The First Step is Too Much

Q: Hi Randall ~ I bought your book and read it ~ there was something ineffable yet irresistible in that book. It was like you were trying to tell me something but no words could quite touch it ~ the way you led the mind down the road and then abruptly pulled the rug out was brilliant. After reading the book there was just a stillness ~ like an entire lifetime of fighting was fighting against illusion ~ that fighting and struggling were ended when that book was finished. Thank you for that.

Then I read something you recently wrote on your blog, and it seems to have struck a strong chord out of the blue and unexpectedly ~ "Therefore any object is a direct experience of your own SELF. There is no awareness HERE and object THERE. There is no awareness INSIDE and an objective world OUTSIDE. Awareness and experience are one and the same reality. One nondual reality. One IS-ness."

It is not like a logical or intellectual understanding ~ of course logically it doesn't make any sense. But there is just an obviousness revealing itself like it doesn't really have to be understood mentally. At any moment, that nondual reality just is. And then the mind comes in to translate it and in doing so it applies separation. That means separation is only a concept in mind but not in actual reality.

Something else you wrote goes along with this ~ you said something like "this moment has no beginning and no ending." It is like this mental applying of concepts and separation is where that idea of beginning and ending come in. It is still this imaginary concept at work but that nondual reality is just, as you say, "what IS."

It is extremely simple but very obvious. Actually so obvious that it was overlooked constantly, because there was a search for something to come. Waiting for something to come was the reason the simplicity and obviousness was overlooked ~~LOL!

There is just a peace which seems to have come from nowhere. It is like it was there all along, just covered up with all the ideas about separation. Those ideas seemed to cover up the peace because it was a constant conflict, seeking and trying to get something. And when that didn't come there was frustration. But it is clear there isn't anything to get after all. This nondual reality is already the case. It has always been the case but the mind created the idea of an individual who needed to find something. And that idea of an individual was the very roadblock. Because assuming the individual assumes reality is separate. The first desire to get anything is already too much. It is already a step away from this "what IS".

There is a deep gratitude arising. There are no more questions ~ how could there be? Even though there is this love and gratitude arising it is inexpressible because to speak of it requires imagination about a divided reality ~ And there is no such thing!


A: Beautifully put, my friend. Very clear. The first step in seeking is already an assumption, a denial of this present nondual reality, a primary split of reality down the middle and then one half is subject and the other is object. This split is only ever imagination.

You're welcome to stay in touch. Love to you.

Just notice

You are undoubtedly here, present. The only commonality of a lifetime of experience has been this always-here-ness, this presence. Everything else has changed, the body, the thoughts, the feelings, emotions, sensations....

What-you-are is just simply HERE. There isn't anything else to say about it. It cannot be described, because it's not objective like the rest of it, like all experiences. It isn't an experience. It's just your presence. It's just the present activity of knowing. It's going on right now. It's here. It's unmistakably and obviously here. It's how the world is known. It's how the body is known. It's how thoughts are known.

It's how anger, frustration, sadness, and every other feeling or emotion is known.

It's not objective. It's not an experience. It's the experiencING. The knowing. Can you deny that? Are you ever without it? Does it leave? Does it change? Does it come and go?

No. It does not. It's not difficult. It doesn't require searching. It's that IN WHICH the search takes place, the idea of seeker takes place.

It's not personal - the personal is the quality of the body, of thoughts. You are THAT which knows the personal.

It's not individual - the individual is appearance - objective - quantifiable, measurable, changing.

It's just this present knowing - this subjective "I"-ness. It's always here.

You are looking FOR your true Self, when all the while you are already looking FROM your true Self.... Just notice.

Obvious

Never is there a moment when reality is divided.

What are the implications of that? It means that the entire paradigm of "me seeking enlightenment" falls away as false from the very beginning, simply because reality was never divided as this idea seems to indicate. It means that the very idea of the individual who seeks and later finds something in spirituality was itself the issue or obscuration of that nondual reality which IS.

