How many nondualities are there?

Abstract

The nonduality of subject and object is the central claim of several important Oriental philosophies for example, Taoism (Chuang Tzu: "When self and other lose their contrariety, there we have the very essence of the Tao."1 ), Mahayâna Buddhism ( Asvaghosa: . . from the beginning corporeal form and mind have been nondual".2) and Advaita (Tat tvam asi as the nondifference of atman and Brahman). This common claim is so extraordinary, so much at variance from commonsense and yet so fundamental to all these systems, that it deserves more attention thatn it has received; in particular, comparative and cross-cultural studies of this phenomenon have been lacking. One cannot study the relevant literature without a suspicion arising. For all the systems that incorporate this claim, the nondual nature of reality is revealed only in the experience of enlightenment or liberation, which is experiencing nondually (or realizing that experience always has been nondual). Enlightenment is the hinge upon which each metaphysic turns. Unlike Western philosophy, which tends to reflect on commonplace experience accessible to all, these systems make far-reaching epistemological and metaphysical claims on the basis of nonordinary experience accessible to very few or to be more precise, accessible only to those who are willing to follow the rigorous path, who are very few. (It is not that these claims are not empirical, but they are grounded on evidence not readily available, which is of course the root of the difficulty in evaluating them.) Another significant similarity among these different descriptions of enlightenment is that the experience cannot be attained or understood through conceptual means, because it transcends all categories of thought. This means that the nondual experience transcends philosophy itself and all its ontological claims, to which one cannot help but respond: are these philosophies then based upon, and pointing to, the same nondual experience? During the experience itself there is no phil osophizing, but if and when one "steps down" and tries to explain what has been experienced, perhaps a variety of descriptions are possible. Maybe