Paul Dobson speaks with nonduality author and teacher John Astin.
If we want to find wholeness, we have to look somewhere other than within our habitual perception of distinction and differentiation. We have to discover the nature of all beyond characterisation.
There’s always a relentless constancy, a fact of beingness, of the existence of everything no matter the descriptions. This immediate actuality is where we discover the totality that shines forth as what we characterise in different ways. The totality is that which is inclusive of everything.
What we call the interpreting mind that seems to split and divide and turn the totality into seeming pieces, is actually the same totality. It’s the fundamental basis of everything and it gives rise to this moment, including any dualistic conceptualising.
There's a beauty in ‘what is’ even when the present moment feels difficult. That beauty is transcendental, and it doesn't have an opposite. It's a beauty that's inclusive of all things because it is all things. There's nothing else but that, the one reality. It's an unthinkable energy that’s bursting forth as each instant and it’s unthinkably intelligent. It’s the pure presence of this radical open-ended, unstoppable, embrace of apparent multiplicity.
What we think of as our little isolated separate ego-self, is absolutely none other than the boundless absolute reality. That's what we are.
John’s site: https://www.johnastin.com/ Our site: https://nisargayoga.org/ Music by Scott Buckley - https://www.scottbuckley.com.au/library/
Nonduality: The Wholeness of Experience