08 Dec There are Not Two Things – December 8 2020
Advaita… is an extremely simple philosophy. Its complete essence is summed up in its Sanskrit name: a – no, dvaita – two. In a very real sense, there is no need for a book to try to explain it. It can all be summed up in a single sentence:
There are not two things.
Dennis Waite, The Book of One
I have a mind that loves to complicate things. In the past, the principle of Occam’s razor did not appeal to me, for the simplest explanation was usually the most boring, and I needed something big and grandiose to give my mind something to do other than beat me up (which was the thing it did best).
Since learning to meditate all this has changed. My mind no longer needs to be kept busy; it no longer beats me up (most of the time); and simple almost always feels better than complicated.
There is nothing less complicated than the Vedic worldview, or advaita:
There only is one thing. This one thing is consciousness.
From this Truth, all things may be understood. From this truth it becomes clear that, regardless of circumstances, separation is counter to life and unity is in support of life. I can ask myself in every situation: am I looking to be separate from, or looking to be unified with this person/situation/organization? And if the answer is ‘looking to be separate from,’ why am I here?
The Veda tells us that our job is, to the best of our abilities, to align ourselves with this Truth within the relative world, where it is the most difficult to see the unity. How are we to do this? By loving. Love everything, all the time.
The answer to every problem is to love. The fullest expression of my deepest nature is to love. The way in which I may align myself with the flow of nature, the flow of evolution, is to love.
Simple. Not always easy, but profoundly simple.
Today I will find a way to love even that person or situation I find intolerable (and I give myself permission to love from a distance, if that’s what is called for).