Author Archives: Zareen

Nonduality is coming out of a false state into a real state. It’s coming from fantasy to clarity. This is a simple thing to do, and we need to get past this idea that it’s a very rare phenomenon for a person to wake up. This is actually your birthright. You want to just come solidly into yourself and into the life that you’re living. It’s important because we need every single human being to be awake to turn us back to a sustainable track of living.

So many people who are studying nonduality seem to erase themselves from the picture. It’s kind of like—well, I mean, it is supposed to be self-annihilation, but you’re supposed to be annihilating the false self, not the real self. We tend to use it as an escapism kind of thing and as a kind of arrogant, “I know we don’t all exist, so it doesn’t matter” sort of thing. That’s not what nonduality is about at all. Nonduality is about you and me finding ourselves, discovering who we are as human beings. So, don’t erase yourself. Bloom yourself.

Every time you can have a lighthearted laugh at yourself and stand back to look at the world with a lighthearted glance, you’re going to be sitting right next to awakening. This is a natural, normal thing we want to do. The human being is designed for laughter, humor, dance, community, and working with the world in a sustainable, beautiful way. So, let’s laugh at ourselves and get on with the business of being full human beings.

What is it that keeps people from seeing life itself as awake? It’s the stories we’ve been told. You’ve been told that you’re not awake. You’ve been told that rocks aren’t awake, that squirrels aren’t, that trees aren’t. But we live in a vast world of awareness. The only thing that’s questionable is what you’d have to call the modern human story. So listen to the awakeness around you. You never know when it might walk up to you in a coffee shop and knock on your head.