Radical Nonduality: The Fascinating Truth of “No Thing”

[Updated October 16, 2022] Unbelievably, nothing exists — not you, me, or anything — there is only the awesome energetic flow of life celebrating itself.

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CONTENTS

[1] Radical Nonduality-Speak — [1.1] Some Nonduality Quotes [2] 3 Types of Nonduality — [2.1] “Ajata” — Nothing Ever Existed — [2.2] Radical Nonduality as the New Zen — [2.3] Radical Nonduality Liberation [3] My Experience — [3.1] Do you see the world completely from this worldview? — [3.2] Do you believe the food you eat does not exist? — [3.3] Can you deny you exist? — [3.4] Criticisms of Radical Nonduality & My Responses [4] A Quantum Physics Version of Radical Nonduality [5] Related Resources (other views on Nonduality)

[1] Radical Nonduality-Speak

This article is “energy” in the form of “sharing”. That is what all communication is.

No one is writing this article. This article is about the mysterious energy of the universe contracting in a particular way that is an article with a logical sequence of words. That appearance is a “story”, which is another form that the energy of the universe takes. The story can also be thought of as a construct of the mind or ego, which is another energy form.

Similarly, the so-called “author” of this article is the energy of the universe contracted into something that appears to be a particular name and body. But that energy is constantly flowing and changing, just as the waters in the ocean morph into fresh waves. This so-called “author” is also a “story”.

Universal energy expands, contracts, and flows in random or unknowable patterns. Some of those contractions appear to see, create, or cause stories about other contractions. But they are all random, with no meaning or purpose, other than the temporary and illusory stories constructed by the ego-mind energy form.

There is an awareness of these energy fluctuations.

It is the “formless awareness”. It is awareness beyond the manifest reality of forms that comes from universal energy. Forms include physical, mental, and emotional. It is awareness without a form attached to it.

That pure formless awareness is completely effortless and choiceless. It is always there, and it is never involved or affected by the fluctuating energy. The apparent body and mind may be affected, and there is an awareness of that. But “it” is not affected.

It is sometimes called the “witness”. Like our vision or hearing, it is only pure awareness and cannot see, hear, or know itself. But it is witnessing without a witnesser. The moment it thinks it is aware of itself as a “witnesser”, it becomes a form, and it is no longer its true self. It becomes an object of its awareness. It often becomes an “ego”.

Like the mind, an “ego” (or sense of “I”) is a type of energy pattern. That ego energy pattern sees other energy patterns and creates stories from them. It claims some of those patterns/stories for itself — as its self-identity. It believes it is the energy of those stories and that it can create or manipulate those energies.

The ego sees other energy patterns/stories as separate from itself. And it has stories of how it can apparently manipulate “other” people and objects. It appears to be doing something. (It is the “doer”.) But the energy patterns (and apparent manipulations) would exist, whether the ego (“I”) energy was present or not. The energies come first, and the stories come second.

Experiences happen. The witnessing of experiences happens. But there is no witness or experiencer.

The ego energy is a story that claims ownership of experiences. It says this is me and that is not me. But that is purely fictional and “owns” nothing.

There is nothing wrong with universal energy taking the many forms of egos and stories. Egos and story-making are permutations of the flow of universal energy. Happenings happen — they never stop. Apparent doingness happens — it never stops. If there is a purpose to those permutations, “we” (the ego) could never know it because “we” are just another story.

All egos and stories are fiction because all that is really happening are random contractions, expansions, excitations, and resistances in the flow of energy.

Those fluctuations and permutations exist within the single wholeness of everything. There is only that single, one wholeness. Nothing else exists.

The “effortless awareness” does nothing. It is that single, one wholeness that is witnessing. Because it does nothing, it is called the “void”, the “nothing”, or the “no thing”. Those names come from the story of “Radical Nonduality”. But that story is also fiction.

The “no thing” contains everything. It is pretending to be everything at the same time. But everything is only the one thing. There is nothing beyond that one thing that is pretending to be everything. And the one thing is the no thing — it is the void.

The one/no thing is unknowable. Nothing can know it because everything is in it. It cannot know itself because doing so requires a separation to reflect upon itself. Such a separation can only appear as a story within it. Separation outside of it is not possible.

