How does non-duality relate to emptiness? And is non-duality its own study? We have several sutras/texts on emptiness. Has non-duality been written about as well? Can you refer me to them?

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One person whose books you may want to read is Dr. David R. Hawkins. He separates out various states into a map he calls the Levels of Consciousness. He has several books written about the higher states. You should read his more ‘entry-level’ stuff before you dive into those though. It’s been many years since I’ve read them so I don’t have fresh insights for you. I can write about my own experience. Definitely check out Hawkins’ material when you get a chance.

Emptiness is a ‘high’ state of mind, more akin to a current feeling, while non-duality is a mode of perception. Emptiness happens when attention flees all ‘things’. It is often experienced as a satori state by those unfamiliar with it. Mind just ‘blanks’. Thoughts arise quite infrequently and usually stem from physical/survival brain. Like the need to use the bathroom or hunger/thirst. If someone communicates with you, what happens a lot is the brain will kick into gear just for the purpose of satisfying the social obligation. Once satisfied the brain quiets back down and emptiness pervades.

This state eventually ends and normal thinking resumes. It is neither pleasant nor unpleasant. When experienced as a satori then when it ends it’s often felt by people to have been enlightenment or non-duality, this however is just a misinterpretation.

Non-duality happens at a deeper level. It gradually replaces the ‘machinery’ of mind by removing the subject from the process. When mind is empty, there of course is no subject, there’s nothing there! But non-duality means that objects held in mind are not shared with the sprawling locus of identity that we call the self.

Say a non-dual person were to have a moment of emptiness. Nothing is present in mind, what the person is experiencing is akin to a deep meditation session which continues under its own energy. When the state ends, and thinking restarts, one thing the person will not do is have a lot of thoughts marveling at the empty state or how to get back to it or worry that they weren’t ‘good enough’ to keep the state going. There isn’t any self-concern at all with regards to spiritual states, the states arise and pass without fuss.

The non-dual state is gradually worked on over the course of many lifetimes, and it does not come ‘all of a sudden’. There are people for whom it seems this way, but what is happening is as people’s physical bodies mature, their brains suddenly find the ability to access their full growth potential. It’s a ‘remembering’ process, not a ‘sudden enlightenment’ process.

When people find peace in later life, it’s a culmination of ones experiences throughout life here. This personal growth is the same sort of thing that focused spiritual practice towards enlightenment, just slower. Later-life peace can feel very like emptiness/non-duality. This is because ultimately, the process of maturing and accumulating life-awareness and the process of spiritual development/enlightenment converge.

Emptiness is a sign-post on the way to enlightenment.