DocM wrote on Mar 14th, 2008 at 2:59pm:...of the problem of separation from the divine or unity; that there may be a middle ground of qualified dualism or qualified monism whereby a person is both at the same time a unique consciousness while being at one with God and the universe. The nature of consciousness implies perspective, which implies a thought process that includes some dualistic thinking. Yet those who have merged with the divine in NDEs (Howard Storm as an example), describe the unity and still unique perspective as a feeling or knowing without being able to explain it further in words....
The idea that those with monistic tendencies must be narcissists who wish to revere and worship themselves is, in actuality erroneous. In fact in practice, quite the opposite occurs. People with true monistic beliefs and experiences tend to do more for others and be less ego driven, since they are aware of their being part of the whole instead of an other.
Thanks for your interesting words.
More to come from me...
Matthew
Hi Matthew,
Thank you for the kind words.
Following up - -
My understanding of this issue is as follows:
First of all - these are terms that signify constructs and belief systems that may all be operable depending upon whether one adopts any one and they do all seem to co-exist on the Earth-plane in various cultures and societies as individual and group beliefs at the present time - maybe one of the primary sources of ideological 'conflict', as people migrate from more restrictive constructs to more expansive constructs.
Dualism: that God (Spirit) and the Creation (matter) are separate and inaccessible to each other. Basically, God created the universe and 'let it go'. This is supposedly a primitive construct and not utilized by most of the so-called 'civilised' world.
Qualified Non-Dualism: God created the universe not of His entire Being, but with a portion of His Essence which permeates the Creation and is part of it. However there are limitations to 'access'. Right now, this is the dominant conception for most of the world - (like 90%?), but it is fast changing.
Monism: Everything, whether physical or non-physical is God in some form. There is nothing anywhere in any form that is not God. Any aspect of individuated form (in the physical) is actually God and has therefore the potential to become conscious of this Reality by evolution and transformation of this transitory ignorance.
We can accept qualified non-dualism (and definitely monism) if we acknowledge that individuals like Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Ramakrishna, etc., were God-realized and
still retained their individuality (seems they did) , while operating in the physical world and not simply as part of an NDE, etc. Further, if one accepts the possibility and/or reality of God-realization presumably exemplified by these historical figures and probably many unknown others, this creates a problem for the purely dualist conception which posits that God (Spirit) is necessarily separate from a material Creation.
In qualified non-dualism God is seen as creating a separate physical universe with His Essence, but it is a one way street and still separate from access (to God). In both strict dualism and qualified non-dualism there is separation that is only resolved with the dissolution of life whether as parmeceum, person, or planet - and return of the soul - the divine portion to the Source through death. Iow's - dualism is resolved through death (one belief system that has generated many 'problems' on Earth) Neither of the dualist conceptions allow for the phenomenon of God-realization except in q.n.d. in which case is explained as a fiat appearance by one way descent into the physical world ie: Avatars (Incarnations) - direct descent of Godhead into physical personality. It does not allow for the construct that a 'mortal' person could attain God-realization working from the physical, since there would be the intrinsic separation of the dualistic reality, only resolvable by death and subsequent return to Source through process of death. The soul is merely our 'conscience' in a 'moral' world and that is as far as it goes. Hence the problem many have with the possibility of God-realization as well aas many other problems originating in this structure/belief system.
Yet, stange that all the Great Teachers have carefully explained that God can be attained by the individual through various means and methods while in this life (although even now this is still seen as radical by most), seeming to suggest that the dualist model persists only though stubborn adherence to ignorant tradition which keeps human beings indefinitely enslaved to Ignorance in a spiritual/material schism that is the source of many problems within individual and institutional belief systems at this time in human evolution. Iow's - it seems to me that monism is at the cutting edge of human understanding and implimentation of Divinity. It offers the most common sense view that explains most comprehensively the whys and hows of the human predicament and offers the best possibilities of transcending it, which the other models do not.
Consciousness at 'the high end' has been described as Existence/Consciousness/Bliss, in which there is no differentiation between those qualities and the one experiencing them. This does not necessarily mean that an individual cannot participate in that 'scheme' (which is a baseless 'fear' of the dualist/materialist conception), and is again, what is described by those who have experienced these states as differentiated human personalities Who did retain their individuality and operated on Earth as such.
You bring up an interesting point in discussing the narcissim issue on the individual level which i wasn't even alluding to. But yes, it seems clear that opposite to the dualist conception, monism (oneness) supports service within the Creation without the rationales we see with dualism that cause so many difficult secondary problems - for instance like inquisitions, crusades, and separative, condescending, authoritarian attitudes that are inherent in the constructs themselves. The dualist conception willfully or incidentally promotes a materialst view (matter being un or antidivine) in which any actual becoming of divinity (vs submission to divinity ie external Authority), is given as impossible therefore any real occurance of this is seen as an absurdity, narcissism, erroneous self (small 's') worship, megalomania, and various irreligious distortions - the same things the Pharisees said about the Christ. Even short of a discussion on the divinity of the Christ etc, there are all kinds of individual, social and cultural problems that stem from the spiritual/material dualistic conception of reality and transposition onto the social/interpersonal level, like the obvious shortcomings of morality and why that debate will go nowhere - because it has reached its limits on a social level in terms of the sheer number of people it does not now serve positively.
What I was previously refering to was this:
On a larger scale, what better model of narcissism than dualism? - An Almighty, Infinite, All Knowing, All loving God somehow can't get it together, and projects an ineffectual false-self (Creation) in which Ignorance, futility and finitude abound, creatures callously destroy and consume each other merely to survive another day, everything that is born has to die including the Universe itself, and for humans - the perplexing 'bad things happen to good people" among much worse - confusing and debilitating brutality, turmoil, and suffering that does not seem to live up to all the confabulated grandiose hype we hear about the great wonderful God. Talk about a grandiosity gap - narcissism or what?
It is in monism where all of this physical plane ignorance makes sense and actually has some meaning within larger possibilities inherent in the scheme, at least as a remedial basis for 'return' in which there is the 'double ladder' of involution/evolution which cannot be true in the dualist (separated) conception where the greatest possibilities of life are available only through divine fiat and not inherent in the reality itself as is the case with monism. Monism is where human birth has the greatest potential since human beings are inherently self-conscious, and so God-realization is at the forefront of physical plane possibility. In this scheme the individual does not narcisissitically worship themselves (their outer form) but they aspire to the divinity within themselves and respond to the inherent divinity in others - which supersedes an externally applied (therefore arbitrary) morality as a determinant of 'goodness' on the physical plane. It is subsumed by and adherance to or an aspiration and willingness to surrender the small will (ego) to God's Will, present and available within each person. It is with dualism that we see the culture of narcisism and form/image worship, condescending and authoritarian power trips over other beings and societies, etc..
- u