The fifth chapter of Philip Renard‘s book Non-Dualism: Eastern Enlightenment in the World of Western Enlightenment explores in detail the five characteristics of of non-dualism.
According to Renard…
Just as I looked for the most appropriate and unifying term for the different forms of the direct way of liberation, and came to the term ‘non-dualism’, so I have also looked for the hallmarks with which non- dualism is inextricably connected. Marks that apply for all true, radical schools of non-dualism, and which highlight how non-dualism differs from other ways.
The five characteristics are:
- Awareness (chit)
- No-mind (& emptiness, shûnyatâ; conceptlessness)
- Immediacy (pratyaksha)
- Changelessness (kûtastha)
- Naturalness (sahaja)
Download the article for Philip Renard’s exploration.
Philip Renard was born in Amsterdam in 1944. After a period of studying the original teachings of Ch’an Buddhism, he started practicing his spiritual life in Subud (a Java based brotherhood), in which the surrender practice called latihangave him a foundation for all further insight, that is: freedom from concept or method. (See Philip’s website for more details about Philip and his work)
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