There is never a moment when you are not in full knowledge and realization of your Self. And that Self IS the nondual reality.

We may say it begins with the original "split" - awareness or subject and object-world. That is indicated by the sentence "I am seeing the world" or the idea of "me seeing world". Object appears in awareness. From there we can go further into abstraction and imagination by saying the awareness is possessed or owned BY the individual and the object is the world "outside". But that is taking what is already false and, ignoring the falseness of that initial split, going farther by assigning individuality to one part - awareness - and objectivity to the other.

Instead of standing upon that platform, which is several layers deep into imagination, that platform of individuality, from which there is a person seeking some future state or experience - go back to the primary split itself - see if that is true, before then running into abstract ideas which require that split to be a solid and "true" reality.

Awareness is obvious. That is going on now. The objective appearance is going on now. That objective appearance REQUIRES awareness to be known, yes? So if you had to place your Self on one side or the other, it would obviously lie on the subjective/awareness side, so to speak. You aren't objective to your SELF. Yes? Therefore in the equation of awareness and objective, you are the awareness.

And the objective is simply experience. Perception. Sensation. Awareness is the experiencing, perceiving, sensing. Yet is there an actual split or division between experience and experiencing? Is there an actual division between perception and perceiving? Is there a dividing line between sensation and sensing?

There is not. Awareness and experience are two words for the same reality. It is only in calling them awareness and experience that there SEEMS TO BE a division. But is there? Test this in direct experience.

Therefore any object is a direct experience of your own SELF. There is no awareness HERE and object THERE. There is no awareness INSIDE and an objective world OUTSIDE. Awareness and experience are one and the same reality. One nondual reality. One IS-ness.

Is this not the most obvious thing?

So from there, the first question that comes is known to be already false. The question about realization can only be false because it requires that split, which is quite obviously not there. The questions about "how do I find it" are false, simply because they require that primary split, which can never actually be found.

I had it and lost it. I only have an intellectual understanding. I feel I am so close to realizing what I am. Can these questions even arise if that primary split never actually happened?

Therefore you already ARE what is being sought, that oneness or nondual reality. What you are is already THAT - the ideas of a world of things, within which you are only a small and insignificant "part", is an idea built upon a false platform. It is taking WHAT IS to be split up.

There is no reaching Oneness, no bondage to escape, no liberation to find. You are the Oneness you are seeking. There is no individual to reach it. Only the false ideas, the imagination of duality falls away quite naturally.

And all that remains is what ever IS, already.

There are no objects

Duality is imagination only. THAT there is a world of things in existence, with "you" only a small, insignificant and limited "part", is part and parcel of this dualistic equation.

The instant a label is applied, reality is seemingly split up. We talk about awareness, then the world arises in awareness. From that platform, awareness is apparently owned, possessed, contained, limited. It's an unresolvable paradox - why is this so? Because a "thing" cannot BE another "thing". A "thing" stands apart and IS only a thing BECAUSE it ISN'T another "thing". In asserting it's "thingness", it must stand alone in space and time.

So we have awareness and experience - subjective and objective - and in even calling them as such, their duality is forever solidified. Their separate reality is seemingly solid and true. Yet we're still spellbound by words, still caught in the labels, which project reality as separate. Yes?

What is experience? Sensation. Perception. What is awareness? Experienc-ING. Sens-ING. Perceiv-ING.

So here is a sensation - breathing. It's a familiar sensation. What is the relationship of the sensation called "breathing" and the awareness OF that sensation? Where is that sensation at? Where is that awareness at? Where does the sensation start and end? Where does awareness start and end? Where is the boundary or dividing line between sensation/experience and awareness?

Aren't "sensation" and "awareness" two words for the SAME REALITY? Two words for the same nondual reality? Two words for "what IS"? Two words which seemingly split up "what IS" into subject and object?

And from there, that "subject" is given a name, that "object" is given a name, and the story is woven. Separate reality is projected, imagined.

The word "object" is just a concept. There is no such thing. And without an object, can there be a "subject"?

