Welcome to a collection of nonduality quotes. In these quotes, you’ll discover most often influenced by spiritual teachers and philosophers of the East.
Nonduality is about seeing beyond the usual way we think about the world. Instead of seeing entities or beings as separate – like good and bad, or right and wrong – non-duality teaches us to see the underlying unity that connects everything.
What does non dual mean?
The idea of duality and non-duality is often discussed in spiritual and philosophical traditions.
Non-duality challenges the perception of reality as a collection of separate entities. Instead, it describes an interconnectedness world and unity of all existence.
Discussion about non-duality proposes that our perceived reality is illusory. Instead, at the deepest level, everything is interconnected and inseparable.
However, most of the reality is constructed through opposites, like light and dark, good and evil.
Non-duality claims that opposites, such as good and evil, self and other, or subject and object are parts of the same unity.
To illustrate, consider the analogy of waves in the ocean. In duality, waves are seen as individual and separate entities, distinct from the ocean itself. However, in non-duality, waves are understood as inseparable from the ocean.
Similarly, non-duality posits that the diversity of existence arises from a single, unified source or reality. So, it emphasizes unity under the apparent distinctions.
Non-duality is often associated with spiritual teachings such as Advaita Vedanta, Zen Buddhism, and Taoism.
For example, in Advaita Vedanta, the concept of “Advaita” means “non-duality. It emphasizes the ultimate oneness of the individual soul (Atman) with the supreme reality (Brahman).
Similarly, Zen Buddhism teaches the realization of non-duality through practices such as meditation.
Now, let’s delve deeper into these ideas with these 23 nonduality quotes.
Here are 23 nonduality quotes
- “The principle of nonduality is beyond good and evil” – Alan Watt
- “Complete nonduality is actually beyond philosophic description” – Alan Watt
- “ Nonduality is taught by some; Some others teach Duality. They don’t understand that the all-pervading Reality Is beyond both Duality and Nonduality.” – The Avadhut Gita
- “The paradox of non-dual teachings is that the world of non-duality is not other than the world of duality, and vice versa.” – Paul Weiss
- “When we perceive only duality, we fail to see into the true nature of duality. Whereas, when we perceive non-duality, duality shines in all of its fullness. The non-dual nature of reality, so counterintuitive to our discriminating consciousness, can only be made evident by an immediate shift in consciousness, and can only be described in paradoxical or metaphorical ways.” – Paul Weiss
- “Realizing Buddhist nonduality is to realize the world as an ecological matrix.” – Peter D. Hershock,
- “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” – Rumi
- “When you realize there is no lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” – Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
- “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao;
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.” – Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching - “To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.” – William Blake - “The relative is beyond distinctions, Beyond the two nominal truths, And therefore any elaboration is redundant. The truth of inseparability cannot be proven or denied. In spaciousness, appearances and emptiness are nondual And therefore truth is one.” – Longchenpa, The Wish-Fulfilling Treasury
- ” With the mind preoccupied by different petty concerns,
A moment of inconsequential fixation becomes a habit,
And a day, a month, a year—a lifetime—goes by unheeded.
We deceive ourselves by construing the nondual as duality.” – Longchenpa - “The luminous mind is not dualistic mind; Its nature is clear light.” – The Medium Matrix Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in Eight Thousand Verses
- “From the standpoint of non-duality, evil is not and cannot be the opposite of God” – Alan Watts
- “An old man is dying and a child is born: how are they related?… Deep down they are related to one ocean. They are not different; they are not unrelated, they are not separate. Their individuality is false and illusory. They are non-individual. Their duality appears to be, but it is not so: their non-duality is the truth.” -OSHO
- “We are just waves in a cosmic ocean.” – OSHO
- “The principle for division and the principle for union need to be brought together, not divided. We need not either both/and or either/or, but both both/and and either/or. We need not non-duality only, but the non-duality of duality and non-duality.” – Iain McGilchrist
- “‘Non-duality is not the negation of multiplicity in favour of some idea of the absolute; it is also not the nihilism so many Westerners think Buddhism to be.” – Jane Hirshfield
- “To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.” Dōgen
- “Zen wants us to feel nonduality, not just to think it.” – Alan Watts
- “This highest level of compassion is non-dual and arises automatically as a non-conceptual quality of relating to others in the mind of advanced practitioners all the time and towards all beings.” -Dusana Dorjee
- “Polarity, or action and reaction, we meet in every part of nature; in darkness and light; in heat and cold; in the ebb and flow of waters; in male and female; in the inspiration and expiration of plants and animals; … Whilst the world is thus dual, so is every one of its parts. The entire system of things [is] represented in every particle … The same dualism underlies the nature and condition of man. Every excess causes a defect; every defect an excess. Every sweet hath its sour; every evil its good.” – R. W. Emerson.
- ” Of past, present, and future times, Understanding all that’s said, Yet knowing all times arc equal: This is the power of skill of incomparable understanding. ” – Flower Ornament Scripture
Conclusion
At the end of the nonduality quotes, let’s take a moment to reflect on how the teachings about non-duality encourage us to embrace the idea of change and interconnectedness.
So, nonduality tells us that, there’s an oneness that runs through everything.
The idea of change, transformation, and flow only can have meaning through the existence and interaction of the opposites. At the same time, a nondual philosophy emphasizes unity underneath all the flow and change that is happening on the surface.