A Spiritual Explainer

Where Do You Fall on the Duality - Nonduality Spectrum?

[Updated Oct 4, 2022] Duality and Nonduality are opposites of one thing, with shades of beliefs between them.

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The more nonduality speakers and teachings I listened to, the more I wondered about the different version of nondualism. After mulling this over, I came up with the following Duality-Nonduality Spectrum. (Click on the table to see a larger version.)

1. Duality*

• Materialism, Modernism, Scientism (some consider these types of religions)
• Everything exists as separate, material things. The measurable, objective and material universe is the only thing that is real.
• God, a soul, and spiritual and subjective realities are fantasies that do not really exist. Or if they do exist, they can never be known objectively.
• The purpose of life is to evolve in measurable ways. But what “evolve” means, and “who” evolves (individual, family, society…) are open to interpretation.
• Methods/Practices: Empirical Science, Logical Thinking
• (*) See the Notes section below for additional comments on each of these categories.

2. Dualistic Spirituality

• A God exists. He/she/it created humans and the universe, is separate from everything it created, and many or may not be involved in the lives of its creations.
• Humans have a spiritual aspect, which is often called their soul. But other creatures may not have a soul.
• Some teachings believe in multiple gods and spiritual beings, including angels and devils, who have distinct roles and may interact with humans.
• There is a future heaven (or other ideal utopian reality) that we can reach through proper actions in this life, mostly based on devotion to God. Reaching that utopia is the ultimate purpose of life.
• Methods/Practices: Prayers, Devotional Offerings, Attending Religious Services & Ceremonies, Studying Scriptures, Receiving Grace

3. Esoteric Religions, Hinduism, Buddhism

• A God exists. He/it created humans and the universe from itself. Therefore, everything in existence is a part of the oneness of God/Brahman. (The oneness is experiencing itself though separate forms, which is also known as Pantheism.)
• Humans have a spiritual aspect, which is often called their soul, and which is their direct connection to God/Brahman. But they also have a strong ego-self that maintains a high degree of separation from (and veiling of) God/Brahman.
• Through proper practice and learning, we can achieve a future ideal state (enlightenment) in which ego-self separation is reduced to allow the oneness of God/Brahman to emerge in the experience of this life. That is the ultimate purpose of life.
• Methods/Practices: Meditation, Devotion & Surrender, Studying Spiritual Texts, Learning from Gurus & Masters; Mysticism and Gnostic teachings; Meditation is a broad set of inward practices that spans #2 (prayer is a type of meditation), #3, #4, and #5 (Self Inquiry is a meditation practice)

4. New Age Spirituality

• Everything is an aspect of the oneness of God/Brahman/All-That-Is/the Absolute/Source. Our reality is that oneness experiencing itself as separate and diverse things (Pantheism).
• Humans have multiple spiritual aspects, like an ego and a soul, which are expressed through many realities (or dimensions), incarnations, and psychic and other spiritual experiences. Subjective realities are as real as objective realities.
• There is a future ideal state (awakening & enlightenment) in which individuals experience the oneness of creation in this life through proper actions. That is the ultimate purpose of life.
• Earth is moving toward a future ideal state based on oneness and unconditional acceptance of the diversity of reality. Individual actions can bring that utopian Earth into existence.
• Methods/Practices: Meditation, Yoga, Energy and Shadow work, learning from Teachers & Gurus, and a wide variety of other practices, borrowing from all spiritual traditions, with an emphasis on psychological releases and extraordinary spiritual experiences; Tantric practices in Hinduism and Buddhism seem to share a lot in common with the openness of New Age spirituality.