No. There is only WHAT IS, and then that is broken up in concepts to create this imaginary story called "My Life". You're entire life is nothing but this false story, built on the shakiest of platforms.

You ARE this nondual reality. The "real" YOU - IS the totality.

Life is not individual

What is the nature of reality?  This is an age-old question, and many philosophers and scientists alike have tried to answer it.

In this endeavor, there is an attempt to categorize, to divide, to measure, to calculate and analyze.  And what will the end be?  We can try to explain the workings, yet these theories are always under revision.  If we divide the atom into quarks, then we can divide the quark again, and again, and again, and again.  There is no limit to the mathematical divisions we can make.

If you had a pair of glasses which could see at the quantum level, what would you see?  Emptiness.  Energy patterns.  Nothingness.  The basic substance of all matter is emptiness.  It's space.  It's no-thing.  It's a field of intelligence.

That intelligence is "moving" - that movement shapes or forms or "creates" what we know as the material world.  Yet is that intelligence acting upon some external matter?  No - it's the emptiness itself which is formed.  That intelligence IS the tree, the cloud, the thought, the earth, the universe itself.

Is this a leap of faith?  Is this a mystical insight?  No.  It's obvious.  That intelligence is obvious in the gravitational fields, the beating heart, the firing neurons we call "thought".  It is that so-called "field of intelligence" which forms the atom, which is the electron, the pulsing electrical field which seemingly solidifies matter.  If there are more electrons, we say that atom is "heavier" - it is farther down in the periodic table - from hydrogen to iron, the various attributes are only there because of the behavior of that intelligence, yes?

That intelligence is what we call Life.  Life isn't divided.  It isn't owned.  It isn't partitioned by bodies and brains.  The body and brain IS Life itself.

And because there are thoughts - these thoughts claim ownership and individuality.  That is Life too.  Yet the story in thought, the story of an individual life, apart FROM Life, is false.  It's relative to the individual perspective, which is really only Life's perspectives.

There is only that intelligence - only Life itself.  Right now, Life is this blog and Life is reading this blog.  Life is the hands typing it and the eyes reading it.  Life is the author and the reader.

The "you" you've taken yourself to be, is a product of thought.  It's an image, a story.  The real YOU is Life itself, presently seeing itself, presently knowing itself.  That knowing is an innate attribute of Life.  That knowing isn't owned by an individual.

You are Life itself - there is no individual. Therefore there is no individual to be born nor die.  There is no individual to suffer, no individual in bondage and no individual who eventually finds enlightenment.  There are only appearances, which are "made real" in language.  That is duality.

Even calling it Life is duality, yet words are all we have to communicate.  There is really only THIS, only this singular "happening", this present immediacy, which doesn't move, it doesn't recede into the past, it doesn't come from the future.  It's not on a timeline.  It's not measured by distance.  It's just this nondual immediacy, and YOU are THAT.

You are what IS

Have you ever left this moment?  The mind runs away into the past, recalling events, and into the future, anticipating events, yet when does it do this?  Aren't these thoughts present thoughts?

So this sensation of back and forth, this pendulum of thought - this happens right here - right now.  You never move away from NOW - this moment - whatever you want to label THIS, this "present", this presence.

What is it about NOW that you know so well?  Every single bit of it changes constantly, but what doesn't change?  Isn't it that presence?  That knowing-you-are-here?  You must be here to witness the arrival of these thoughts, to witness the passing of these thoughts -  you must be here for any event to be known.  Yet it isn't the event we're concerned with - otherwise we're always trying to manipulate events - trying to make thoughts calm or spiritual, trying to make situations happy.

What we're concerned with is reality.  And reality cannot be anything but what IS.  WHAT IS.  What is, is reality, yes?  So what is the content of what IS?

The mind once again interjects - it "buts" in, it asserts it's knowledge base - it applies its model of reality, it's translations - what IS, is made up of parts, ME-seeing-WORLD, me as an individual who is a small and limited piece of what IS.