The potential stories about the one universal energy are infinite. They each have the same truth. They are all true because “truth” is just another form that the energy takes. And none of them is an “absolute truth” because the energy can never know its entire self to know its absolute truth.

Because it is trying to understand the unknowable, the energy that is this article is as much about strengthening an ego energy as pointing beyond that type of energy.

[1.1] Some Nonduality Quotes

(…because others often say things more clearly than I can — all links are to YouTube…)

Life happens…Thinking happens…Experience happens. But we do not create these, they all happen completely outside of our ego’s control. We [the true self] are simply the witness to these happenings. — Roger Castillo

and

So the watcher is the Source, is the no thing, the silence, which sees that there is a game going on called “I Am a Separate Person”. … That is why, in a sense, I say it is the beginning of the end. It sounds like it is a journey. Of course it isn’t. There is no such thing as a journey or time. But the beginning of the end is the subtle seeing from nowhere that [I am] pretending to be… a separate person. That is when [I], the separate person, begins to die.… That’s the beginning of the end of [me]. — Tony Parsons

and

I don’t see anyone there. … I see the form and hear the voice, but there is no one that I see there. This is “unconditional love”. … So I see that there is no one that is suffering. … This has nothing to do with Tony Parsons. That is just a character. What I am is “All-That-Is” and I see there is no one sitting there. I see a form, but I do not see… an individual separate person. There is no such thing. — Tony Parsons

and

The open secret is there is no secret. And the answer to life is there is no answer. All there is is “aliveness”. All there is is “this”. — Tony Parsons

and

…when physical or emotional pain is felt, the story kicks in and it is now “my pain”. I need to understand it. I need to do something with it. It is not OK for there just to be pain. … So pain appears to happen and then you add yourself to it. And then that is when all the problems start.” — Ken Madden

and

What you are is, actually, not that individual person, the story, that lived reality you feel you are. Actually, what you are is nothing being everything and everything being nothing, which is energy. Which is incomprehensible. “You” can’t imagine that. … Nobody has yet been able to describe what it is like to not be a person anymore. … except it is very ordinary.” — Ken Madden

and

There is no separation. There is only freedom. And what is happening now is freedom. Even the experience “I Am” is freedom being experienced as separation. — Jim Newman

and

“There is nothing to figure out, and nothing to understand. You are not a person. There is no such thing as a person. The so-called person is merely a thought in the mind of God. In truth, it’s even not that. There is only pure Awareness, Consciousness — formless, unborn and undying, and that is who you are. How can the apparent mind possibly comprehend this? It is not possible. The finite can never understand the infinite. The mind does not exist. Seek the Source of the mind, the Source of the ‘I-thought’, by constant, patient Self-enquiry. When the mind is quiet, You shine in all your glory. Be Yourself, and be happy.” — Robert Adams

and

What this is cannot be put into human concepts, it cannot be accurately addressed in words. So, this is another confusing factor in trying to interpret all these philosophies and religions and spiritual paths. Because there is a 100% inaccuracy. Anything that anyone has ever said about reality is untrue.” — Peter Brown

and

All arising phenomena are themselves the awareness of their arising. The sound hears itself. The sight sees itself. The sensation feels itself. The thought thinks itself. There is no awareness apart from anything, no knower to know knowledge. — Casen Davis (comment left on one of my Medium articles)

and

“When the ego arises, everything arises. When the ego subsides, everything subsides. Therefore, the ego is everything.” (And the true self is ‘no thing’.) — Ramana Maharshi, translated by Michael James (the last part, in parentheses, was added by me.)

[2] Definitions of Nonduality & Radical Nonduality

Radical Nonduality is also known as Neo-Advaita. It comes from the Advaita Vedanta school in Hinduism, which emphasizes the ultimate oneness of reality. Spiritual practices expand our consciousness toward oneness, which we know as enlightenment when we reach it.

I created this table as a way of understanding the different ways that the concept of Nonduality is used spiritually:

There are essentially 3 approaches to Nonduality that cover the right half of the Duality — Nonduality Spectrum (categories #4, #5 and #6). Borrowing from Hinduism, these are:

Qualified Nonduality

• (Vishishta Advaita) — this Hindu term is not known in the West, but I see Qualified Nonduality as essentially the same as category #4-New Age Spirituality. — Manifest Reality (including us as a separate ego-self) is a manifestation of Absolute Reality (God/Source/Brahman); both are Real and need to treated as such. — A lot of New Age spirituality is a form of Qualified Nonduality because there is a real self that has a goal of awakening or enlightenment and has many different methods to get there.

