It’s often the case that nondual understanding in the dualistic mind is the product of ‘secondary mind’, the logical, analytical mind, and not a wisdom emanation from Pure Mind. True wisdom is born directly from Self-nature without reference to understanding. It’s the difference between knowledge born of Self-recognition, and the cogitations of the functional mind and it’s rationalistic outputs.
In a sense one can suffer from the consistency of functional mind as it produces self-supporting arguments and theories that appear complete on their own level, however the nature of such ‘knowledge’ is entirely theoretical and concludes without recourse to direct non-conceptual apprehension. It’s hard to penetrate such understanding because of the strong crystalline nature of its structure, but the absolutist assertions about what-is that are derived from the seat of reason and not from the seat of insight simply don’t satisfy.
But it’s life itself that deposes this usurping intelligence by offering endless exceptions to whatever conceptual framework is held, as the failure to accomodate the ever-fresh, ever-proliferating nature of being becomes the incentive to look beyond concepts altogether. Non-duality as a paradigm is a profound intellectual understanding, and perhaps even represents a kind of ultimate iteration of conceptual understanding as such. But it’s only when ALL understanding is transcended that the living truth is realized. Reference to secondary mind is still available, but is known to be merely relative and conceptual.
Ultimately all appearances are born from Original Mind, and even the notion of delusion is a spontaneous arising. But the belief that the goal of Self-inquiry or the spiritual ‘path’ is to understand nonduality intellectually is delusionary, and the idea that understanding on its own level could be satisfactory is misguided. The development of intellectual understanding will only find its satisfactory conclusion in its own transcendence. That said, a rarefication and refinement of comprehension seems to be a precursor of its own demise, albeit not a immediate guarantee of it.
Transcendence is a leap of faith, a jump into the void, a fall into unknowing. It is the final step from the clifftop, when the freefall begins and never ends. No (apparent) form is stable, so to cling to anything is futile and cause for suffering. Remain in freefall, enjoy the breeze!
Many will cling to understanding as if it were a fixed point in an ocean of change. But understanding is itself relative and subject to change and dissolution. There’s no-thing to rely on. Even Being itself; who can say?
If A equals B, and B equals C, then A equals C. This is the functional mind, this is the mind that calculates and concludes. And it’s fine for building bridges and writing code and following recipes. It’s functional, it describes, it extrapolates from what it’s seen before. But this form of intelligence is nested within total knowledge, the infinite potentiality of intelligence itself, and as such cannot fully fathom or describe its own origins.
Knowing is known on its own level, in its own Nature. It is primordial and self-supporting. It is singular, awake intelligence, it is the universal Subject. The I-I. And no amount of analysis or reason can deliver the lived experience. It is beyond and prior to all such considerations, but is immanent and ever-present as your very own awareness.
“Know that by knowing which everything is known.”
ॐ
