a broom after having seen that it’s only a shadow?

You are so obsessed with your conceptual non-existence you are overlooking your non-conceptual existence. Get clear on what you are and forget what you are not (you aren’t that anyway, so why put so much emphasis on it?).

You exist. You are and you know that you are. Being-knowing is obvious. Ditch the negation and look at that.

Now to the second group.

You might say you know you are pure awareness but do you? Could it be that the conceptual idea of who you are has hijacked your non-conceptual being?

Look into this again. It’s not that you are awareness. But awareness is. It’s not your personal being; it’s impersonal.

If you truly know that what you are can’t be conceptualized or objectified in any way, then why would you still try to do it and get confused about failing to do so?

Seeking and searching for what you already are is a strange thing. It’s like chasing shadows while trying to outrun your own two feet. No wonder it’s so damn exhausting. Merely choosing new shadows to chase or trying to run faster than ever doesn’t work.

The Ordinary Absolute

To move beyond concepts about yourself, consider that it’s not even about knowing what you are. “What” is always a concept. It’s a fixed dead end. Don’t think that slapping a label on something will give you knowledge about it.

You can’t know what you are. You can only know that you are. Words like awareness and consciousness are pointers, nothing more. Feel free to forget the labels. If you can’t forget them, a frontal lobotomy might help (just kidding!).

(I am) aware. (I) exist. There is no doubt about it. Now don’t move one step further.

There is nothing more for you to do or understand when it comes to this. This is the ordinary absolute. You don’t need any exotic or mystical experience. You don’t need to be a perfect human being. You don’t need to wait for anything to happen.

Your everyday awareness — the one that’s aware of these words right now — is what we’re talking about. Does this sound like a mystical experience or something you have to achieve?

Of course not!

And if you now think that you’re not getting it, you’re back into the conceptual games. Just notice that this what you are hasn’t moved one bit — it’s exactly the same when you think you’re getting it versus not getting it.

Look at this with fresh new eyes.

If you believe you exist as a separate individual self, see that what you think you are isn’t there. You don’t exist.

If you believe you don’t exist, see that there is an obvious knowing of that. You exist.

Don’t get stuck in either the negative or the positive. What you are, needs neither negation nor affirmation. Flip the damn coin and recognize that existence exists and it’s not about you.