We experience individuality in our bodies, but in truth are each expressions of this Unified Source, as waves are expressions of the ocean, cells parts of bodies and leaves living expressions of trees… Once you awaken to (and anchor your awareness in) this understanding, that you are an expression of ALL that is, everything in your life will change. — Christopher Chase

5. Zen Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta Hinduism, Nondualism

• Everything is a fractal (a complete reflection) of the oneness that is an unknowable and indescribably Brahman/Source/Void/Tao.
• Reality is real, but it is not found in thoughts or judgments. But most humans live in a false reality of separation created by thoughts, judgments, and ego. At best, that illusion can be considered a dream of Brahman/Source.
• True reality is found in pure awareness and beingness, without the ego. Our real-self is the empty, no-self Void/Tao, which is the silent witnessing beyond the dream.
• We can achieve this self-realization (enlightenment) in this life through practices that take us beyond our ego-self’s dominance. That is when we see reality as it really is, which is the ultimate goal of life.
• Methods/Practice: Self Inquiry Meditation (Who am I?, neti-neti, Koans), Learning from Teachers & Gurus, including Satsangs and Dharma Talks

6. Radical Nonduality

• Everything is a fluctuation of “energy” in the oneness/nothingness of a single universe/reality. The energy moves for no reason and is never divided or separated. — “Energy”, “universe”, and “reality” are analogies for something that is apparently real, but is really not. “Oneness”, ”nothingness” and “nonduality” are analogies for what cannot be known or understood.
• The apparent separations we experience come from how our ego-self interprets the energy fluctuation to create stories and beliefs about the past and future. The ego is the story. It does not exist beyond the story.
• There is no self. There is only the fluctuation of energy. There is no purpose or goal, not time or space, no soul, no free will, and no practices or methods that we (our ego-self) can do to change what is simply happening now in each moment.
• Our ego-self can never know this. It can never be described in words (which are dualistic). If it happens, “nondual knowing” is simply seen to be what is happening now.
• Methods/Practices: None. There are no practices or teachings that can ever bring a non-existent “self” to any kind of realization. (But listening to “satsang” speakers talk from this perspective seems to be a kind of practice, though they would deny it.)

From Duality to Nonduality, and Back Again

— #1 & #2 are Dualism — #3 & #4 are both Dualism and Nondualism — #5 & #6 are Nondualism

I have personally been all over the Duality — Nonduality Spectrum.

I grew up attending Catholic schools, which is #2 (Dualistic Spirituality). My pre-retirement academic career was #1 (Dualism). My Medium writings starting mostly with #4 (New Age Spirituality) and some #3 (Buddhism & Hinduism) in 2020. My most recent writings have been more on #5 and #6 (Nondualism). I do not know much about Esoteric Western Religions (#3).

“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing. Love is knowing I am everything. And between the two, my life moves.” — Nisargadatta Maharaj

In this quote, being nothing is being in pure nonduality. Being everything is being in pure duality. And like the nonduality teacher, Nisargadatta (1897–1981), our lives move between these two ends of the Duality-Nonduality Spectrum.

We might not have the wisdom of a Hindu guru, but we still have glimpses of oneness when we see a magnificent sunset or connect with nature in other ways. And some say the whole purpose of separation and duality is to experience love for another being. That kind of experience is not possible if everything is one and there are no other beings.

There is a tendency for those toward the right (higher numbers-Nonduality) on the spectrum to consider themselves superior to those on the left (lower numbers-Duality). Even those in the ego-less realms of #5 and #6 sometimes show that tendency.

But nonduality, the ultimate oneness of everything and beyond, does not reject anything within that oneness. From that oneness, there are no divisions of this/that, right/wrong, better/worse.

Thus, from that perspective of human diversity, none of the categories in the Duality-Nonduality Spectrum is better or worse than any other. They each serve the needs of individuals who are attracted to them. Diversity is what makes our manifest reality interesting!

Dualistic spiritual teachings are suited to seekers who have a clearly dualistic worldview, for example, which is most people. Esoteric, New Age, and nondualistic teaching are suited to much smaller populations, although they seem to be growing in numbers in recent times.

Somewhere in the spectrum the emphasis shifts from mostly Duality to Nonduality. But across all of the Spectrum there is a mix of Dual and Nondual messages. People go back and forth between the two in their messages and their experiences.

That can be confusing if one is looking for consistency. But our apparent reality/experience is both Dual and Nondual. It can be helpful if we can keep that perspective, which is not easy. The ideal is to come to know that perspective from a more-than-intellectual level of being.

That is because words are inherently dualistic. So, any use of words (like this article) engages in dualism. Therefore, it is often said that the best we can do in our descriptions is to point to that which is indescribable.

