NonDuality, or Advaita in Sanskrit, invites us to realize our true nature, the nature of our mind, what we fundamentally are. What we are has no limits or boundaries, no name and no form. It is the unqualified presence underlying our relative being. nonduality indicates that there have never been two elements in the universe. While Unity implies the union of at least two elements, in nonduality there is no separation, no boundary, no limit, no definition, no "individual," no object. It is the limitless ocean, with waves as the objects represented by our brain and the categories that fill our daily lives.
Today, nonduality is becoming commonplace, with people awakening to their true nature everywhere! It’s amazing, but consciousness awakens consciousness in so many people. What can we do about it? Nothing, just observe how our ego grasps the idea of awakening and does everything to "be awakened" and… ends up doing nothing! For there is no awakened ego. Awakening means deeply realizing that the ego has never existed. And it is not within the ego’s power to bring this about. It is an impersonal process, one to which we can simply make room within ourselves. Clear our mental archives and welcome what-is in the humility of inner simplicity.
Being "in nonduality" is not an extraordinary state but, rather, our natural state, as practitioners of Dzogchen call it in the Bön tradition. Letting go of the clutter that fills our minds, fueling our desires, our wants, and ambitions—this is what we can realize, here and now (although That is neither here nor now!) to savor what-is, moment by moment, in its unedited state. We can live this way and respond to life’s challenges in the most suitable way, without expending our physical and mental energy needlessly. On this site, we present videos by radical nondualist authors who offer perspectives that can instantly dissolve the duality of self and world. Realizing one's essential nature, the absence of self and separation, is a subtle art. See the "sages" tab.
Nonduality, by disregarding representations, is lived rather than defined. It is the experience, the realization of the absolute non-separation between everything that is, between Consciousness and the world. As Jean Klein puts it, it is seeing the world as it is with wide-open eyes, not as a meditative samadhi or distant trance resulting from rigorous asceticism in the Himalayan cold. It’s not about being a person facing the Absolute as if separate from it, striving for illumination or fusion with the Absolute. Nothing is outside the Absolute. So, how can one go to where one already is? This is the core of the matter!
And this astonishing "experience" that dissolves the narrow, separate awareness of "me" often occurs spontaneously, without technique and without motive. People from all walks of life have tasted this grace, and some have even managed to speak of it—no small feat. It permanently transforms the vision of those who experience it. It may also emerge from spiritual practice guided by a realized master, though this is by no means necessary, unlike yogic techniques or kundalini awakening practices. Interestingly, this experience can occur simply by reading nondualist texts. Even the word "experience" fails to capture what can be said about nonduality, which is what underlies all experiences and manifestations and remains ever-unchanging. Let us avoid forming any image of it!
Moreover, nonduality does not oppose duality; it crowns it. The aim is not to overcome duality but to fully embrace it as it is, with its pairs of opposites fully linked, pair by pair, while we often tend to crave one side and avoid the other: wanting love while fleeing hatred, seeking light while escaping shadow, for example. In accepting manifestation in all its dimensions, this unconditional acceptance opens us to nonduality. In other words, embracing duality leads us to nonduality. For where could "nonduality" be, if not here and now, encompassing all these boundaries that vibrate before our eyes? nonduality is nothing other than what we have before us, than what sees these current objects… It is more a different gaze upon what-is. The subject/object duality fades away: “I see this” becomes simply: SEEING.
And as the ego feeds on "I like this and dislike that," accepting duality also means going beyond this limiting representation of "I-me," the illusion of being separate from the world and others.
On this site, non-dualite.fr, we have gathered some of the most eloquent and accessible messages from philosophers, mystics, free thinkers, and sages. Feel free to explore each author according to your interests and affinities.
Spiritual traditions sometimes culminate in the realization of nonduality, especially in the East, where the impersonal vision of Divinity helps transcend the reductive concepts that often separate the practitioner from God in Western traditions. At heart, even in the West, masters like Eckhart clearly tasted this nameless, thoughtless unity, though they did not always dare speak of it publicly.
If we were to locate nonduality in space-time, we might say it was first expressed most simply in Central Asia. The Dzogchen Bön tradition, Yungdrung Bon, which claims to date back 18,000 years, still reflects this today. Later, in China, through Chan and Hui Neng, it was expressed more succinctly yet as deeply. But we will see that all traditions, more or less, lead to the nondual essence, as long as they are based on inner experience and not on dead letters alone.
We have organized this site’s pages with two entry points: one directly through nondualist authors and the other through traditions. This lets you either read texts directly, many of which transcend specific references or explore nonduality's cultural evolution and development through specific traditional approaches.
Nonduality answers the question: "Who am I?"—a question we have all asked at some point. Ramana Maharshi made it the essential inquiry and guide for the quest for Self. Asking this question opens a path whose outcome we can hardly imagine, as long as we do not settle for the usual answers like "I am So-and-so," "I am me"...This path can lead to the here-and-now realization of the nondual state, which we have never ceased to be, if we are ready to abandon the representations in which we have imprisoned ourselves.
Thus, we can move from "I am me" to "(I am) That."
Lastly, we believe that a few rare visitors to our site may also have had this profound nondual experience. If this is your case, you are welcome to publish your story here by submitting an article after becoming a member. Additionally, philosophical, psychological, sociological, and even historical articles on nonduality are welcome on these pages. In summary, welcome to our site. May these lines help you glimpse what lies between them, from the beginning and beyond!