--- ## Highlights So, this boundary (this “duality” of self and other) is maybe not super solid. Also, “you” are hardly an unchanging thing. You are different from moment to moment. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3ndam8c4cv36p7fks59srrq)) ^fx5f07 think of yourself as a drop in the ocean. This can be a scary idea, in the sense that it forces you to confront the arbitrariness and flux of existence. But it can also be a relaxing alternate frame—it’s a way of looking that can bring a sense of letting go, as well as greater empathy for you and others: we are all just trying to ride this wave together and none of us is totally sure what’s going on, or totally in control. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3ndbekwmvhayanafk6m5zz0)) ^8bl0xb walking in nature—your sense of “you” diminishes, the volume of your thoughts is turned down, and it’s almost as if you’re melting into the forest. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3ndbz0cnb32zznrdqb2yrxf)) - 💭 amplified when on psychedelics These moments can be really nourishing. Your problems and fears and worries, which seem so big, can seem less imposing. Or, instead of seeming like “your” fears, they can seem simply like a variety of noise or weather passing through the universe. You might have that most precious intuition, the sense that it will All Be Okay. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3ndejn2qf7s9thwgmpgb69z)) ^h0is7i Non-duality also refers to the process of transcending _other_ dualities. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3ndf0a8gc315b0h5tz1nv49)) **Good feeling” and “bad feeling"** by embracing emotions we might refer to as negative, or even, potentially, seeing that they possess wisdom. (The book [Spectrum of Ecstasy](https://www.amazon.com/Spectrum-Ecstasy-Embracing-Emotions-Vajrayana/dp/1590300610) is a great primer on this from a Buddhist perspective, and my favorite woo new age book, [Existential Kink](https://www.amazon.com/Existential-Kink-Unmask-Embrace-getting-ebook/dp/B07XMG4BWN), is also sort of about this.) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3ndgqv0bj4qkt5ts6sn3h10)) **"Sacred” and “profane”** by trying to see beauty or even dignity in what we might normally regard as ugly or undignified ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3ndn9gbfs4gez6v190tjfz4)) **"Past” and “present”** by noticing how, in meditative stillness, it appears that all time is just an oscillation in an eternal moment, which never really passes or arises ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3ndnncyffvg2xn605cxbxjp)) **Form” and “emptiness”** which is… hellaciously hard to explain and will be pretty arcane to most readers, but something _kind of like_: “Reality is a subjective fluctuating dance of ephemera which we never see the objective bottom of, like flashes on a screen. But this doesn’t mean it’s _unreal,_ in fact, that ephemeral dance is, itself, the miraculous substance of existence.” Note that this is a weird Buddhist thing that weird Buddhists have been arguing about forever; if you want more on this, I like David Chapman’s writing, which relabels the duality “[pattern](https://meaningness.com/pattern) and [nebulosity](https://meaningness.com/nebulosity).” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3ndpkw7a2r41hyepph20qyf)) you might start by meditating on your breath to improve your ability to focus, then you might use that focusing ability to start getting a better sense of how physical sensations arise and pass away, and so on. And then, after turning yourself into this beautiful meditative microscope, you might begin turning the microscope on itself, by deconstructing the sensations that you usually call “yourself.” Thereby, you achieve non-dual experience. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3ndtv4zps31q6n5vfyecfmt)) many non-dual traditions say: “Instead of _trying_ so hard, you could just sit down and notice that you’re already one with everything and that you’re already enlightened. Lol. Lmao.” And that actually… works? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3ndv6xedc1vbjden7j8c81b)) ### New highlights added June 23, 2023 at 7:59 PM [only about 10%](https://www.clearerthinking.org/post/can-you-experience-enlightenment-through-sam-harris-waking-up-meditation-app) of those who took the course learned it successfully! ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3nmhcg2d8576q3m7rb3m5m0)) In Zen, they have you sit down and do nothing a lot until the non-dual state happens to you all by itself, and they also break your brain with interesting and beautiful riddles. This reportedly actually has a fairly high success rate for those who stick with it, although some people bounce off the deliberate vagueness of Zen pedagogy. ([Henry Shukman’s memoir](https://www.amazon.com/One-Blade-Grass-Finding-Memoir-ebook/dp/B07N8ZGFQB) is a really lucid introduction to Zen, in my opinion.) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3nmva4b8z5artsp3353fnbd)) ### New highlights added June 23, 2023 at 8:59 PM Some teachers, such as [Ramana Maharshi](https://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/), recommend “self-inquiry” practice, an investigative meditation in which you ask yourself questions like: “Who am I?” or “Who is having this experience?” You then look for the answer—not the _factual_ answer, but the _felt_ answer. Like: allow yourself to notice that you exist right now. What was the feeling of noticing that you exist, the feeling of “I am”? Can you extend that moment of noticing? Can you feel what it consists of, as you would break down the component parts of a piece of music, or a taste in your mouth? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3nnrzaykyyr4qtev8gray5w)) try to slow down a bit as you read this next part. If anything you read causes a change in awareness, try to linger there for a moment ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3nnvvdarxka7c7hqqw5s9j2)) conscious awareness makes itself happen. You don’t have to create your experience: sensation comes to you all on its own ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3nnw61zef2nvha6ce7ys5ab)) If everything you’re perceiving is a cinematic production optimized for utility, then when you look at this page, you’re not really seeing a raw report of the light hitting your eyes, you are _seeing what’s coming out of your mind._ Therefore, everything you perceive as “the world” is a perception of your model of the world, which is to say, you. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3nnxph96ebxkxbqtyzmadym)) also, of anything you associate with a “sense of self.” That is a production as well, composed of ephemeral sensations that come and go. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3nnyk8kh3vzxtp38wzj7zfx)) - Try to figure out where your “sense of self” is located. Like when you say “I’m here,” what is that referring to, specifically? - Like: if you have the intuition that you are looking out from inside your head, what sensations is that intuition constructed from? The feeling of something “back there,” in space, behind the lens of vision? Does this feeling have a texture, a shape, or a size? Or is it just a vague sense of _something?_ - Can you examine that sense itself, by asking, “Where am I?” Then make the answer an object in consciousness. - If you pick up on anything: great. Hold it there for a second. - Then: play with the idea of allowing that object—that felt sense of self—to expand. See if you can let it stretch out into your awareness of the space around you. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3nnzt16yvhey9g6tpv9br06)) - 💭 step 6 reminds me of water filling in six phase meditation I don’t know that there’s any super hard scientific evidence saying that non-dual practice is good for anything beyond the way it feels really nice. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3np32av6pg82w5nah95fqqh)) people experienced in non-dual states tend to report: - Less emotional activation - A greater sense of sacredness - More absorption in surroundings - A heightened sense of interconnectedness - Less preoccupation with neurotic thoughts - More available feelings of meaning and purpose ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h3np3jbyhzbvq5d2v2pqq49q))