Other Non-Duality Quotes

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Other non-duality quotes from written works related to Advaitism.

Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water;
After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.

We can't work it out, nor can we gradually approach what we already are, what already is. It's just not possible. Advaita, or nonduality, completely eradicates and makes nonsense of the idea of "you" as a subject reaching an object called "enlightenment." ... As long as there's an individual who attempts to reach somewhere or wishes to become something else, the game of seeker and sought goes on being reinforced.

... there is only ever the present appearance of life, with no individual at its core who could ever escape even if they wanted to. Indeed, the individual is merely another appearance in the play, not something that needs to be accepted or rejected, transcended or denied, but something that simply appears, along with all the other sights, sounds, smells, thoughts and feelings.

All the ups and downs and gettings and losings are only dust devils spinning in empty space. There is no event, no moment, no wonderful mystic experience that confirms you or anyone is 'there'. That is the joke.

An individual will never become a perfect, enlightened entity who has no problems, no demands, no activities. That is a pipe dream, just another passing dream before the unchanging gaze of awareness. Seeing your identity with awareness results in a natural abandoning of the concept of being a separate, individual entity. It is not about perfecting that concept!

... no individual sees anything. Being sees this; seeing simply happens, yet no one does the seeing. This is utterly simple and immediate. It's simply what this is -- as it is.

... we're like waves looking for the ocean. And when the waves hear about a meeting, they say, "Let's go to that meeting because wise people are there who'll tell us where the ocean is." The waves are just the ocean waving.

... there's no such thing as an enlightened person who "knows" the ocean. When you cease looking for the ocean, the ocean is seen. As long as there's a seeker looking for the ocean, the seeker and the ocean seem to remain apart. When the seeking falls away, there is simply ocean.

There are no leaders, there are no wise men, there are no teachers, and there are no fathers and mothers. All there is, is this.

Awakening doesn't depend on anything. Liberation is beyond understanding; beyond all sense of individuality; beyond any requirement to change, to become something, or to have a still mind. In fact, awakening is the absence of individuality, the dropping of the illusion of separation. When seeking ends and the idea of separation falls away, indescribable oneness remains, which no one has ever been able to express in words. However, this can be said: "No one" becomes liberated or needs to become anything for liberation to take place.

Actually, liberation is a total change of perception, which is utterly simple but quite challenging because of the difficulty we have in dropping the idea that there's an individual who can experience it. We are so entrenched in the idea that effort brings about results that when we come to discover that which fulfills, that which is whole, and that which we long for, we still believe that we must work to attain it. And this is our difficulty.

All there is is life happening, so why would you need to do anything about it when this already is the case? Nothing needs to be any better or worse, you don't have to walk more slowly in a state of awareness or be more mindful of every footstep. Everything is beautiful just as it is. That's the end -- Bang!

The difficulty is that advaita teachers talk about oneness. There is only one; there are never two. Yet they go on speaking about what someone can do to find it! That's a divine misconception.

Who's going to learn this? It's like standing here saying to you "I'm going to teach you how to breath or how to make the blood run in your body." It's simply ridiculous. Advaita, which is Oneness, Being, can't be taught. How can anyone teach it?

There is no one who needs to do anything; nor is there anything to be done -- except to continue to see the false notions as false.

That awareness or non-duality is your true nature. From this viewpoint, perception is really just another name for your own existence. Even in the midst of perceptions, you never move away from oneness. The same applies to the arising of thoughts, feelings, sensations and any other experiences.

Under no circumstance do you leave your real nature. Ultimately, nothing needs to be explained because duality never really happened. There was never an object or a subject, nor was there anyone misidentified. All apparent problems stem from the apparent non-recognition of present awareness. Yet even that never happened!

Knowledge would be able to know itself if the mirror would be able to reflect its own image.

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