Introduction

Non-duality is the recognition that underlying the multiplicity and diversity of experience there is a single, infinite and indivisible reality, whose nature is pure consciousness, from which all objects and selves derive their apparently independent existence. The recognition of this reality is not only the source of lasting happiness within all people; it is the foundation of peace between individuals, communities and nations, and it must be the basis for any sustainable relationship with the environment.

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Everybody has the sense of ‘being myself’, but most people’s sense of their self is so thoroughly mixed with the content of their experience that they do not know their self clearly. For this reason, they do not fully experience the peace and happiness that are inherent in their own being. Self-enquiry is the investigation into the nature of the self, revealing its innate peace and happiness and leading to the recognition of the essential unity of oneself with all objects and others.

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Many people have recognised or glimpsed the fact that consciousness is the shared essence of all beings and things, and yet still feel their body and perceive the world in a way that corresponds with the old belief that dead, inert matter is the ultimate reality from which everyone and everything is derived. The yoga meditations are the means by which we learn to feel the body and perceive the world in a way that is consistent with our new understanding, namely, that everything is known by, appears in and is ultimately a modulation of consciousness itself.

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Enlightenment is the recognition that our true nature – the essential experience of ‘being aware’ or Awareness itself – does not share the limits or destiny of the body. This understanding is then gradually integrated into every part of daily life.

God – infinite, self-aware Consciousness – is the unlimited, open, empty field in which all experience appears, with which all experience is known and out of which all experience is made.

Enlightenment is the recognition of our essential nature of ever-present, unlimited Awareness. It is not a new experience but rather something we have simply overlooked due to our fascination with the drama of thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions.

Our suffering revolves around an illusory separate self. The separate self is an imaginary limit superimposed on the true and only self of pure Awareness. All that is needed is to see the reality behind the illusory self.

When you are happy you are fulfilled. There is no more purpose, there is no more reason for doing anything because you have already got what you would seek through doing anything. You have already arrived at the happiness that you seek.

When we wake up from a dream, we understand that we were not a self in the dream but rather that the entire dream took place in us. Similarly, when we wake up from the ‘dream’ of everyday life we discover that Consciousness is not in the body but that the entire body, mind and world are in Consciousness.

Our experience is real, but the world as conceived by the mind – made of dead, inert matter, appearing outside Consciousness – is an illusion. The world we experience is not made of matter; it is made of Consciousness.

The body is a mixture of images, sensations and perceptions which appear in the mind. The mind itself is a contraction or a localisation of infinite consciousness and it is only as that finite mind that we can know a world. When the body dies, just one particular localisation of consciousness disperses but consciousness itself doesn't dissolve.

Painful emotions and feelings are generated and sustained by the sense of being a separate self, which, if investigated, can never be found. In its place we find the inherent peace of Awareness itself.

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Conflicts usually arise because other people either threaten or fail to fulfil the separate self that we imagine ourself to be. The true and only self of pure Awareness cannot be diminished or aggrandized by any experience and, therefore, does not need to be defended or fulfilled.

Desires which originate from an isolated self and, as a result, are fuelled by a sense of lack cannot be fulfilled by objective experience. If desires arise from our deepest love and understanding, then they tend to be fulfilled.

Our belief in free will is based on the intuition of the freedom inherent in the essential nature of the mind, pure Consciousness. We are free to exercise that freedom in the service of the love and peace inherent in Consciousness, or the fear and desire inherent in the separate self.

Lasting happiness cannot be found in the acquisition of objects, substances, activities, states of mind or relationships. It resides in the simple knowing of our own being as it truly is.

Meditation is neither an activity of the mind nor the cessation of the mind. It is simply being knowingly the presence of Awareness. Meditation is what we are, not what we do.

Just as the sun is self-luminous, so Awareness is self-aware. It knows itself simply by being itself. Each of us is aware of the experience of being aware. That experience is Awareness’s knowledge of itself.

Self-enquiry starts with an investigation into the essential nature of ‘I’ and ends with the dissolution of the mind in the heart of Awareness, revealing Awareness itself as the ultimate reality of all experience.