Traditional Nonduality

• (Advaita Vedanta) — nowadays this is associated with Ramana Maharshi (1879–19500) and his students, thought it has much in common with Zen/Chan Buddhism and Taoist philosophy. This is category #5-Nonduality Zen & Advaita. — Only Absolute Reality is Real. Manifest Reality is an Illusion (not Real). But Manifest Reality is Real as long as the separate self (ego-self) thinks it is real. — We achieve Self-realization by taming or “killing” our ego and becoming the “no-self”. We can do that through a mix of meditation and knowledge (learning).

Radical Nonduality

• (Neo-Advaita) — a Westernized and more “extreme” version Nonduality, most associated with Tony Parsons (see above) and a growing number of younger Nondualists. This is category #6-Radical Nonduality and is the main focus of this article. — Only Absolute Reality is Real. Manifest Reality (including us) is an Illusion. — There are no practices that the ego-self can do to gain self-realization because the ego-self is an illusion that does not really exist. Since there is no self, there are no goals. Self-realization happens if it happens to arise. (However, in actual practice, it seems that satsangs (talks) are the main method used.)
• “Radical” has 2 meanings: (1) pertaining to the root or fundamental nature of something; and (2) an extreme deviation from a standard or traditional view or condition. Both meanings apply to the term “Radical Nonduality”. — Radical Nonduality speakers seek to express the deepest and most fundamental reality of oneness by totally avoiding any possible references to separation and separate personal identities. It is considered a “radicalized” Western version of traditional Advaita Vedanta that is stripped of Hindu references and traditional practices.

I recently introduced the idea of Modern Nonduality, which exists between Traditional and Radical Nondualities. For more on that see:

[2.1] “Ajata” — Nothing Ever Existed

As noted above, “Advaita” means “not two”, and the fundamental teaching of all Nonduality is that there is only one absolute reality. Relative reality (where everything seems separate) is a dream, story, or illusion. Seeing the illusion is called self-realization, awakening, liberation, and maybe even enlightenment.

Within Nonduality, there are a lot of criticisms of Neo-Advaita from followers of other versions of Advaita. As noted in the previous section a major one is that Neo-Advaita does not sufficiently acknowledge that relative reality exists alongside absolute oneness. In relative reality, there is an “I” (or ego) that exists and can take actions (like meditation) to realize absolute reality (awakening/liberation/enlightenment).

(See section [3.4] and [5.5] below for more examples of criticisms of Radical Nonduality.)

However, many of the greatest sages of Advaita Vedanta in India agreed that the ultimate teaching of Nondualism is Ajata or Ajativada (literally, “no creation”; also called “nonorigination”). Famous Nondualism teachers Gaudapapa (6th c CE), Shankara (8th c CE), and Ramana Maharshi all considered Ajata the highest reality or truth.

Ajativada is the idea that nothing exists now, and nothing ever existed. The more radical Radical Nonduality speakers today say the same thing, though they do not use the word Ajata.

For most of us, viewing this idea from our separate ego-self, Ajata makes no sense. It is obvious that we exist and there are a lot of things happening in our existence.

Non-existence (also found in Buddhism) is one of the most perplexing teachings in Hinduism because it cannot be explained or taught in words. Ramana Maharshi apparently did not talk about it often for that reason. When pressed, he would suggest “self inquiry” (who am I?) as a way one could come to that realization.

For more on Ajativada, see the video linked in the Related Resources section [5.7], below.

“No thought is consistent with realization.” — Ramana Maharshi

I personally resonate with the Neo-Advaita message. I find many of the criticisms of Radical Nonduality (like the one linked near the top of this section) to be nit-picky, over-generalized, and overly defensive. Which is just how I would guess an ego would react to the simplicity of the Neo-Advaita message.

The basic teaching of Radical Nonduality is that nothing exists (which is Ajata in Hinduism). Radical Nondualists often say that the relative reality that seems to exist is simply a collection of temporary permutations in the ever-changing energy field of the universe.

Stories appear around those permutations, but they are all fiction. There is an awareness of the permutations within the oneness. But we cannot know or even define what the awareness/oneness is. We can “be” it, but we cannot “know” it because that would turn the oneness into a separate object.

