Advaita, or non-dualism, seems very abstract. What does it mean, “the seer is not the seen”? More importantly, does it have any use for a working adult? This post is a quick operator runbook of non-dualism.
A Mental Model
Consider the human mind-body as an information-processing system.
In the ideal state, the system works as follows. Senses produce inputs. The brain processes them. There is an appropriate response. This happens, moment by moment. Every moment is a situation. It is new.
In a misaligned state, the system degrades in sensory input. It makes mistakes in processing. Finally, it makes an inappropriate response. We could have a combination of one or all of these symptoms.
A single root cause can cover all three symptoms. Over time, the system constructs a memory to reduce the overhead of information-processing and conserve energy. This construction filters input signals and drops wasteful processing, while attempting to produce the same response. The memory develops over time, and it can be called an “identity”.
The identity creates mistakes when the surrounding environment changes, when the processing equipment degrades, or when there is not enough metabolic energy available to meet the needs of the moment.
Diagnostics and Correctives
The following diagnostics will help detect misalignment and correct the course of action. They are training-wheels and will fall away when the system is in its ideal state.
1. Ask “what is happening”
What is happening? Not “what is happening to me”, but simply what is happening. What are the eyes seeing, what are the ears hearing, what is the body feeling.
A periodic probe like this forces dropping of any processing loops and grounds the system back into sensing inputs.
2. Watch out for “I” and “my”
The words are proxies for identity. Watch out if they indicate mistakes in processing, and reevaluate if needed. Try these: “I am going to fail” (situation: outcome unknown?), “They don’t respect me” (gratitude words not spoken?), “My time is being wasted” (meeting running longer?).
3. Have a constitution
A constitution governs the whole system: input, processing and response. The constitution should be time-tested and passed down by way of tradition. Do not attempt to create or evolve these personally, especially when already in a degraded state.
For example, in the Yoga tradition, yamas and niyamas form a ten-element constitution. Someone else can have the Ten Commandments, or the Eightfold Path. Having a constitution matters far more than which.
0. Start with your body
As mentioned at the outset, the ideal state of continuous perception is energy-expensive. Sleep, food, metabolism, stress: the physical body needs careful attention, ideally with lab data for key markers. Start with your body.
References
Advaita is really an embodied practice, despite reams of text. Reading can be useful, but it is not required, and it is certainly not the end goal.
- Vivekachudamani by Shankaracharya is an accessible text for formal introduction to Advaita in the Indian tradition.
- In Yoga Sutras by Patanjali, identity (asmita) is identified as an obstacle (klesha). The terms ego (ahamkara) and ignorance (avidya) cover the same ground in Advaita.
- In the same work, Patanjali is explicit about the problem as the conjunction (samyoga) of seer (drashtri) and seen (drishya), and calls the collapse of that conjunction as liberation (kaivalya).
- The ideal-state description comes from Madhyamaka Buddhism tradition by Nagarjuna. There is sensory input, there is a gap, and then there is identity rushing to fill the gap before (mis-)cognition. A powerful book here is Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungpa.
- Kanakadasa was a saint who answered the question, “Who can attain salvation?” through a pun: “If (the) I go(es), maybe” (nanu hodhare hodhenu).
- The idea of a constitution is widely available to validate in how much work goes to align modern AI models, and what happens when a misaligned model is let loose.