Drinking from the Well of Nonduality

Every chapter of the Gospel of John proclaims nondual reality. Today I am going to deal with one of the greatest chapters in the gospel, but one that does not get the attention it deserves. Chapter 4 has the story of Jesus meeting with a Samaritan woman at the well. It is a powerfully symbolic story. 

This story is filled with dualities. It is like a living illustration of the Yin Yang symbol. Here is a man and a woman, a Jew and a Samaritan, two different races and two different religions. They come together at an ancient and deep well which had been dug by Jacob, the forefather of Israel. The well is more than physical water, but what Jesus calls “living water,” which symbolizes the single Source from which all religions draw their inspiration. Their conversation is about how Truth is both deeper than and transcends religious, cultural and racial barriers. 

In the story the well is the symbol of nonduality. Jesus says that those who drink from the waters of religious duality will thirst again. They will have to come back again and again through religious rituals and spiritual practices to be refreshed. Jesus offers another way. He says, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

Jesus is talking about a spirituality that comes from within versus external religion. When one has living water welling up from within oneself, one does not need the drinking vessels, which symbolize the externals of religion.  True spirituality is within us. Jesus says elsewhere, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” It is not found in outside religious beliefs and practices. Those can be expressions of the inner reality, seeking to express the inexpressible. But dualities can never adequately express nonduality. The Living Water of Nondual awareness is seen by looking within. 

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