“Energy” and “stories” sound like more than nothing. Some Radical Nondualists seem believe that there is more than nothing. But others point out that these words are just pointers to the nothingness that cannot be described.

In a Zen koan-like way, Radical Nonduality attempts to break down the ego using logic that goes beyond the ego’s sense of “I Am”. It argues that there is no “I” (nor “we”) doing anything. There is only nothing (or “no thing”) being everything — all at the same time. It is “the sound of one hand clapping”, as the Zen koan says.

The oneness/wholeness is most often likened to a “field of energy”. I visualize it as the Quantum Field, Higgs Field, or Block Universe. From a Radical Nonduality perspective, those are all fictional stories, as well.

And vice versa, everything is nothing. There is no effort or purpose in what the universal energy is doing that “we” can ever “know”. That is because (1) “we” do not exist to know anything, and (2) nothing exists outside of everything (All-That-Is) to know exactly what that everything is.

“For some reason, I can’t explain this profound joy of living in a completely meaningless world.” — anon. posting on a Facebook group

There is only the formless and effortless awareness of energetic happenings that arise from nothing, become everything, and then dissolve back into nothing and everything. But even that description is dualistic and only pointing to the nondual.

The awareness is “effortless” because it does not do or affect anything. There is no “doer”. A doer who is doing and affecting things is the illusion of the ego energy. And there is nothing wrong with that. Just like everything else, it is just the flow of energy contracting and expanding.

Everything that appears to be happening is an illusion and not real.

“We practice nonduality, but we do not bring nonduality into our daily life.”

Tom Das says that this quote is a common teaching in Advaita Vedanta. The quote conveys the idea that Nonduality is not a good teaching for practical life. I think I have heard other Radical Nondualists say something similar, but usually not so direct.

[2.2] Radical Nonduality as the New Zen

Nondualism is also a basic tenet of Mahayana Buddhism, though different traditions vary in their definitions. It is especially prominent in Chan/Zen Buddhism, where the concepts of no self (anattā), emptiness (śūnyatā), and the mantra “not two” are core teachings. It is also fundamental in Taoism.

To me, Radical Nonduality is the New Zen, as seen in these quotes

The true purpose [of Zen] is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. — Shunryu Suzuki, ‘Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice’ (1970)

and

What we call “I” is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. — Shunryu Suzuki, ‘Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice’ (1970)

and

To study the Way is to study the Self. To study the Self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe. … Even the traces of enlightenment are wiped out, and life with traceless enlightenment goes on forever and ever. — Dogen, in ‘Genjokoan’ (for more on this quote, see my article ‘Delusion & Awakening’)

See also my personal interpretation of the “Xin Xin Ming”, considered the foundational text of Chan (Zen) Buddhism:

[2.2.1] Being A Verb

There are things we call feelings, perceptions, and experiences. But there is no experiencer having a feeling, perception, or experience. These are just energetic happenings.

“I live on Earth at present, and I don’t know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing — a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process — an integral function of the universe.” — R. Buckminster Fuller

The idea or feeling that “I” am doing anything, such as writing this article, is an illusion. Instead, there is writing that appears to be happening in the energy field. And there is a fictional “I” (ego) that claims that energetic happening as its own.

But the writing energy would happen whether or not the “I” was there.

Some versions of nondualism say effortless awareness (or formless awareness, or pure awareness, or choiceless awareness) is the only true essence that exists. They call it “witnessing”, though it is not the “witnesser” because that is a “thing” and no thing exists.

Tony Parsons, the “father of radical nondualism”, has also called it “aliveness”, “beingness”, the “knower”, and the “looker”. He says it is “aliveness celebrating aliveness”. But also, all those words only point to it. “It” is beyond all those words and cannot be known to itself.

“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.” — Alan Watts

Others say that even pure awareness (aliveness, beingness) is a fictional story.

From a philosophical perspective, nondualism is a nihilistic message, and possibly an extreme form of negative theology.

Different nihilist positions hold variously that human values are baseless, that life is meaningless, that knowledge is impossible, or that some set of entities do not exist or are meaningless or pointless. — Wikipedia

We often associate the story of nihilism with an existential crisis. That is because our ego resists it, fearing the end of its existence. The opposite is true of nondualism, which puts the ego in proper perspective as something that was never real to begin with. That opens us to the celebration of aliveness.