From that perspective, the Spectrum shows how different people use different words to do that. Some of those words try to capture the nondual oneness more precisely than others, perhaps. But there are always shortcomings.

Interestingly, I think Hinduism’s 8 Limbs of Yoga provide a good example of some of these issues in our contemporary understandings of the Duality-Nonduality spectrum.

The 8 Limbs of Yoga

The popular Advaita Vedanta nonduality teachings in Hinduism stem from Patanjali’s 8 Limbs of Yoga. Yoga means “union” with the divine, or in our terms, oneness with all existence. The 8 Limbs are the Hindu path to align us with that union.

• The first 2 Limbs are the Yamas and Niyamas, which are the “dos and don’ts” of how we interact with the outside world and ourselves as a separate ego. (I think of them as the Hindu equivalent of the Bible’s 10 Commandments.) They are Dualistic (#2) practices to bring our dualistic ego-self into alignment with the divine (or Brahman).
• Those are followed by Asanas (body postures) and Pranayama (breathwork), which are the 3rd and 4th Limbs. These are Esoteric (#3) and New Age (#4) practices that seek to align our subtler energy body with the divine. That subtle body is closer to the origin of our ego-self thoughts and emotions. It is still within duality, but closer to nonduality. We can also think of it as working with the higher dimensional energetic realms of duality.
• The next three Limbs are versions of meditative practice. Pratiyahara (withdrawing the senses, 5th Limb), Dharana (concentration meditation, 6th Limb), Dhyana (transcendent meditation, 7th Limb). Each of these moves us one step further from duality to nonduality. This is the focus of most Nonduality, Advaita, and Zen (#5) teachings we encounter today. Through satsang/dharma talks and guided meditations, they attempt to teach our separate ego-self to control/let go of the senses, control/let go of thoughts, and control/let go of a sense of separate self.
• The final 8th Limb of Yoga is Samadhi, which is the state of unity consciousness or nondual oneness with the universe. I believe this is the realm that Radical Nondualists (#6) (aka Neo-Advaitists) are attempting to speak from. I say “attempting” because no words or descriptions can describe or capture it.

Advaita — Neo-Advaita Debates

Hindu teachers debate whether the 8 Limbs need to be followed in the order above, or if they are all worked on at the same time. Traditional teachers generally believe they are a sequence. Modern teachers tend to say you can start with any Limb and the others will follow.

For example, in Light on Yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar (1918–2014) clearly states that the 8 Limbs were to follow one another, which would put the yoga asanas he famously taught near the start of the path to enlightenment. But Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1918–2008) argued that was a misinterpretation of Patanjali. For him, the 8 Limbs were not in any specific order, and all worked together, which meant one did not need to wait to learn the Transcendental Meditation technique that he brought to the West.

Either way, all Limbs are required in the end, and they will all lead to the goal of unity. That is the biggest criticism that traditional Nonduality (#5) teachers have of Radical Nondualists (#6) who, they say, ignore the importance of the other 7 Limbs (as well as the Hindu scriptures) on the path to the divine.

In response, Radical Nondualists would say (I believe) that only the 8th Limb comes close to what is apparently “real”. The other 7 are all illusions — they are dream experiences hiding reality. They are perfectly fine to do — they are the dream dreaming an infinity of duality experiences. There is no right or wrong in that.

But in the end, like duality, the other 7 Limbs have nothing to do with the no-self, no-thing, of nothingness from which everything emerges. Even the idea of “oneness” and “unity consciousness” are dualities because they are experiences contrasted with “diversity” and “separation”. All experiences exist in duality. For Radical Nondualists, Nonduality is not an experience.

“Do what you want to do but keep doing it; don’t remain doing nothing. Repeat the name, or think deeply or seek the source of your ‘I’ consciousness, do “atma vichara”, but keep working on yourself. This is very important.” — Ramana Maharshi

Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) may be the foremost modern proponents of Advaita nonduality in India. He seems to have straddled the line between Advaita and Neo-Advaita. According to Wikipedia, he would use statements like the quote above (⬆) when talking to people who are not ready for the deepest teachings. But ultimately, his message was more aligned with Neo-Advaita than traditional Advaita Vedanta.

