Ramu wrote: ↑Fri Dec 06, 2019 5:56 pm
Veritas Aequitas wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 9:29 am
Nonduality itself is also a duality, i.e.
'Nonduality' versus 'duality.'
The concept of duality is generally discussed within Mind–body dualism.
- Mind–body dualism, or mind–body duality, is a view in the philosophy of mind that mental phenomena are non-physical,[1] or that the mind and body are distinct and separable.
-wiki
The opposite of dualism is Monism;
The general view of nonduality, i.e. monism is that of God.
The non-dualistic Abrahamic God is very controversial.
People like
DAM believe and rationalize the idea of nondualism with dogmatic fervor and are very anti-dualism.
This dogmatism is a kind of perversion and should be treated by a professional.
People like
Age, believe they
know what is nonduality and thus had the experience of what is non-duality, e.g. the experience of oneness with all of reality.
It is undeniable humans can experience nonduality in an altered states of consciousness the following manner;
- 1. from triggering it deliberately with hallucinogens, drugs, etc.
2. they are suffering from some kind of mental illness, e.g. schizophrenia, depersonalization,
3. Brain damage,
4. Etc. reasons
In the case of Age, he is more likely belong to category 2 above.
The idea of non-duality or experience of non-duality is not something that is real per-se.
What is really real is the mental activities that enable the thought and experience of non-duality, thus its basis is purely psychological.
As mentioned above, in one perspective non-duality itself is dualistic, i.e.
'nonduality' versus 'duality' in opposition to each other.
The idea of non-duality is a useful idea but it should not be taken as superior to the non-dual views. Both should operate on the basis of Newton's Third Law, i.e. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Like Yin-Yang they should work in complementarity.
In Buddhist philosophy, the Two-Truths Theory recognize both nonduality and duality as necessary and co-existing to be applied in the right context to optimize well-being of the individual.
The extremist and dogmatic views of DAM and AGE are due to some sort of mental perversion.
...and people like Ramu will tell you that nonduality is NOT a belief system but based on first person subjective experience. God, (Source, Consciousness, the Void), is not based on belief. God is an experience. God is not some bearded man in the sky, separate from you, judging you. However this is IMPOSSIBLE for you to understand from your limited physicalist paradigm!
Note a belief with personal conviction is based on personal experience.
So is it a belief system when shared with people of likes.
I was an advaita vedantist for a long time and have had various types of altered states of consciousness, supposedly 'experiences of God'
I do not have any negative about advaita vedantist but I have moved [graduated] from it. I still have experiences of altered states of consciousness but do not recognize them as having anything to do with a God.
Yes, God is an experience, albeit a personal experience, and that experience is supported by neural circuits and its activities in the brain.
Seeing, touching, eating an apple is also a personal experience.
While there is a real apple that can be verified as real, there is no real God for verification as real. God is only confined to the individual's brain and its neural activity. It is at most an altered states of consciousness.
The majority of theists do not have an experience of God like an altered states of consciousness, i.e. cosmic consciousness, unity-consciousness, God consciousness etc.
However the majority believe God exists as real and they could communicate with God.
Point is those who are mentally ill [schizophrenia, etc.], drug addicts, on hallucinogens, has brain damage, expose to tremendous stress, meditators, out of the blue also has experiences 'God.'
I have done extensive research on this.
Here is one example among the thousands;
As such you can never be certain, your experience of God could be due to some impairment in the brain, e.g. temporal epilepsy or something else.
If you are a regular meditator you could experience what you termed as 'experience of God' but is actually nothing more that an altered states of consciousness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_s ... sciousness