The other week, Radha, who teaches the Dharma Facilitators Programme in Oz, and I were talking on the phone about non-duality. She has a great love of the exploration and teaching of the non-dual. It is something we both share. I know she has given many years to this inquiry.
The Buddha, himself, never usd the term non-duality (advaita) in 5000 Pali suttas of his teachings.
Advaita had a specific meaning 2500 years ago – namely the union of Brahman (God) with the Atman (Soul). The Buddha treated God and soul as personal beliefs, not located in the nature of things.
Sankara became the high priest of Advaita and the non-dual reality of Brahman. Between Sankara in the 7th century and Ramana Maharshi in Tiruvannamali, south India in the 20th century, you can hardly find a single teacher or teaching in India of Advaita.
Advaita, as expressed by Sankara, had little appeal for everyday life.
Sankara proclaimed Brahman is real and the world is unreal. Ramana Maharshi said that a “toothache is only a thought.” (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, page 427). Many householders and yogis alike cannot not relate to such a view.
The Buddha does not apply teachings of non-duality in such a way to deny conventional experience or reduce everything to thought. It is one of the reasons why Buddha’s teachings continued in India for another 500 years after the death of Sankara until the Moghul Empire destroyed most Buddhist monasteries and books. Incidentally, there is a common view in India that Sankara ‘s teachings brought about the demise of Buddhism in India. It is a story without evidence!
Are the Dharma teachings deeply concerned with non-duality?
- Dharma emphasizes neither clinging to a position of self or no self
- Nagarjuna, the foremost commentator on the Buddha, used non-duality in his introductory verse on the nature of things in his acclaimed Mulakarika text.
- Non-duality is the essence of the Heart Sutra – the most illustrious of Mahayana texts. Form is Emptiness. Empiness is Form. Form is Form. Emptiness is Emptiness
- Buddha speaks of eight dualities in the 3rd section in the discourse on the Application of Mindfulness (Satipatthana Sutta).
- There is the duality of the eight worldly conditions. Profit and Loss, Success and Failure, Praise and Blame, Pleasure and Pain.
- Dharma points to going beyond form and formlessness (4 jhanas and 4 formless realms)
- Truth or Liberation is neither here nor there (non duality) nor in between.
- Truth is One without a second (Sutta Nipata). Ultimately, there are no two truths (a duality).
- The Buddha teaches the Middle Way (between the two extremes that generate dualities)
- Dependent arising is, said the Buddha, the dharma. Suffering is not caused by oneself. It is not caused by another.
The exploration of non-duality applies relatively (dependent arising) and ultimately as liberation since liberation has no opposite (therefore is non-dual). Radha and I, and other dharma teachers, will continue to keep inquiring into and teaching non-duality. We encourage others to keep exploring.