Self appearing as the world is just like a rope seeing itself as a snake; just as the snake is, on scrutiny, found to be ever non-existent, so is the world found to be ever non-existent, even as an appearance. — Ramana Maharshi

Notes

• #1 (Dualism) = No matter the spiritual beliefs and practices of an individual, our physical body exists in duality. Whether “real” or not, that is a baseline human experience. — Quantum physics seems to be using a purely dualistic (mathematical) approach to find a kind of material oneness in, for example, Quantum field Theory (QFT) — although it is still more theory than fact.
• #2 (Dualistic Religions) = Dualistic Spirituality is the form of spirituality that is most accessible to general populations. A separate and super-human God is ideal for the vast majority of people who identify as a separate mind-body beings. It is especially seen in those who regularly attend churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples.
• #3 (Esoteric Traditions) = Esoteric versions of Judeo, Christian, and Islamic traditions share much in common with the general philosophical teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism. For Hinduism, I associate that more with the Vishishta Advaita (qualified nondualism) teachings, rather than the pure Advaita Vedanta (nondualism) teachings, which I put in section #5. (For more on this, see the video below on 3 major forms of Hinduism.) — A basic belief of Vishishta Advaita is that “we are individuals, and we are part of the oneness”. In Buddhism, this is known as “interdependence”. But those are still dualistic teachings, which is why they are completely rejected in #5 (#4 is in between #3 and #5). — For an understanding of Christian Nonduality, see this interview with Nicholas Bartoli (on YouTube).
• #4 (New Age Spirituality) = Vishishta Advaita (qualified nondualism) in Hinduism is also the foundation for many western New Age spiritual practices. For example, Transcendental Meditation, as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1918–2008), comes from the Advaita Vedanta tradition. But Maharishi often emphasized that the goal of TM was to live 100% in the Absolute (oneness) and 100% in the Relative (separation). That seems dualistic and makes it sound more like qualified nondualism to me. His emphasis on Siddhis (psychic powers) also puts TM more in the New Age Spirituality (#4) category.
• #5 (Nonduality) = Nonduality (the oneness of everything) is also found in (#3) Esoteric Religions, Hinduism, and Buddhism, and (#4) New Age Spirituality. But in those, it is mixed with many other practices that are dualistic in nature. — In addition to Advaita Vedanta in Hinduism, pure nondualism is associated with the Buddhist concepts of no self and emptiness. Zen/Chan (with Taoist influences) is the version of Mahayana Buddhism where that form of nondual emptiness is most clearly expressed, which is why I emphasize it in #5. — I tried to put the nonduality Advaita Vedanta teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi in #5. But some of his teachings also spill into #6 (Radical Nonduality), as well. Apparently, his teachings varied depending on who he was talking to.
• #6 (Radical Nonduality) = Also called Neo-Advaita, this approach is most associated with teachings similar to those of Tony Parsons. Neo-Advaita is often derided by followers of #4 and #5, who sometimes call it pseudo-Advaita. However, I think it has a lot in common with some of Ramana Maharshi’s teachings.
• In general, at the level presented, the table above seems to make sense. I am trying to make sense (for me at least) of the nuances in how different speakers use the word “nonduality”. While they all seem to be talking about (or pointing to) the same thing, the details of the many paths (explanations and stories) are likely infinite and beyond comprehension.

Related

• (1) In this interesting video ⬇️, Swami Tadatmananda discusses 3 major versions of Vedanta Hinduism: Dvaita/Dualism, Vishishta Advaita/Qualified Nondualism, and Advaita/Nondualism.

• (2) For a more nuanced look at the range of teachings that fall within the far right (#5 Nonduality & #6 Radical Nonduality), see:

and

• (3) There is a Facebook Group that recently (mid-Oct 2022) changed its name after this article:

• (4) For more on Nonduality (Advaita), see this collection of articles:

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

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• Written in collaboration with my Energy Group/Higher Self. This is our perspective of the truth and not the whole truth of reality.

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