Our ego will also try to claim the nondual message as its own, turning nondualism into a dualism in what is sometimes called the “spiritual ego”. For more on the spiritual ego and nondualism, see:

[2.3] Radical Nonduality Liberation

I am fine with everything, including me, being an appearance and a fictional story. It makes me want to experience the story as much as I can while time is apparently happening in my awareness. Some Radical Nondualists say you miss your old self after nondual liberation happens. So this apparent “I” intends to enjoy the fictional ego story that seems to be happening.

Nondualists also say there is nothing we can do to bring about nondual liberation (which some call enlightenment). There is no liberated or enlightened person because there is no person. Nonduality cannot be experienced because it, too, does not exist. Liberation, enlightenment, and awakening are just more random energetic happenings. They too are illusions in a fictional story.

To further complicate this, there is no “free will” to bring something about. We never intentionally do anything. Again because “we” do not exist. Things/energy happens, and intention appears to happen. We (our ego) may claim that intention, but it would still happen without the dream of “us”.

(That said, most of the Radical Nondualists I have heard have had long spiritual journeys. Some have even been teachers of other New Age spiritual practices. And traditional Hindu Advaita uses an intellectual approach to break down the ego. So you kind of wonder about effort, free will, time, and randomness.)

Fiction or not, I like the analogy that “nothing” or “no thing” or “witnessing” is the underlying energy wave of reality. Energy contracts and expands in a longitudinal wavelike pattern (like a slinky toy). When it contracts, something appears to happen. There appears to be a person. There appears to be writing. And there appears to be talking, driving, eating, and politics.

But then the energy expands, and the apparent happening dissolves into nothingness (or maybe something else). Another apparent happening then arises from the nothingness.

And all of this occurs with no effort on anyone’s part. And it all exists within a singular field of nothing/no thing being everything at once, and everything being nothing/no thing at the same time.

Because we do not exist, there is no “we” that can ever know the purpose of energy contracting and expanding. It simply is. It is the great mystery of existence.

Radical Nondualism is the mysterious Energy Wave Theory of Everything (article linked below) taken to its most extreme form. Even the energy wave analogy is an illusion and a fictional story created by an illusory “I”.

The paradox of nondualism is that coming to a point where there is no “I”, no “you”, no “other”, no free will, no purpose or meaning to anything, and that everything is a made-up story brings complete freedom from the matrix of the ego.

If the ego is still there, then those conclusions would be a negative nihilism and could easily lead to a deep depression by the ego-self. But when there is no identification with an ego, the ego-self dissolves. Our biological self continues, and is appreciated for what it is, a happening without a “doer”.

I have also heard it called the “unconditional freedom”. Emerson Rad calls it the “unconditional wow” (YouTube). It is “freedom” because when there is no purpose or free will, then anything is possible. It is the “wow” because there is awareness of that freedom in everything, the smallest flower to our entire planet.

It is life unedited. Jez Alborough (YouTube) calls it “choiceless awareness”. Our ego story does not edit what we see, and we allow everything. We no longer filter things into acceptable/unacceptable, allowed/unallowed, preferred/unpreferred, right/wrong, and good/bad. Some say we see the “truth”, or the “true reality”.

That is nondual liberation. It is knowing non-existence from pure awareness, not from thinking about it. Thinking, reading, writing, and talking about it are all forms of separation in our made-up stories. They point to “it”. But they are not “it” and they will all will fall away in liberation. And all that is left is “this” — what is present “now”.

As the quote above from Facebook shows, liberation is a total celebration of the oneness of “this”, of “what is”, of the “present now”. Ken Madden (quoted above) likes to say it is “perfectly ordinary”. It is what always has been and what always will be.

Roger Castillo (YouTube link) says it is getting on with life. It is doing what I have to do in each moment, as if it was real, as if I were my body, and as if I were the doer. In that respect, nothing changes with liberation, which is reminiscent of the famous Zen Buddhism saying:

Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. —Zen Buddhism

Anger, fear, love, like, dislike, and other emotions continue to happen. Preferences continue to arise. These are all energetic forms that are part of the flow of life. We call them our personality when they appear to be associated with the energy of our body and mind. We also call them experiences.

