The taste of non-dual awareness and how to have it

Non-duality is not some esoteric concept but something you can have right now

I’ve ended yesterday’s story with the promise to reveal the instruction that Sam Harris wrote about here:

“Tulku Urgyen simply handed me the ability to cut through the illusion of the self directly, even in ordinary states of consciousness. This instruction was, without question, the most important thing I have ever been explicitly taught by another human being. It has given me a way to escape the usual tides of psychological suffering — fear, anger, shame — in an instant.”

Before I give you the instruction, let me share some preliminary remarks. Because having the pointing alone tends to either lead to frustration if you don’t get it. Or you might shrug off the resulting experience as nothing special if you do have it.

The instruction is part of the Via Positiva, the way of looking and pointing out. Via negativa seeks to let all rest and find the truth that way. It’s more obvious. You try to rest what you’re doing right now. It’s not negative per se, it’s the result of ceasing action. Even though it’s clear, it’s not easy though.

Looking methods, on the other hand, are active pointers to something. They point you at the awareness you’ve always already been. Active, alert awareness. But the goal is not to merely read and understand it but to actively experience this awareness as the true reality of your being. This awareness is hidden in plain sight, so close it’s strange that we could have forgotten about it in the first place. It’s a very simple truth, nothing intellectual at all. Via positiva points you toward this.

But it is exactly in this pointing out that frustrations can arise. Because it’s a simple move that, if you can’t make it, will leave you with less understanding than before. Like looking for a building that you can’t find by walking toward, but merely by moving in a way you never did before.

It’s also the reason why some people just shrug it off. If you don’t look for the solution to your spiritual problems, like freedom from ego identification, illusions, or suffering more broadly, you might not recognize, that you’ve arrived at it. Arrived at it as alert, awake awareness. Because this awareness is groundless, limitless, free from suffering, yet always present, it’s both hard to see and easy to miss, at least before you have actually seen it.

With this in mind, here is (my modification of) the instruction:

Sit down. Pay attention to your breath.

After some moments of watching your breath, turn your attention around. Make this effort brief:

Look at the one who is looking at your breath. Watch the one watching your breath.

Concentrate your efforts on the very first moment of watching. In this moment you can recognize that no one is watching. This brief moment opens awareness to find itself. It doesn’t take longer than a single clap of your hands. Try to do this a couple of times. If you can rest as awareness, do so. You’ve tasted non-dual awareness.

Let me know what you experienced.

I have also given a lot of these pointers during my daily meditations. You can check them here or here.