Quantum
HEALTH
Issue 10 March 2011
present moment always takes care of itself.
Here you are right now, for example, reading this. There is nothing you need to add to this experience or take away from it. You can’t change the moment anyway. If you don’t have time to finish this article, no problem–you move on. If you do, you continue in a relaxed and easy way.
Nondual therapies combine the capacity that’s demonstrated by Asian contemplative traditions for resting in the here and now with the finely honed skills of psychotherapy. They blend the liberating power of nondual awareness with the attention and intimacy that we find in Western traditions of counselling, therapy and coaching.
The Inspiration for Nondual Therapy Nondual therapy has been inspired by the example of masters and sages from nondual spiritual traditions. These traditions are mainly found in India and Asia, and include various traditions of Mahayana Buddhism: Zen, Dzogchen, Mahamudra and Madhyamaka. Outside of Buddhism, nonduality is found in the Advaita form of Hinduism and Chinese Taoism. The masters in these traditions show that what everyone strives for–a state of real and lasting fulfillment–is achievable. Furthermore, through their teachings and relationships they provide a model for how to manage our own evolution and make a powerful healing contribution to others.
Nondual therapies use the embodied presence of nondual masters as a model for creating a new therapeutic paradigm. This paradigm is based on the healing power of awareness itself, rather than on giving advice, making recommendations, or proffering interpretations. This is not to say these have no place in nondual therapies. They do. But they aren’t the most essential ingredients. The most essential ingredient is the introduction and cultivation of resting as awareness itself.
Therapists whose work is inspired by the nondual experience have often received training in both nondual spirituality and Western traditions of individual therapy. Their skill lies in their capacity to naturally and easily presence awareness itself
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when they are with the particular personal difficulties and challenges faced by their clients. Although many spiritual masters possess similar skills, therapists who embody a nondual perspective offer their services in a therapeutic context, which many people find more accessible than a guru-disciple relationship. By establishing an individual relationship with such a therapist, clients can bypass the internal politics found in many spiritual organisations and be reassured by professional standards of ethics and integrity.
The Ultimate Medicine
Nondual psychotherapies extend the wisdom of nondual spirituality directly into the therapeutic arena. They offer people a direct experience of the natural freedom of being as well as guidelines for how this experience can be deepened and extended into all areas of life. In contrast to dualistic therapies, which assume that our inner or outer reality must change in order for us to achieve real fulfillment, nondual therapies dissolve our habitual tendency to construe that something is wrong or missing.
The experience of the nondual or unconditioned awareness takes us outside the cycle of reactive responses and emotions by connecting us with the nature of our mind as pure, unstructured awareness. We are at home with ourselves in a totally natural and uncontrived way. When we rest in this experience, we connect intimately with everything within and around us, yet we are beyond being disturbed in any way. In the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism, this experience is called invincibility, or indestructibility. At the same time that we fully accept our finite and conditioned existence, the quality of our experience can’t be damaged or degraded by the presence of any thought, feeling, or sensation.
In Buddhism the experience of nondual awareness is called the “ultimate medicine.” Other types of medicine–that is, other types of therapy–have limitations. They work for some people and not for others, and even then only some of the time. The ultimate medicine is universally healing. Every mind touched by the experience of its unconditioned nature moves closer to
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