Yet is that actual experience?  Is that what IS?  We may say the translation is also "what IS" - and that's correct, but is that translation describing reality correctly?  Can any translation capture reality?

Any translation, any description, is negatable.  It's always from a point of view.  It's always from a perspective.  If the perspective shifts, the truth shifts with it, necessarily.  Is it not true?  So absolute truth cannot ever be arrived at through translation at all.  Absolute reality cannot be grasped in words, in definitions.

Reality has been defined as THAT which cannot be negated.  Yet we can negate any point of view, any perspective - really any APPEARANCE can be negated ultimately -simply because an appearance must be the result of something, some essence which then is formed.  We can't arrive at that essence yet we know the appearance is dependent - it's dependent on the limited senses - it's dependent on the filter through which we're translating.

Is there any such thing as that which cannot be negated?  Is there something we can know directly which is reality as defined?  Yes.  There is.

It is YOU.  Your presence.  Can that ever be negated?  Can you negate your Self?  Can you negate your presence?  You are THAT which can never be negated.  But if that "you" is taken to be a limited entity - a separate person - of course it can be negated, simply because that limited entity is an appearance.

Yet that ever-present presence that you are can never be negated at all.  It's always-here.  It's always the capacity to know any appearance and the passing of appearance.  It's that which never changes.  It's YOU.

It's YOU.  Your true essence is this presence of knowing that you are, this presence of "knowing what IS" - is that presence apart FROM what IS?  No.  It IS what IS.

You ARE what IS.  Start there.

What part of the brain are you?

What will finally be required to resolve the spiritual search?

If we try to analyze all these paradoxical pointers, will we ever come to an intellectual certainty?  Will some experience arrive which validates?  Will there finally be some spiritual "state" which is the end?

Are these pointers describing an experience?  Are they describing a special "state"?  No.  But there is still an insistence from a seeking perspective, on the future arrival of some experience which will finally come, like a light from Heaven, to bring enlightenment upon you.  That fallacy will continue to stand as a brick wall until it's finally let go of.

What is being pointed out is not something to attain, not something which will arrive.  It is something which is ever-present.  It is something which is not hidden, although it cannot be known through the standard filter of mind, through the template of "thingness", which is what reality is generally built upon.

It cannot be known in that way, yet it is ever known.  It is already known.  It is already obvious.  It is already here.  It isn't yet to come, when all these pointers have finally been digested, when all thoughts have been manipulated correctly, when some worldview has been changed.  That's not what this is about at all.

THIS is what it's about.  Just THIS.  What is THIS?  Just this moment, right here, right now.  THIS.

You may say, "THIS is me, looking at the world."  But that right there is where THIS is taken to be duality.  Taken to be a world made up of parts.  Is it?  How can you say that with certainty?

Where are you seeing from, right here and now?  Can you pinpoint a location?  Where exactly is this "person" you've taken yourself to be?

You say it's "in the head".  Where exactly in the head is it?  What is in the head?  A brain?  Does that brain completely fill up the head?  Yes.  So the entire content of that head is brain.  And are there gaps in that brain?  Is there a space somewhere in that brain where you reside?  No - it's all brain, tissue, cells.

So are you tucked away somewhere in the brain matter?  Are you a little entity wandering through the curving matter of the brain?

The brain generates electrical and neuro-chemical reactions.  Are you a reaction?  Are you a chemical?  Are you a jolt of electricity?  Are you blood ? Are you a cell?  What else is in there?

Are you behind the eyes, sitting there?  What exactly is the makeup of that "person"?

Isn't this idea that you are somewhere in there just a nice idea, just a convenient concept?

If there is an openness, an honesty which allows for the challenging of these mere assumptions, then what are you left with?  The "person" is and always has been only an assumption, a learned belief.  There is no person residing in the head.  So what is left?

The pure functioning is left - the brain is generating thoughts, the heart is beating, the lungs are breathing, the body moves in various ways, in concert with these thought.  Life IS...  There is nothing wrong with the obvious nature of this functioning, yet when the erroneous concept of "person" comes in, then all of this is applied to "someone", to "ME".  That is the "person"-al.  It's personal.  It's individual.  It's all relative to ME.

