Dual-Nondual and the Heart Route

STUDENT 1
I've been curious about the view of this tradition with regards to dualism and nondualism. I've heard you describe it in the past as a little of both and I'm curious about that.

SHAMBHAVI
So, dualism means that we're having an experience of more than one thing or more than one person or more than one tree. It means that our perception is that there are many different things, many different beings and they're separated by space. That's dualism in a nutshell.

Nondualism means we're having the experience that everything is continuous, that there is no separation between anything and another thing. Where there's only one thing appearing as many things.

So, the picture is a bit more layered and interesting than simply, this is a nondual tradition or, this is a dual-nondual tradition. So, I think it's important to try to understand this because the view of Trika Shaivism is somewhat more nuanced than what you would read even in books about Trika Shaivism.

So, we can look at dualism or dualistic karmic vision and nondual vision from an ordinary perspective. I mean, from our perspective. From our perspective, dualistic vision is something like how we experience things with our body, energy, and mind when we have limited access to wisdom. When we don't really have recognition of our real nature.

So, in a sense, if we're just talking about it from a relative ordinary perspective, dualistic karmic vision is the thing we're trying to recover from.

So, even if we say that we're not trying to recover from the experience of the multiplicity. We are simply trying to change the base from which we are experiencing that multiplicity.

So, if I experience the multiplicity, meaning all of manifest life, from the perspective of ordinary dualistic karmic vision, then my basic orientation is that I feel separate from everything. And I think everything else is separate from everything else.

So, this base experience of separation in Trika Shaivism is called anavamala. And it's basically our root karma. It's the root ignorance or lack of wisdom from which all of our other various karmic twists and turns issue.

So, we have this basic feeling of separation which makes us feel vulnerable. And so, we have all of these responses to that vulnerability. Anything from constantly seeking comfort, constantly seeking possessions, to constantly defending ourselves and aggressing. All different kinds of things arise from this basic experience of separation.

And then, of course, when we are doing some practice or maybe just a moment of grace and we have more of a recognition of the continuity of everything, then we say that that's better. And oh, we're becoming more realized.

So, this is from the perspective, ordinary perspective, a dual perception is somehow degraded as compared to nondual perception.

So, one time I s..., or maybe I said this many times, that this tradition is actually dual-nondual. And someone got very upset with me because, 'well all the books say it's a nondual tradition'. And in order to understand why it's dual-nondual, you really have to go into the more absolute teachings.

So, we have the primordial shaktis, which have different names in Trika Shaivism. But in any case, these primordial shaktis in this tradition are called Parā, Parāpara, and Aparā.

And if you've been doing the morning meditation, you know that if we're looking at the living symbol of Ma Shakti as the Trishula, as the trident, each one of them is sitting on a prong of the Trishula. With para, the supreme in the middle, and then Parāpara and Aparā.

So, these are the three primordial shaktis, meaning that out of the one continuous, ubiquitous shakti, these three shaktis have the capacity, the power to create all of these experiences.

So, Parā represents absolute continuity, undifferentiated unconditioned life. Parāpara is the mixture of that experience of one subjectivity and the many. And then Aparā is the experience of two.

However, from their perspective, they are all the same. So, from their perspective, duality and nonduality are lesser terms that are used to describe modes of experience that are all completely imbued with enlightened essence nature.

So, from the absolute perspective, nondual perception and dualistic perception have total equality. They're both made of, made by, and full of enlightened essence nature.

So, this is what I was trying to get across in the teaching that dual and nondual perception really have equality on some level. And so this tradition doesn't really raise one above the other.

And that's only from an absolute perspective, of course. Now, let's return to the relative, to where most of us live. We have all these traditions, we have all these practices. Our teachers exhort us to practice so that we can recognize our real condition as all an aspect of one subjectivity.

Why is this happening?

My satguru, Anandamayi Ma, the most realized person that I know of, ever. Even she exhorted people to practice. At least practice ten minutes a day, she would say. At least, if you could do nothing else. And then if they couldn't even do that, she'd say, well, at least just think of me every now and then. [laughs]

She was very merciful in that way. She always, like, whittled the practice back to whatever someone could actually do.

So, if dual and nondual perception really have this equality—because if the mixture of dual and nondual perception is being produced by Parāpara, this great Supreme Devi—and Aparā is producing this experience of dualist experience, then they are the primordial shaktis that are the hands of the artist.

So, there is nothing degraded about any of them or what they're producing. But if this is the case, why are we exhorted to practice? Why does it matter if we recover from dualistic experience? And this is a very good question.

And the reason is because this is the life process of God. This is what is built into us from the beginning. This is the game, this is the lila, this is the sport. The sport of re-recognition, or what I would have sometimes called the cosmic game of 'peekaboo, I see you'. It's really 'peekaboo, I see myself'. [laughs]

There's this game of hide-and-seek going on. And, and why are we doing it now? Now, the mistake that human beings make is because we are in the meaning realm, we are in the definition realm. We're in the realm where we want everything to be so important.

