The teachings of nonduality can sometimes seem to be somewhat abstract, or removed from one’s lived experience, or even rejecting of it. It may be that these teachings, being so uncompromising about the causes of suffering and its remedies, seem to disregard the human-ness of life in favour of a cold, relentless discrimination.
But the truth is that the process of spiritual awakening is a passage into and through the messy, painful, tender business of embodied existence. We’re called not to disassociate from unwanted feelings and situations, but to face them head-on, to embrace even the most difficult and painful appearances.
We might find that it’s only through the courage and compassion to embrace and accept the full spectrum of expressions, to meet and not turn away or deny them, that we come to recognise and accept the completeness that we are.
Ultimately, the freedom we find is not the freedom that comes from distancing ourselves from our dark and difficult aspects, but rather it’s discovering the freedom that abides in the midst of all experience, without exception.