You are not a person.  There is no such thing as a person.  But you are certainly there.  So what can you be?

You must be Life itself, seeing itself, presently looking at itself.  Aware-ness IS nondual Being - no individual - nothing personal.  Only ever THIS, right here and now.

A Game of Concepts

Enlightenment isn't about some spiritual state yet to come. It's realizing the inherent Oneness of this very moment, of recognizing your true Being as the Being of all "things", that all there is, is just THIS, undefinable and unshakable.

The world is only appearance. The existence of the world is not of separate "things". Yet the spiritual search is undertaken from within this perspective, from the platform of assumed separation.

We're looking at the world from this paradigm of "ME-SEEING-WORLD", from the perspective of an individual. Therefore we only see space and time, objects and ME as a separate subject.

We can only see reality this way as long as we define "things" in terms of separate existence. Yet Existence isn't separate. Being isn't split up.

Take a close look at these so-called "things". Try to define the ACTUAL existence of any "thing".

What IS it? Look deeply at anything. What IS it? All we can see is a name and a form. But is that it's actual existence? Is it's existence actually separate?

What IS it? We may find that we can NEVER say. We may find that the ONLY WAY to define ANYTHING is to assume it's separateness, to call it some "thing", and in doing so, automatically assume all that it is not.

If we look at a flower in this way, we only see the name "flower", the shape. But that isn't it's true existence. What IS it? What really IS it? What is it's essential existence?

In calling it a flower, we've seemingly split up existence into parts, assumed that the flower exists independently, on it's own, with a beginning and an end.

We might break it down - it is simultaneously organic matter, elements, molecules, atoms - these are still only assumed separate "things". Eventually we find nothing at all, empty space, intelligence which "forms" itself or manifests, pure undefined potentiality of Being.

The essence of that "flower" cannot be found, yet it IS. "Something" is there, however that "something" is undefinable. We cannot say nothing is there yet we cannot truly define that "thing" in terms of separate existence. THAT is called "SAT" in Vedanta. The essence of the flower is this pure IS-ness or Being-ness or existence or Life.

The existence or Being of the "flower" is the very same existence or "substance" or Being of all "things". The essence is called Sat - "Sat" is simply translated as "IS". All we can say is that it IS. Not WHAT it is, THAT it "IS".

The body-mind is also THAT. It is not a separate existence. In calling it "body" we assume it's separateness from all other "things". In calling it body we give it a location and duration, as all things have these.

We cannot say WHAT it is, only THAT it is. And that IS-ness is the only reality - within this there are concepts of flowers and bodies - the concepts are only concepts and cannot divide the pure IS-ness of reality.

Therefore the "ME" you've taken yourself to be is only a mental concept, a way of thinking, a convenient mechanism of language. There is no "ME" as a separate "Being". There is only THIS - pure Being or Sat.

There is no reaching THAT. There is no finding THAT. You already ARE THAT. And from this realization there really is no YOU, there is only THAT, of which the real "you" is the totality or Oneness itself.

So how to find yourself? THIS right here and now is IT. Anywhere you look, any experience is THAT and YOU are not separate from THAT. All "things", all appearances are in reality THAT already - they are only appearances from the perspective of separate "things", from the standpoint of separation, in which YOU must be also separate. Anything you see is THAT already, therefore no change in appearance is necessary, no condition is placed on experience, no spiritual lights or special states - ALL states are THAT.

You are looking at THAT right this very moment, only the "seer" and the "seen" are one and the same IS-ness.

The seeker then, the "ME", is nothing but a little game of thought, play of energy, an assumption of "thingness", a contraction into a ball of suffering, fear and desire. Freedom is not an achievement - it is a realization that you are already FREE of the ME. You are the totality and the ME is a game of concepts.

There is one pure and whole reality right here and now - separation is a superimposition or veil made up only of concepts. And that game of separation is extremely fragile, entirely dependent on the belief in "things" as separate existences. A little tapping on the table and the house of cards collapses.

