Nonduality means, “I don’t know.” Advaita. It’s translated as “not two.”
It means that whatever your brain comes up with, any sort of object that you see outside of yourself, is not actually separate from you. It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. It means that the division between you and ‘that’ doesn’t exist.
Particularly, what it really refers to, is your mind, your thoughts. Any kind of thought, that’s not it. That’s what it’s saying. It’s not two. It’s not two.
The reason we say this in the negative is because it’s very confusing to say there’s only Oneness. If we say that we immediately take Oneness and turn it into a thing. So, nonduality is trying to circumvent that.
But it would be so much simpler to just say, “I don’t know.”
I don’t know. My thinking brain is incapable of knowing something as complex as truth and the universe and reality. There simply aren’t enough words to describe the slightest little thing, because everything is interconnected. You can’t completely describe a tree. What is a tree?
You’re like… ‘Oh, a tree’s over there.’ Yes, it is. But it’s such a complex being that I could spend my whole life trying to find words to describe a tree. Or… we could just look at the tree, listen to the tree, learn from the tree.
I don’t know. My thoughts don’t know. That’s the secret.
I wish I could go way back in time to all the nonduality big bosses, right? And say, ‘Dude, “not two”, really? Why not just say, “I don’t know?”‘ That would be so much simpler for everybody.
Think of all the seekers, all the billions of hours spent meditating, trying to get somewhere, where just simply saying, ‘I don’t know’ would make a difference.
You’ll notice that all the really good teachers try to describe but can’t. They try to describe, but in the end, finally have to say, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know how to say it. I don’t know how to describe it. It can’t be described.'”
So it would seem that if you’re studying nonduality, this would be the number one thing. Wake up in the morning, ‘I don’t know. Meditate, I don’t know. Sing, chant, I don’t know.’
Nonduality means that my mind, my thinking being doesn’t know. There is a consciousness under there, a knowingness that has no words to describe it, that is there. But that knowingness doesn’t know all the details of anything.
So, I don’t know. That’s a really good place to start.