We want to know 'why is it important to do that?' 'What is its meaning?' 'Am I actually accomplishing anything?' Right, this is the kinds of things that we're attached to with our human realm karmic vision. And none of those questions matter. At all.

So, in a sense, if we want to understand this tradition, like understand it, like grok it, we really have to wrench ourselves away from this human realm karmic vision, because the reason this is happening is because it's fun. It isn't meaningful, it isn't important. Everything that's happening here is a display. It's described as a magical display. An ornament.

And I love to quote Ramakrishna on this. He said, 'this realm is the mansion of fun'. The mansion of fun. Not the mansion of meaning. Not the mansion of importance. Not the incredibly serious mansion. [laughs]

And if you have a feeling for the game. If you have a feeling, a natural feeling that you came in with somehow for this game of playing teacher and student. And this game of doing sadhana. And this game of discovering more of our real nature and entering more into the magic of this reality. Then you begin to feel the fun of it.

And it's fun in a big way. It's just the most incredible adventure.

I remember when I was much, much younger, I read an autobiography of—I can't remember her name—but anyway, she was Canadian. And, she, in her late 40s started having dreams about Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh. And she went to Rishikesh when she was 46 to meet him. And she was only with him for six months before he sent her back to Canada to teach. And he said that they had been cousins or something in a former life.

And she starts off, you know, on the first page of her autobiography about her time with him, saying, having a guru is a great adventure, but having a great guru is the greatest adventure vouchsafed to a human being. And that's really it. It's an adventure.

So, if we look from an absolute level, there is no importance to the words 'dualist' and 'nondualist' or 'duality' and 'nonduality'. There's just livingness. This total all-encompassing, all-immersive livingness. And when you enter into that more fully, my own experienc is, the terms 'duality' and 'nonduality' mean nothing. Don't care about them anymore. I used to think they were important. Right? [laughs]

And there's a beautiful poem by Lalleshwari who was a 14th century Kashmiri yogini, where she said, at the end of the road, there's only a somewhat faded something. Meaning there's no terms. There's no definition. There's nothing to define. It's just a something. [laughs] I would say a little more vigorously than that because to me it's a magical something. Not a slightly faded something. But, in any case, to each their own way of encountering that.

I would say—and this has also been noted by some other people who write about the tradition—that the tradition has a dual-nondual leaning. In other words, it is thoroughly nondual in the sense that the teaching is absolutely that there is only one Self in all of existence and that everything is purna bramha narayani. Full of consciousness and energy. Unbroken with no gaps.

So, in that sense, yes, it's a nondual tradition. And this is how it's most commonly defined. But if you go into it a little more deeply, you understand that those terms, as they're used, especially in the west, tend to be a binary where dualism loses out. And in the tradition, really, they're just two modes of experiencing that are both encompassed by this one subjectivity. And they're both perfect.

So, purna bramha narayani. This is a phrase that Anandamayi Ma used to describe the nature of reality. Full of awareness and energy. Full of creativity and its energy. Full of the Creator and its energy.

So, it's a really nuanced exploration of what is actually meant by these terms and what is the importance of these terms in the tradition. But what I have come to in my own life is more of an experience of just animism, you know, everything being alive and continuous.

Obviously, they're dualistic animist traditions. But, to me, the word 'animist' gets more at it because the inevitable conclusion from sadhana, but also from reading, for instance, Abhinavagupta, is that everything, even inert matter, is full of livingness. That is the inevitable conclusion.

And so, that is really all that's left at the end of the day is the livingness, the livingness and intelligence of everything. And then what you call it becomes very unimportant.

STUDENT 2
So, I have a question about relating to objects. I'd like some help getting to a feeling of more relating to objects as essence nature.

SHAMBHAVI
Well, there's only one route and that's through the heart.

So, we can't manufacture anything and we also can't talk ourselves into anything, unfortunately. But [laughs] I would use the elements of the morning practice to just try to be caring for those objects from that space and see how it changes your experience.

So, you don't want to get into a position—and this goes for everybody because we always do this—of admonishing yourself. Like trying to whip yourself into some more enlightened condition. [laughs] That really isn't what this is about. This is about actually feeling something. And if you don't actually feel it, that's fine too. Then what kicks in? Modesty and patience. Humility. Just being simple. Calming down. Taking a breath.

One of the things that developed for me first was just—I guess because I have a lot of kapha in my constitution, I always wanted to take care of spaces. I always saw spaces and things as forms of hosting on some level.

Whether I was hosting myself or hosting other people, having spaces that were properly arranged and cared for has just been a feature of my life, my whole life. But I really think that's a product of my constitution more than anything else.

So, whatever you can do to support your ojas, support your kapha, that's a good thing. That natural expression of kapha is that kind of hosting. But then, when you don't feel any separation between yourself and an object, there's a tenderness.

This is why in the morning practice, I say, devotion toward all beings seen and unseen and all things, because the lack of feeling that there's anything separate and the perception of...It's not the perception like 'this microphone is God'. It's more just like [laughs] a perception that there's intelligence and beauty and that eternal quality is just imbuing everything.

