Here is a question I
received today about my book, Awake and Alive: Being What You Already Are, and my (somewhat long) answer.
Hello Dr. Hall!
"I have a question. I finally started
reading your book. I have a hard time understanding the "Cave of
Nonduality" on page 14."
Thanks for asking. If there are parts of the book
you don't understand, I guarantee there will be many others who also don't
understand!
Speaking from my own experience and that of others I have known, it
takes enormous effort to awaken in a deep and abiding manner. It is likely
you will not realize how hard you have been struggling until it all ends.
For me this cessation of struggle happened in September 2002. The metaphor that
occurred to me is that I felt like a hairball that was finally spit up by a cat! The other metaphor is
from the story of Jonah, who struggled fiercely in the belly of the whale
for three days. Finally, he was involuntarily 'ejected', landing naked and
shivering on the beach. All we can do is struggle when it is time to struggle,
and gratefully accept release when that is offered. Everything happens by the
grace of God. When Jonah landed on the beach, he was exhausted but totally free,
now a stranger in a strange land. Our intrepid spiritual warrior, who has
successfully endured the prolonged dark night of St. John of the Cross
must now recover from his heroic struggle, and some perhaps extended
period of rest and recovery is needed, even required.
The next spiritual challenge is to genuinely rest, but not become
attached to the exquisite peace and stillness now experienced. This period of
rest I termed the Cave of Nonduality. The second major
challenge is to engage once again with the ordinary world where most are
actively suffering and in no way at peace
or free from anything. In doing so, new challenges will inevitably and
quickly emerge. These new challenges are the unresolved programs and wounds
that were not exposed or released during the dark night. They are only revealed
after the more obvious blind spots have been resolved. Much is healed and
released during the struggle of the dark night. Far more programs and scars vaporize
instantaneously during the spontaneous death of the old being and rebirth as a
new one. To meet these new challenges head on, it is necessary to leave the
peace and contentment of the cave of nonduality. This is the only way for the
full embodiment of the deep realizations of awakening to fully materialize.
Below is a blog post I wrote about this issue in 2013.
Attachment
to Emptiness
“This Sense
World too is Enlightenment”
Hakuin
Zenji’s Chant in Praise of Zazen
In his 4/10/2013 webcast, Adyashanti addresses in a beautiful,
clear, and direct manner the allure of emptiness and the need to move through
this stage of enlightenment. Adyashanti speaks of the attachment to emptiness.
The spiritual path is limitless, and every single step along the way has
potential pitfalls. These difficulties arise in the form of attachments or
aversions. I have spoken of the attachment to emptiness as dwelling in the cave
of nonduality. Once the silence and peace of this absolute emptiness
is experienced, it can be enticing, particularly to those who have experienced
enormous suffering and trauma in this life.
In emptiness there is no separation and hence no suffering. If the
goal is the end of suffering, then emptiness is your ticket. Without the sense
of self-identity, there can be no suffering as there is no separation. No
separation means there is no comparison of what is with what isn’t. Without
this comparing process, nothing is seen as lacking. There is neither joy nor
the absence of joy. There is no passion, no desire, no fear, no pain of loss,
no excitement, and no despair. Obviously, meaningful relationships of all kinds
are avoided or diminished, as relationships have typically been a source of
suffering. The same can be said for all other forms of engagement in the world.
Responsibility is avoided like the plague.
The internal experience of emptiness is of a quiet contentment.
People who have arrived at this deep, internally focused peacefulness appear
emotionally flat to those not in the cave. There is often very little
externally focused activity of any kind. Very little productive work is
accomplished. Effort of all kinds is strenuously avoided as a sign of ego-based
striving. A telltale sign of the depth of attachment to this stillness and
emotional numbing is the ferocious response that occurs when an attempt is made
to arouse them from their slumbers. The cave of nonduality is a
deeply restful way station for the weary spiritual traveler and abiding there a
while is understandable and beneficial. The problem is mistaking a stage of the
journey for the end of the journey.
After a deep spiritual realization, it is normal, even predictable
to land hard in the cave of nonduality. Many years can pass quietly as the
seeker rests, mistakenly assuming that the journey has ended. From my
observations and experiences, it is almost impossible for the person (who no
longer believes themselves to be a person in the usual sense) to recognize how
stuck they are without some external assistance. This is where a trusted
teacher who has successfully exited the cave and engaged with the
messy, unpredictable ordinary world is not only invaluable, but usually
absolutely necessary. The discontent that drove the seeker to pursue self-realization
with the passion required to awaken to an aspect of their true nature has
ceased. Extinction is the nature of nonduality. There is no internal
dissatisfaction left to motivate movement and action. What then is the
motivation to leave the cave and reengage with the world of suffering and
chaos, of desire and lack?
The only motivation I can find is a deep sense of compassion born
of the experiential realization of both unity and separateness. Although my
personal suffering may have ended in the cave of emptiness, a quick peek
outside reveals an entire world of hurt. The instant that we wade into this
morass of suffering, previously hidden attachments and aversions are activated
and available for attention and release. As long as we stay safely within the cave,
we can fool our self into thinking that we are ‘done’. As long as meaningful
engagement with life and real responsibility are carefully avoided, we can
maintain our carefully cultivated inner state of peace and contentment. The
avoidance of engagement becomes the spiritually rationalized default setting.
How can engagement with the messy world be a good idea when it
activates so many unresolved conflicts? This can be an especially delicate time
for the spiritual aspirant who, having finally found peace, is asked to
surrender it.
Many are called, but few are chosen. If there is a willingness and
access to accurate teaching, the rested seeker may gather up their few
remaining possessions and begin the longest and most arduous portion
of the path. The ordinary world of duality is engaged, but now it is
intuitively understood from the aspect of emptiness, making all experience
radically different. One of the last and most difficult attachments that must
be released is the attachment to emptiness. The full engagement with ordinary
life that is ultimately realized is beautifully depicted in the tenth
ox-herding picture, where our fully liberated sage is completely at home in the
world, demonstrating absolute freedom embodied as an individual and unique
human being.
Link to my book on Amazon: https://amazon.com/Awake-Alive-Being-What-Already/dp/1700082531/
Attachment to Emptiness was
originally published in a slightly modified form on 4/17/2013 on my blog: https://awakentotruth.blogspot.com/.
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