A voice in the wind speaks of timelessness; an infinite silence in existence sings of a reality beyond separation. This is the state of nonduality: the truth beyond concepts-Rigpa. It cannot be grasped by the mind, yet it is always there. It is not far away, yet it is unseen by those entrapped by the illusion of separation: Maya.

To understand nonduality, one must first understand duality because, paradoxically, only when one sees the illusion with clarity does one awaken to the truth.

A Dance in Duality: Subject and Object

In our ordinary experience, we find ourselves as a “self,” an experiencer, a consciousness aware of a world “out there.” It is this split of subject (the one who sees) and object (the thing seen) that creates our sense of reality.

We wake in the morning and reestablish ourselves as an individual—with a name, a past and future, a body we believe we inhabit. We look around and perceive a world of objects, people, and events all separated from us. That is the dream of duality.

Yet what experienced all this? Who or what is aware of this duality? If we look deeper, we find that even the experiencer is just a concept that avoids our conscious awareness. Thoughts arise, sensations show up, emotions move- who knows this?

In our subjectivity, we assume we are real. Yet upon investigation, we cannot prove its existence. It is like trying to catch the shifting shadow of the moon in a pond, gliding away, dissolving, and never actually being there in the first place.

The Nonduality Paradox

There lies the paradox: If a real subject does not exist, what then is left? If there is no I, distanced from the world, then where then does that experience happen? The answer would be the space after thought, the formlessness before form. Experience itself is neither here nor there, neither possessed nor separate — it just is. Just as the sky embraces clouds, the oceans hold waves, emptiness pervades everything but remains untainted. This is nonduality-formlessness within which everything arises and dissolves, wherein nothing has ever truly been born or lost.

Rigpa, according to Dzogchen, is this direct apprehension. It is the presence of pure awareness: unconditioned, always on the surface, always free. One cannot really attain this state, for it is what already is. It cannot belong to some separate ego, for no such entity exists. It is that primordial clarity that exists prior to conceptual thinking, that infinite open space within which thoughts, sensations, and perceptions come and go like clouds dancing in an endless sky.

But the mind, conditioned in duality, struggles with this. It states, “If there is no separateness, then why am I feeling separate?” This very question arises from the illusion itself. The wave asks, “Where is the ocean?” but does not realize it has never been anything other than water.

The Flow of Love from Nonduality

And here flows One Love. If all divisions are illusions, then what remains except love? Not love as some transient emotion, not love as attachment or longing, but love as the very essence of being.

Think of the sun that shines in all directions, unbiased, un-mindful- “here it shines on this flower, there it will not shine.” Nondual awareness shines like that-it divides experience not into self and other, love and hate, good and evil.

From the perspective of nonduality, there is nothing to hold onto and there is no one to hold onto it; all that remains is an endless flow of unconditional love. That’s one reason why great sages and mystics radiate peace and compassion: they aren’t doers of it. They have just dropped the illusion which blocked what was always there.

The Invitation To See

How does one ‘realize’ nonduality? The lovely irony is that there is actually nothing to realize. The seeking mind that is boxed in duality desires methodology, path, way. Yet this Rigpa, the nondual basis, is ever present. There is nowhere to reach.

So, try this one: Stop for just a moment. What is here before thought arises, before you judge, before you name the experience? What remains when you do not hold onto a self? What is effortlessly aware of all this without any effort or division?

This. This moment. This awareness. This suchness. This is not something other than you. This is who you are before you call yourself “me.” This is the ocean before the wave thinks it’s separate.

The End of Seeking, The Beginning of Living

In the end, all the words are but fingers pointing at the moon. The mind wants to grasp nonduality, but there is no mind, no one to grasp it, nothing to grasp. The mind wants to attain enlightenment, but enlightenment is simply the realization that there was never anyone separate from it.

And that’s why the invitation is quite simple: Just let go. Let go of seeking; let go of clinging; let go of the illusion of separation. And in that letting go, what remains is what has always been- pure awareness, unshakable peace, and the effortless boundless love that streams from the heart of all things.

The wave dissolves; the ocean remains.

One Love.