But one thing changes in a big way. By knowing the doer is an illusion, we see suffering and attachments as the illusions they are. The apparent me no longer owns them. That is when we connect to Source, and that is what the Buddha taught.

“Duality is delusive before enlightenment, but post-enlightenment duality imagined for the sake of devotion is more beautiful than nonduality.” — Narahari

(I understand the quote above to mean that once duality is seen as the apparent dream of Source/God/Nothing-Being-Everything, every experience that arises in awareness becomes that.)

Spirituality, beyond Nonduality, is full of paradoxes. For more on that, see…

[2.3.1] The End of Suffering

I have heard some Nondualists say that we end the suffering of the ego-self (or personality), though physical suffering (pain) continues. Others seem to imply that all forms of suffering end. Pain might happen, but we no longer look at it as suffering.

For Castillo, nondual liberation means “freedom from suffering”. Others say it opens the doors to getting in touch with our authentic or true self, which is the universal witnessing. And I have heard that all our experiences continue to happen, there is just no experiencer to own them.

In one of his quotes above, Tony Parsons says liberation is “unconditional love”. That is because when there is a seeing of everything as simply forms of energy, there are no judgments and no labels. We accept the apparent “other” completely for the story that it is. Elsewhere, he says that “unconditional love” is the universal energy that creates and maintains all existence.

And since every story is a fiction, then no story is better than any other. We celebrate the aliveness of every story/thing/person we encounter in our story. And when we accept that unconditionally, anything and everything is possible.

[2.3.2] A Nonduality Liberation Poem by Nancy Neithercut

awakening feels like losing your mind… and it is terrifying… as you are a product of the mind stream and this thought stream creates the known or fabricated world, it is like losing all that you know including the idea of a know-er… it feels like you are dying… that your world is dying… that time is dying… and for the very few who fall all the way…. there is not even nothing left I don’t know how belief in thought ends… it is not belief in thought only, it is the belief in belief that ceases

there is no one to attach or dis-attach… it feels like endless knots untying… like the strings that held the sun and moon and you into place dissolving… like the inside and outside of a bubble merging… pierced by love’s arrows… the skin the teeth the eyes the blood the bone the marrow of your existence ripping apart… an unravelling of endless fairy tales about who you are and what the world is like… until there is not even nothing left no reference points whatsoever no things nor non things no goal to reach no path to tread no ground to land on no one to land… yet you remain a beautiful swirling iridescence colors sliding on the surface of a bubble dividing the universe into an imaginary inside and outside painting love and beauty into the dream. …knowing you are the dream makes it all the more wondrous

…

—Nancy Neithercut (Amazon link), posted on her Facebook page, May 6, 2022

[3] My Experience

The following is based on responses to a question I received about this article….

[3.1] Q. Do you see the world completely from this worldview?

According to Tony Parsons, and most others, “nondual liberation” is instantaneous, complete, and permanent — it happens suddenly and changes everything forever. Nothing like that has happened (yet) in this life of mine.

But I very much resonate with the radical nondual “sharings” I listen to these days. Those sharings (teachings) seem to bring together much of what I have come to believe since my teenage years about the nature of reality. (I read Seth Speaks when I was 19.)

Based on the Q&As, others resonate like I do. It seems like maybe a partial, but maybe not full, “nondual liberation”. I don’t really know, and I don’t really try too hard to think about it.

And of course, I don’t really exist, from a nondualism view. It’s just what’s happening. But I do find it easier to see events in my life as largely beyond my ego-self control. I (my ego-self) can act, but the results of my actions are outside my 3D-self realm of understanding. I often attribute them to my soul-self or higher-self. But I also see those as just stories, and I really don’t know.

But from that perspective, I get a glimpse of how it/liberation is as ordinary as possible. Like “chop wood, carry water”, nothing in the outer world changes. It is only the “I” that seems different.

[3.2] Q. Do you believe the food you eat does not exist?

As for food, it is what it is.

It doesn’t matter much what I think about it. It is an energy being food and I (my body) am an energy that is expressing hunger. There is often an emotional energy that arises if I (ego-self) especially like or dislike a food. And all of that is awesome.

