How to Do Dualism If You’re in a Nondual Tradition

And also how not to do it.

Anandamayi Ma wandering in the Himalayas

Everything and everyone is that

Both Abhinavagupta and Swami Lakshmanjoo taught that the entire world is the means to recognize Lord Shiva and that we can't realize by abandoning the world.

God is immanent in all, from the most "mundane" to the most "holy." The way to Shiva is through Shakti-all of manifest life. This is absolutely central to Trika Shaivism.

Anandamayi Ma put it this way: “The Father is In the Mother.”

There is no division between the spiritual and sacred and the worldly or political.

Householders

Trika Shaivism and Dzogchen are householder, not ashram traditions. We are embedded in ordinary life because it suits us. The importation of these traditions into monastic settings is relatively recent.

We also don’t recognize any fundamental difference between an ashram and a loft apartment. It’s just a matter of what is most conducive to our realization given each of our unique conditions.

Yet a slow creep of dualistic cultural tones, concepts, and lifeways into essentially non-dual traditions has been going on for centuries in both India and Tibet.

This mainly shows up as the separation of the spiritual from the mundane and the rejection of certain forms of so-called “worldly” life. These can run the gamut from elevations of celibate lifestyles, admonitions not to participate in “political” discussions, and absolutist defenses of vegetarianism.

Concepts such as “evil” have been re-introduced along with notions of karma as punishment.

I have much respect for many teachers and folks who are “doing” nondualism in a more dualistic way. Really, all I care about is devotion. And I’m down for devotion in any form.

But I have to say. . .

I love my teachers!

All of my principal teachers taught something like “Any form of life can be a vehicle for self-realization.” Or “Any circumstance can help us to wake up.”

I was taught that vows and rules are functional until they aren’t.

View is our best guide until we don’t need it any more.

And all forms of spiritual life, including ashrams, are right for someone. All traditions and forms of worship come from the same source and are full of that source.

I’ve also been taught and seen for myself that manifest life has an aspect of playfulness.

The teaching stories of India, China, and Tibet are full of stories of householders who realize in the midst of ordinary life.

They initially appear to be not all that. Later in the narratives, they are revealed to be great yoginis and yogis. This teaches their prideful spouses or dogmatic students important lessons. These stories are humorous and underscore the playful hijinks of this alive-aware reality.

How to do dualism if you’re in a nondual tradition

Manifest life is the living theater of akhanda purna, the unbroken completeness (the natural state of wisdom).

Manifest life is also sometimes called the ornament of God or the magic of Lord Shiva, or a magical display.

As our practice progresses, we will experience whatever forms of life we chose to inhabit as tinged with theater. We won’t take it all uber seriously, and we will be able to more gracefully bring even difficult circumstances onto our paths.

But when we are mired in our oh-so-serious concepts as if they represent the absolute or the truth, well, as Abhinavagupta said, we are being the played not the players.

Some people get quite upset or adamant about political activity not mixing with spiritual life or ashram life.

If they still felt that, but took it more lightly and recognized it as just one of many possible ways to relate to spiritual practice, eventually they would be free to express themselves with more bandwidth.

I took sannyasin vows years ago. At some point, I read that Ma had instructed the sannyasins in her ashrams to never get involved in public life, for instance, by voting.

I’m certain that Ma was playing. If you choose to don the guise of a renunciate in the traditional style, this is how it’s played. Do it thoroughly.

I had been involved in public, political life since childhood. I’ve never lived in an ashram or worn robes. But I decided to try withdrawing from participating in things political as an experiment in following my teacher.

For ten years, I didn’t vote. I rarely entered into political discourse. I learned some things. But after that decade, it no longer mattered.

I didn’t make a big deal out of my non-participation or my re-entry into more public participation. I was experimenting, not trying to build an empire.

In any case, I always feel that my activities have a game-like quality. Even when I am adamant or expressing sorrow, I am aware of some aspect of enjoyment and creativity at play.

Whatever we are doing or not doing, if we are in a nondual tradition, we want to recognize that even in our expressions of anger, outrage, and sorrow, there is some aspect of enjoyment.

Getting in touch with this, we are being more like Lord Shiva, and we can manage at least a small smile in the face of our seriousness.

That’s the leading edge: you catch yourself in the act of stomping around and proclaiming and fulminating, and you find it just a little bit enjoyable and a little bit funny.

The rest flows from that beginning.

with infinite love,

Shambhavi

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