In this episode of The Nonduality Podcast, Paul Dobson speaks with Joan Tollifson. Joan says that what we call non-dual understanding, realization or awakening, is an acceptance of this moment. An acceptance of everything; including our human foibles, our opinions, even our moments of upset and resistance. It's about accepting more and more. Not as something we do, but as a natural outcome of recognizing the uncontrollable nature and the wholeness of it all. It’s recognizing that whatever life moves us to do is a happening of the whole, of the totality. It’s not the doing of an individual little ‘me’, which doesn't even exist.
Everything we call good or bad is part of this totality. At a deeper level of magnification, we can't find such concepts. In fact, we can’t pin down any expression of life. And at the same time, we can't ignore or dismiss the dimension of reality which does appear to depend on conceptualization and memory. After all, the human dimension is where we live our everyday lives.
The most helpful thing we can do here, is to stop trying to do something. To be with the bare actuality of the feelings themselves, just the raw sensations and energies. There’s no personal entity inside the body, however, who can make that happen. It’s an effortless recognition in awareness that there’s only an ever-unfolding flow of subtleties in this exploration of reality.
It’s really important not to fixate on any particular way of conceptualizing and exploring reality. Likewise, there’s not some final landing place or ultimate conclusion to be reached at the end of a spiritual path. It’s more like an open exploration of this immediate and timeless moment in which there are aspects of a seamless, unfolding, ever-present whole.
Life doesn't really have any borders or divisions. Similarly, the ocean at surface-level has a lot of different waves and movements, but is one ocean. In a practical and accessible way, when we investigate deeply and tune into the very presence or beingness of whatever is present - whether it seems like pain or pleasure - there is something there that's surprisingly quite wonderful, ecstatic or radiant. We don’t find anything personal, tangible or definable; only a natural aspect of this undivided totality that can't be pinned down. This, says Joan, is true acceptance and inclusivity, a real possibility that can be discovered and explored right now, the only moment there is.
Joan Tollifson’s website: https://www.joantollifson.com/
About nondual therapy, mentoring and psychedelic integration: https://nisargayoga.org/
Music by Scott Buckley - https://www.scottbuckley.com.au/library/
The Nonduality Podcast