I (as my more expanded self) accept those things as the universe being perfectly what it is, and even celebrate that. That is what “aliveness” means. It is the intensity of everything being allowed to be what it is without resistance and judgment. When judgments arise, at some point I realize they are expressions of my ego-self, and from there I can settle back into my more expanded self (or soul-self).

I have heard that the Buddha was not a vegetarian. He accepted and ate whatever was served to him and was totally appreciative. Apparently, Buddhism did not adopt vegetarianism until almost 1000 years after Buddha, when it was first popularized among Jains and Hindus.

I favor organic vegan foods because, in my story, they are better for our health and our world. But I am a flexitarian and I appreciate whatever I am served by others — though I only nibble at the meat.

[3.3] Q. Can you deny you exist? Not concoct and superimpose some theory as an answer. Do you exist?

The simple answer is yes, I exist, … and no, I do not exist, at the same time. I am a Zen koan, as are we all. (How’s that for spiritually bypassing the questions! I also describe that response in section [2] above.)

As long as I (ego-self) have a physical body, I exist in physical reality. When this physical body passes on, I (ego-self) believe I will continue to exist as an energetic body, which still has a self-identified ego (some call it an Astral Body or Soul — see my Ego, Soul, & Beyond article above). When that energetic body passes on, I (as an ego-self) might continue to exist in some other form, if I so desire.

But I believe I will ultimately return to a non-self, nondual, and unmanifested Source-self, which is the emptiness from which all forms arise. And I believe that is, was, and will always be my true self.

Of course, I cannot prove any of that. 😛

While I was responding to the questions above, I was listening to Ken Madden’s post on YouTube for Feb. 6, 2022 (YouTube). He seemed to address these same topics in interesting depth.

[3.4] Criticisms of Radical Nonduality & My Responses

The previous question is typical of skeptics of Radical Nonduality. As mentioned in section [2], many people have difficulty with the Radical Nonduality message. Some say it encourages nihilism and has resulted in serious psychological damage.

Nihilism is the belief that nothing is real, nothing is true, there is no right or wrong, I do not exist, and there is no purpose to life. It is an existential crisis and a tragic form of depression that can lead to suicide, as indicated in the first part of Nancy Neithercut’s poem at the end of section [2] above.

There are also support networks to help people recover from Neo-Advaita teachings. (This interview on Batgap.com is a good example of the criticisms by someone who provides such support. Rick Archer, the host of that show, does not like Neo-Advaita, and that interview prompted me to add this section in my August 2022 update of this article. See also section [5.5] below.)

One typical Radical Nonduality response to those criticisms is that they are efforts by the ego to justify its separation. In other words, blocking our true self from coming into our consciousness. If one is totally identified with their outer ego-self, then they would not be able to see that.

For more on the ego doing things like that, see…

Another common criticism of Radical Nonduality it is an advanced teaching and only those who have cleared out a lot of the ego shadows can appreciate and benefit from it. Tom Das, a traditional Advaita Vedanta teacher, takes that view in this YouTube video. Does that kind of imply that it is more true or accurate than less advanced teachings?

Most Neo-Advaita speakers readily admit that Radical Nonduality is a niche teaching and is not for everyone. Should they stop talking if that is the case?

From a Nonduality perspective (not just Neo-Advaita), because the universe is the one, undivided reality of God/Source/The Absolute, it is perfect as it is. Just because we cannot see that perfection does not mean it is not there. Many spiritual teachings suggest that, ultimately, there is no good or bad in anything. You could say that everything has a purpose (simply to exist) and nothing has purpose. Reality is simply being reality.

We can never know why someone is drawn to Neo-Advaita teachings (or any other spiritual teachings), no matter the outcome. We can never know the path of another person, or even our own. Everything happens as it happens.

Compassion arises for those who suffer mental and physical anguish. Helping actions may also arise. There is nothing right or wrong about any of that. But in the end, we can never change another person. We can create many stories about change, but one’s mental condition will only change when the time is right for that to happen, which very well might not be in this incarnation.

That response is not for everyone. It can easily be seen as spiritual bypassing by someone fully identified with their outer ego-self. It can only be appreciated by someone who is more identified with their inner soul-self, which is closer to the truth of Source/the Universe. (Again, see my Ego, Soul, & Beyond article above.)

As I said in section [3.1], I (my ego-self) love Radical Nonduality (as do many others) because it challenges my beliefs and forces me to look at reality differently. It expands my consciousness in that way. I have not considered it nihilistic.

