The Evolution of Nonduality

The experiential recognition of, and awakening to, nonduality is nothing less than the doorway to enlightenment; a direct path to profound spiritual insight and miraculous metaphysical transformation.

To the uninitiated, nonduality is easily misunderstood, and a multiplicity of adepts and traditions have tried to explain it in a myriad of ways. Perhaps the most direct and simple comes from the Vedantic tradition, which describes the ultimate nature of all things as one and not two.

But no words can express the inexpressible. Nonduality is the most fundamental of all truths, the most profound secret, the deepest metaphysical revelation – and an intellectual understanding cannot approach or convey in any way the preternatural power of realising it for oneself. It is a mystery that lies beyond the mind, beyond thought, beyond time and space.

Throughout the ages, the most powerfully awakened teachers have transmitted the experience directly, pointing us to a state awakening that immediately shatters all of our preconceptions about the nature of reality. In these profoundly altered states, the illusory boundaries of the frontal personality dissolve and fall away, time and space disappear, and there is no longer any distinction between self and other.

In this elevated condition, we discover and rediscover the truth that there is no problem. The sense of absolute freedom from doubt, fear and limitation is deeply and endlessly intoxicating, and learning how to reliably access this miraculous state is the very cornerstone of enlightenment itself – the ultimate release from the prison of mind, thought and the divided self.

But in the light of the relatively recent discovery of cosmic and biological evolution, where is the leading edge of our understanding of this ancient secret? What are the implications of a universe in flux to the apparently unchanging nature of absolute oneness?

Andrew Cohen discusses the perennial mystery of nonduality and places it in an evolutionary context, taking us on a journey to the deepest valleys and highest peaks of the most primordial of all truths.