The Body of the World
In religious traditions, God’s infinite being is often referred to as the ultimate reality. By definition, the ultimate reality is the fundamental and foundational nature of existence; it is the source from which all known phenomena appear and disappear. Experientially, this source is consciousness. Consciousness is verifiably our most direct experience (in fact, consciousness is all that we have direct access to). We are not experiencing nothing here. What we call reality is real. Even if, like a dream, this is all an illusion, it is still something, and that something, whatever it is, is known by consciousness, or God.
If consciousness is the ultimate knower, there is simply no room for a separate knower or personal self without that personal self arising as an activity of consciousness. Why? Because the idea of two or more fundamentally separate consciousnesses creates a logical dilemma. In what larger reality do these multiple consciousnesses co-exist? If they are held within some overarching domain, then that larger domain, the container, is the more fundamental unifying reality. And wouldn’t this ultimate reality through which all conscious experience unfolds necessarily be a conscious reality itself?
Here, the idea of consciousness arising from that which is inert brings us to physical materialism, where objections are made to the idea that consciousness is fundamental. Materialism, however, is stuck at a philosophical impasse on this issue due to the “hard problem” of consciousness. How can consciousness, the subjective, qualitative experience of watching the sun set over the ocean and feeling an emotion, for example, arise from the quantities of matter, from arrangements of atoms, molecules, or neural impulses? Science, despite its progress in understanding the way phenomena behaves, has not successfully bridged this explanatory gap from quantitative interactions to qualitative experience.
From a nondual standpoint, there is no problem because the starting premise is inverted. Consciousness is not a product of matter; rather, matter and all other phenomena are appearances within consciousness. The qualities of experience do not arise from quantities; quantity and quality arise within the qualitative ground of consciousness.
The belief in being a separate consciousness is not just a minor misunderstanding; it is the illusion responsible for the world we live in today. Additionally, the cause of psychological suffering, like the anxiety of loneliness or the fear of death, is rooted in the false belief of a fundamental separation within the reality of consciousness.
The nondual understanding is an invitation to see through this ignorance, to recognize that the feeling of separation is merely a thought-form, an appearance within awareness. Because awareness has no real boundaries, and awareness knows all that can be known, there is no fundamental separation in reality. All division is a product of the mind.
To rest securely in this understanding is to rest as the ultimate reality, a reality that is inherently peaceful, whole, and free.