The laughter and joy expressed by the Radical Nonduality speakers I listen to seems authentic. It seems to come from an absolute sense of allowing all that is, and a feeling of unconditional love. To me, that is the highest form of consciousness available to our 3D personality.

I have never had much respect for authority figures in my life, so I am not attached to any teacher or teachings (although intellectually, I really do like Seth/Jane Roberts a lot). Like any other teaching, I will get what I can from the Neo-Advaita and then move on if and when something else arises. That is just what is happening in my awareness.

This is an example of how Seth/Jane Roberts addresses the illusion of reality…

[4] A Quantum Physics Version of Radical Nonduality

Quantum physicists like to play with similar concepts about space, time, and reality as spiritualists. The quote below by the late Hans-Peter Dürr, is an example of that. More recently, in his 2021 book, Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution, Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli suggests that “no thing” exists at the quantum level of reality.

Instead, there are only different relationships existing within what I call the energy wave of reality. We call those relationships “things”. Physicists hate when spiritualists apply their concepts to anything larger than a quantum particle. But I think there is a strong correlation between what he says and the Radical Nondualists (above) are saying.

From the article:

…space and time were nothing more than the sum total of distances and durations between all the objects and events of the world. If we removed the contents of the universe, we would remove space and time also. This is the “relational” view of space and time: they are only the spatial and temporal relations between objects and events. The relational view of space and time was a key inspiration for Einstein when he developed general relativity.

Rovelli makes use of this idea to understand quantum mechanics. He claims the objects of quantum theory, such as a photon, electron, or other fundamental particle, are nothing more than the properties they exhibit when interacting with — in relation to — other objects.

These properties of a quantum object are determined through experiment, and include things like the object’s position, momentum, and energy. Together they make up an object’s state.

According to Rovelli’s relational interpretation, these properties are all there is to the object: there is no underlying individual substance that “has” the properties.

[5] Related Resources

• [5.1] ⬇ In my review of different purposes of life, I grouped the 21 versions I found into 4 types: — Type 1 — Spiritual Ascension Purposes (Life as a School) — Type 2 — Celebrating Our Life Purposes (in the Ultimate Playground) — Type 3 — Creating a Better World Purposes (Creating Our Own Reality) — Type 4 — No Purpose Purposes (Beyond the Ego-Mind). The last type includes Radical Nondualism perspectives.

• [5.2] ⬇ What is it like to be in a state of Radical Nonduality? This discussion (on YouTube) is a good example — between Emerson (a popular Radical Nonduality speaker) and Miko Owada (who had a recent realization).

• [5.3] ⬇ David Bingham (on YouTube) describes Nonduality in the broader context of contemporary spirituality in a very a very accessible (and less Radical) way in this interview.

• [5.4] ⬇ This interview with Pravrajika Divyanandaprana (on YouTube) provides an excellent overview of traditional Advaita Vedanta, as opposed to Neo-Advaita, which all the speakers mentioned above represent.

• [5.5] ⬇ In this interview (on YouTube), Nish Dubashia gives one of the better arguments I have heard against Radical Nonduality. His model is based entirely on logic, and not on direct experience. In my opinion, he has an incomplete understanding of Radical Nonduality, which is common among those who criticize it.

• [5.6] ⬇ Here is a guided meditation (11min long) to experience Radical Nonduality. It is a type of neti-neti (not this, not that) meditation, which is a core technique of Advaita Vedanta. — Roger Castillo says meditation teaches awareness, not knowledge, of how thoughts are objects that arise separate from “us”.

• [5.7] Tom Das (a Ramana Marharshi devotee) explains Ajativada, the ultimate truth in Advaita Vedanta nondualism, in the second half of this video ⬇.

• [5.8] ⬇ If you have read much of my other writings, you know I am a fan of Seth, as channeled by Jane Roberts from 1963 to 1984. Seth was the original source of the Law of Attraction and the phrase, “you create your own reality”. My first article on Radical Nonduality contrasted it with the Law of Attraction, suggesting they are completely opposite New Age spiritual beliefs…

• [5.8] ⬇ I have written several articles on Radical Nonduality from different perspectives, which are found here:

• Those articles are behind the Medium paywall. For paywall-free access to my articles go to www.AlanLew.com, linked below.

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