You are NOT a person

Vedanta is only dealing with direct reality.  It has nothing to do with spirituality, although that's the way the mind translates it.  Because it's so radically different from our relative reality of manyness, of duality, it's taken to be something supernatural, something "spiritual".

Spirit-ual means having to do with the spirit.  This assumes there is a spirit abiding IN the body, which is then freed or made whole or connected.  Somehow "spirituality" is connected with nonduality, which means oneness, not two.  To assume a spirit abiding in the body means there is a body - a body means there is a world.  Therefore spirituality is, by definition, a dualistic concept.

Vedanta is simply a spinning wheel - a hardened grinder against which our assumptions are placed.  If you speak of a body, Vedanta questions the existence of that body.  If you speak of a mind, Vedanta questions that mind.

Vedanta is called "an occasion for doubt".  It is an opportunity to take our most cherished beliefs out for a spin - get them out in fresh air and get a good look at them.  So we look at the body - we ask "what is it?"  How do you know?  We ask "who is looking?"  How do you know?

Each time something comes up, it's questioned to see if it's true, because Vedanta is only concerned with reality.  Yet each time we examine a belief, we find it's standing upon another belief, and another, and another.

We find that our perceived or assumed reality is built on a tower of assumptions and beliefs which have, till now, been unquestioned.  And if we are serious about our investigation, we find these assumptions are very shaky.

It requires a real serious desire to know the truth, because although the beliefs are shaky, they are persistent. They are solidified, like a concrete foundation.  And upon that foundation the mental abstractions are endless.

So at some point we have had enough - spirituality has become a child's game, a toying with meditation or incense or various books on the subject.  At some point we tire of chasing chakras and astrological charts, new age music...  we simply want to get to the bottom of it.  Yet we find that our perception or "template" of reality is solidified - each stone overturned reveals another stone.  Each "object" scrutinized is found to stand upon another object.

This idea of reality had to come from somewhere - as any belief or definition must.  We find that we have been taught to view reality as made up of "things" - with your Self being the central "thing" among things.  "You are your own person."  "Be an individual."  We are forced, at a time when we have no other influences, to take on a template of separated reality.  And that template is further hardened - we experience the teenage years and suddenly find we must find our place in the world.  We are blasted with images - we must create an identity to fit in.  We must figure out what our style will be, how we will wear our hair, what our preferences will be.  The teenage years are waded through with a constant "under construction" sign hung upon our Self.

So instead of recognizing that it was only ever a learned belief, that we are not an independent existence but the Whole itself, we go about trying to perfect this image, to hang the right ornaments, to dress the storefront windows properly.  And it's a tiring and depressing undertaking - why?  Because that innate and intimate knowledge of your Self is already there, only being drowned out by the constant and forceful pressure to fit in, to become something, to build an identity.

That construction never ends - as we go into higher education or the working world, we are blasted with pressure to fit in, to achieve, to make that image more perfect.  When that image is questioned, we must immediately speak back in defense - properly adjust that image for the world.

At some point we just realize that it's a rat race - it's a never-ending charade - a game which we no longer wish to participate in.  So we begin the spiritual search.

And in this spiritual search, we are asked to question the very essence of what we have taken ourselves to be, what we have been taught that we are, that image we have forever been trying to build and perfect.  We are told that this individual self is false - that reality is Whole - singular - Oneness.  And of course it's a paradox because, analyzed within our paradigm of separateness, it all sounds like a bunch of spaced-out people out of touch with reality.  It's IMPOSSIBLE to resolve it within that paradigm of the individual existence, apart from the world.  We're forever trying to force-fit "things" into a spiritual model of Oneness.

It's impossible to "successfully" seek as an individual, simply because the individual is the very "thing" upon which duality is built.  To successfully end the search would mean finding out that you are not an individual, after all.  It would mean all the work built to create and mold that image was wasted, useless.  It would mean that this life story was all bullshit, that all possessions and accomplishments are meaningless.