So that provokes just a natural tenderness, a natural devotion, a natural desire to care for things. It doesn't mean you're never going to get frustrated about stuff, because, again, think of your constitution. I also get frustrated still. So, that just happens. We are not ever going to be so equanimous that we never get frustrated at anything if we have a pitta constitution. [STUDENT 2: Mmhmm]

But that doesn't mean that you can't use your practice in an integrated way, in an exploratory way, in an adventuresome way, just to see what would happen, not in a self-admonishing, self-regulating way. Do you know what I'm saying?

STUDENT 2
Yeah, I definitely do. That's helpful what you said about just seeing the intelligence and the beauty of objects.

SHAMBHAVI
Well, the phrase 'seeing the intelligence and beauty of objects' is just a phrase. So, you can't just repeat that phrase to yourself and hope for something to happen. You actually have to relax.

So again, think of if you meet someone at a party and you want to like them, or you want to connect with them. You don't stand in front of them mentally thinking, I want to connect, please connect with me, I want to connect, I want to connect. That isn't how we work with friendship. We just relax and we just make a connection in some other way. Less mental, right?

STUDENT 2
Yes.

SHAMBHAVI
Just think, God is the Friend. You have to be receptive, not aggressive. Think about meeting someone at a party when you don't know them. Maybe you haven't seen them in a long time. You have to let whatever they're manifesting come into you to know them.

You don't start off in a friendship or re-meeting somebody, 'so what I think about you is...anyway, here's what I also about you, me, thinking about you, me, telling you about you'. This is how most of us approach God.

We're so aggressive because we think we're in control and we think somehow—we're so attached to our minds—we think, if I can just do the right thing with my mind, then I can make these concepts somehow come alive.

But you're just going from concept to concept to concept. So, receptivity—you just have to be like an empty vase. Be receptive to whatever's going to be poured into it. And if you don't get it right away, you have to be patient. You can go 'okay with receptive for five seconds. Now, let me tell you about you. I must have this experience of you being alive and intelligent'.

STUDENT 3
I feel myself jumping from concept to concept of just trying to get out of them by just going to a different concept. Becoming aware of how mental I am. It's like this constant practice of coming back to my heart.

SHAMBHAVI
Right. This is part of the process of things unwinding is they become very, very, very loud before they unwind a bit. And you are doing exactly the right thing. Continually invoking your relationship to presence. Forget about the thoughts. Unmind the mind.

See, this is the problem with practices of labeling thoughts, 'thought, thought,' or observing the thoughts, or noticing that they're impermanent. It's still being in the mind and being mental, doing all that stuff. So this is relaxing, but it's not relaxing in any absolute way. It's an ordinary kind of relaxation.

So, you always want to bring yourself back to presence and going into the heart is a very easy way to do that. And you could even visualize that blue bindu and just rest your awareness there. You don't have to do anything about your thoughts.

The biggest thing that you have to do about your thoughts is eat and live in such a way that you are balancing your doshas. There's some large, large portion of what's going on in our mind and our emotions and our energy and our bodies that's really just about vata, pitta, and kapha, and how these become imbalanced because of life and how we can manage that constant going out of bounds.

Remember, the word 'dosha' means fault. And the reason it means fault is because it always has to be managed. It's not going to be like forever corrected at any point. And so we're managing that with whatever modalities we have. And then what's left over is what we might have to work with.

But in any case, the absolute best way to work with this stuff is what you're doing—guru yoga. Going directly to presence and forgetting about the mind. You know, just forget about it. Let go of that. That's where the real—I want to say the French word, frisson. I don't know if you know that word. Sometimes words occur to me and I know no one knows what they mean.

But it [laughs]—frisson means where something meets and a little bit of excitement happens. Right. And it's like a spark of excitement. Our attachment to our thoughts, because we think our thoughts are important and they're controlling something and we want to control experience with our thoughts.

And then when we try to unmind our thoughts, when we try to move away from even doing anything about it—worrying about our thoughts, thinking about our thoughts, changing our thoughts, labeling our thoughts, being very virtuous and doing sadhana with our minds. When we're moving away from all of that, then we can feel that spark of attraction and the force of attachment.

Because we actually have this experience sometimes that if we stop minding the mind, life will just go into utter chaos. So, there can be almost this experience of vertigo or fear of leaving the mind behind and just going directly to living presence and relaxing without trying to control anything. Not trying to fix anything. Just relaxing.

STUDENT 3
When I feel myself really identifying with the thoughts and, and feeling, like, the strings of them, they're so enticing. I want to keep perpetuating it.

SHAMBHAVI
It's good to notice that. It's like a bad relationship that you still want to be in. And you're worried about what your life will be like if you—'I'll never have any relationship again'. [laughs] 'I have to stay in it because it's my last chance'.

Remember, this is manushya loka. Mind realm. The root of human and the root of mind are the same. So we could call this human realm karmic vision or mind realm karmic vision. This is our primary attachment. This is how we're navigating everything. This is how we're trying to control everything and shape everything.