Nonduality

Today I went to our nearby Hindu Temple.
There was a Ganesh puja,
Chanting, Gods, Goddesses, murtis and mantra.

How… dualistic?

Nonsense.
Only a dualist would say so.

Duality is real,
As is formless nonduality.
Both are true, false, and neither.

Nonduality is an Experience,
An Experience of Being,
Not an arid concept.

Stuck in either duality,
Or nonduality,
You are bound.

For “nonduality”
As often propounded these days,
Is anything but.

I love going to this temple.
I enjoy the shakti of the place.
That's right… shakti.

Ramana spoke of shakti,
But my nondual friends
Simply ignore those words.

The shakti at the temple is unique,
Yes… unique to a place,
A locale in space and time.

People throng to Tiruvanamalai.
Why do they not throng to Baltimore?
Shakti.

Yes, it's my own innate Shakti
Shining at temple.
For form and formlessness are one.

But today…
I enjoyed being Imperfection,
Receiving Grace from Perfection.

Sound crazy, my nondual friends?
So be it.

It was Sublime, so Beautiful.
I could barely breathe.

Wave after wave of Bliss,
Rolling into the locus of the Heart,
Dissolving Lover and Beloved.

The Ocean of Formless Bliss,
Flooding into form.

This is nonduality.

And so… I resign my membership
In the one-sided advaitic view,
So-called “nonduality“.

I know… I have no shame.

I'm falling back, going home,
Into the “truth” of my Own Heart,
Where dual and nondual never arise,
And I'm Free... Free to Play!

Where Lakshmi smiles
At me, in me, through me, as me,
And I enjoy my own innate Bliss,
As flowing from Her…

Until She and I both vanish in Love.

I can Play thus,
Where Lover and Beloved,
Though beyond duality,…
Enjoy dancing together.

For I may know nothing of nonduality,
Or everything about it,
But care not, either way.