No individual would want that, no matter how much suffering goes along with the template.  Yet the spiritual search will never be anything but more topical salve for suffering as long as the root of the issue is left uncovered.

It only needs heard, truly heard, only once...  You are NOT a person.

Maya means "thingness"

What does duality really mean?  It means "manyness", many separate and independent "things".  So duality means "of things" or "thingness."  Our normal experience of reality is that of "thingness".  To be dual is to be more than one - so we're really talking about more than one "thing".  Yes?

What does this mean?  It means that this world is made up of separate things, each standing alone or apart, independent in their existence.  This paradigm requires the subject/object equation - an "I", a separate "seer" apart from the "seen" or objective.

Vedanta simply says that the nature of existence isn't separated, that although there is an appearance of "things", those things don't have independent existence.  Existence is existence - it's not separated.  The appearances are of that singular existence, although there is the appearance of separation.  The appearance of thingness is called "Maya".

So let's reverse-engineer duality.  Let's find out how this idea of duality or "thingness" is created.

Can you think of nonduality?  Can you think of "oneness"?  No.  Because to say "I am thinking of nonduality" immediately requires a separate "you" and an object of thought - two "things".

What is right in front of you?   A computer screen.  To call it a computer screen is to create duality.  Calling it a computer screen assumes the one who is seeing it, the room in which it is located, the space in which the room is located, the universe itself. 

What are you sitting on?  A chair?  Calling it a chair immediately calls into existence (in concepts) the entire universe.  All that is not-chair.  Do you follow?

Therefore it is mind and language (concepts) which creates this duality. 

What IS is what?  Right here and now.  THIS is what IS.  Isn't THIS reality?  Right here and now?  Whatever THIS may be called or conceptualized.  And it's ok that the mind does this - that's it's job.  It's normal.  But in this conceptualization, the "world of separate things" is created.  Even that's not a problem.  But along with this, suffering comes, because the primary "thing" in this equation is "ME", the separate self, the one who is the self-reference AS a separate thing.  This paradigm creates the very idea of isolation and limit.

Why?  Because IF there is a world outside you, independent of you, then you are limited and isolated BY the world.  You are a small and insignificant piece of the universe, which has a beginning and an eventual end.

This is not reality.  You are not limited, you are not finite. 

Watch how the mind automatically places "thingness" upon what IS, and in doing so, creates the world in imagination, automatically imagining a world.  Therefore the first thought is automatically false.  The first thought is automatically dualistic.  That's just the way the mind works.

If we try to not think dualistically, we will always fail.  To even think about nonduality requires a thinker, someone who will know nonduality or Oneness.  Can there be someone apart from Oneness to think about it?  To know it?  To objectify it?  No.  Notice how the mind must place thingness upon that. 

So there really isn't any problem, as long as we notice that this is what the mind is doing.  In seeing through this mechanism, we find that what IS, still IS.  Nothing has changed.  But that mechanism of "thingness", that creation of "partness" is ONLY the work of the mind.  In fact that dualistic mechanism is really very relative and arbitrary.  It depends on the conditioning of the mind, what has been learned, etc.  Reality cannot be relative and arbitrary.

So what IS remains what IS - only there is no way to talk about it, no way to think about it accurately, truthfully.  The first thought is automatically false and only dualistic.  Does this mean we stop thinking?

No.  We just see the mind for what it is.  Then what IS remains what IS, without the belief that it is made up of "things".  And if it's not made up of "things", then what is it?  What is reality, in direct experience, without this dualistic process?

Reality is just YOU.  The "real" you is just THIS, just this moment, this "presence" - whatever IS, right here and now, is YOU.  If this mental process of "thingness" were to fall away, would YOU fall away?  Wouldn't you still know that you exist?  Yes - because that knowledge of existence is the only knowledge which isn't conceptual - it's immediate and obvious without requiring a thought, without requiring a concept. 

Therefore YOU ARE - that singular existence, that nondual reality, is YOU.