Our number two way to find nondual is math. Kind of makes sense, right? Not Two… it’s very math like.
Some really simple math will help us understand that there are not two things inside our heads.
One of my favorite stories is a Zen story about ten guys, way back in the day. They go on a trip. They come to a big river, and they have to swim across the river. So, they all swim across and get to the other side. They’re putting on their clothes, and they think, “We better check and make sure that everybody in our party got across the river. So, let’s count.”
They get in a circle and the first guy counts, he goes, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Oh no! there are only nine! One of our guys is missing.” Everybody panics, but it looks like everyone is there. So the next guy says, “Here. Let me try.” He starts counting starting with the guy to his right, ‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.’ Oh no, one of us is missing!”
Now they are really panicking. Who’s missing? Finally, a monk comes walking along and he asks, “What’s the problem? Why are you guys panicking?”
They say, “One of our people is missing.” They show how they get in the circle and count. The monk laughs and says, ‘No worries… you’re all here. Let me show you how it works – simple math. Stand in the circle.” He takes the hand of the man counting, and points one by one around the circle starting with the first guy to the left. “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9…” Then he takes the mans hand and has him point to himself, “10.”
They were all there but each counter forgot to count themselves.
This is the exact same thing that happens in the dual state. We see everything happening and don’t notice ourself, the one that’s noticing what’s happening.
Think about that for a second. You are sitting there watching this video. Who are you? Just exactly as if you were in the circle. You’re the one counting: ‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.’ You are the one watching the video. You can’t see yourself. You can see me, but you can’t see yourself.
Mirrors don’t count. If you look in a mirror you only see the reflection of yourself. You don’t see yourself. You cannot see your face. You cannot see your eyes, right? Simple, simple math.
Now here’s another fun math tip: it’s the idea of zero. We live here in this modern world, it’s 2023. We’re modern. We have educations. We understand zero. We were taught it in kindergarten. The very idea of zero fills our whole life; all of our math, all of our technology, our computers, everything is based on the idea of understanding zero.
We know without really thinking about it that zero is nothing.
This isn’t a natural human observation, it took centuries of mathematicians to figure it out believe it or not. It used to be that if you wanted to count to one hundred, every single number was its own thing, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah — a different word for every single number.
It wasn’t until somebody figured out the idea of zero, and then started using it as a placeholder, that we had our modern counting. Now counting is easy. Any child can learn it. Simply go up to nine. Then take a one and give it the placeholder, zero. Now we have ’10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.” Now take a two and put zero as a placeholder and you have 20. Up and up you go, easy as pie.
All of our math is based on that. Seems so easy. Why couldn’t we figure out zero from the very beginning?
It’s because you can’t see zero. Zero is really a mystery. Not easily grasped unless it’s pointed out.
You can look out at a field and you can see three sheep. That’s easy for the human brain, “‘Oh look! There’s three sheep.” It’s even easy to subtract real numbers. You take two sheep away and now you have one sheep. Simple math. One sheep. Three minus two is one.
Adding is easy too. Take three sheep, add a sheep, now you’ve got four sheep. Very, very simple. This was figured out a long, long time ago.
But if there aren’t any sheep at all, there’s nothing to see. Coming up with this idea of zero is actually the basis of all Eastern mysticism. It was the mystics who figured it out first. They figured out that there can be nothing.
You can easily notice in your own mind that zero is a mystery. Stop and imagine nothing: perhaps no sheep, perhaps no balls, perhaps no pencils. Notice how nothing of anything is exactly the same as nothing of anything else.
Notice how, when you picture nothing, it stops things in your mind. It’s very easy for there to be nothing, but your left brain can’t grab onto it. You can’t actually ‘picture’ nothing because there is nothing to picture. You can’t really see it, really grasp it, really understand it, because there’s nothing there.
It’s like a CSI or movie right? Law itself is based on the idea that you cannot prove innocence. You can’t prove a negative. You cannot prove that something didn’t happen. You can prove that something did happen. You can prove guilt, but you can’t prove that something didn’t happen.
Same thing with zero. Stop for a second and just think about that. Zero. It’s nothing.
I remember hearing this from my teacher many years ago. He would say, “Enlightenment is seeing nothing.” I just automatically turned the idea of nothing into something. I thought I was supposed to find ‘nothing.’ He actually meant nothing, actual nothing, as in zero.
Stop, again, and look: Nothing.
Now, we’re going to do a quick little experiment. Close your eyes and see nothing.
If you really see it you’ll notice that when there’s nothing in there, the only thing left is the person who is looking at the nothing. The only thing left is the one who is experiencing the nothing… and that is you.
Step back into yourself and you are there.
Seeing nothing, looking for nothing, is a simple way to stop the constant rush of perceptions.
Do it until you get it. Breathe in, relaxed, normal: Zero. There is nothing tricky about it at all. Just close your eyes, nothing.