Non dualism VS dualism

[cabinintheforest]

Interesting that 90% or more of the people on this forum put together non dualism with spirituality.

There is however many spiritual people who believe in dualism. I personally do not believe in dualism.

I don't have a problem with you guys and your non dualism i am a monist

Heres my question to the people on this forum, now it is more of a personal question than the heaps of other questions i have seen on here. So it makes this thread stand out abit more.
But tell me what made you come to the conclusion of non dualism and support it instead of dualism?

And why we are at it was is your opinions on monism? Becuase monism can be similar to nondualism.

[karen]

I have come to no conclusions. I'm still seeking.

Why non dualism vs dualist? I've been doing the dualist thing all my life. Non dualism is the 1st thing that seems fresh and real. I went into it with my head 1st, but that hasn't been enough. Now I'm going into it with my heart as much was possible.

[eputkonen]

After 13 years of seeeking...reading many hundreds of books (none in the subject of nonduality, advaita, etc. however), I just had enough and stopped. I ceased my search. One day I was actually present for the first time (feeling the body instead of mentally observing)...my mind slowed and stopped...and then it became obvious. A waking up occurred.

Then I started reading some nonduality and found it matched my own realization and understanding.

[question]

Why is it called duality anyways? I never really understood that. If there's 2, then there's also 3, 4, 71, 7856, 8979823748960213156498754576215422032243.

[zendancer]

At the age of about twenty I began thinking about a wide range of existential and scientific issues. Intuitively I realized that something was wrong with the conventional paradigm, but I couldn't figure out what it was. During the following ten years I read hundreds of books, but never found any answers. At the age of thirty-one, I read about eastern religions and eastern spiritual masters, and thought that the core message sounded very similar to what Christ had taught in the New Testament. For the next nine years I read hundreds of books about eastern religions, but could not make any headway, and could not find any answers. At the age of forty, I began to meditate and attempted to attain some mental silence. Shortly thereafter, I had several unity-consciousness experiences and realized that the world I had always thought I inhabited was not the real world. I then realized that I had been asleep for more than thirty years (living in a kind of trance), and I actively began trying to wake up. I went on silent retreats, had more unity-consciousness experiences, and gradually found the answers to all of the questions that bothered me for so long. In 1999 I woke up when I realized that who I had always thought I was was not what I am. I discovered my True Self. I was then free to live an ordinary life. The truth is neither dual nor non-dual. It is alive and beyond imagining. Who we are is THAT.

[klaus]

cabin,

You can have your cake and eat it too.

[robert]

cabin, if you believe in good and bad then you or anyone for that matter believes in dualism. and monism and non-dualism is almost the same thing. non-dualism is best defined as not two. monism is defined as one underlying substance that makes up all other "things". would someone please explain to me how they differ?

[question]

Apr 14, 2010 9:41:06 GMT -5 @robert said:

monism and non-dualism is almost the same thing. non-dualism is best defined as not two. monism is defined as one underlying substance that makes up all other "things". would someone please explain to me how they differ?

That's a great question. I've been thinking about this myself for a while, but no answers.

Western philosophy was monist for a very long time. We gave it up, because it was simply not operational and it had many undesirable side-effects.

[robert]

but in truth why do we constantly need to set things up in opposition. the title non dualism vs. dualism is in and of its self dualist. the only thing that changes are the labels that we give. but all of it in the final breaking down is THAT.

[zendancer]

Robert: Yes. As one Zen Master said, "As soon as you open your mouth to speak about it, you've already made a mistake." LOL.

[robert]

amen.