the Nal understanding addresses two essential questions one how may we be free of suffering and find the lasting peace and happiness for which all people long Above All Else and two what is the nature of reality in relation to the first question the Nal approach suggests that happiness is our essential nature or simply that we are happiness itself we might then ask if happiness is our essential nature why is it not experienced all the time and the answer is simply this that whilst all people have a sense of being or knowing their self not all
people know their self clearly it is this absence of clear self- knowledge that is responsible for the feeling of lack that accompanies most people's lives and drives them to seek fulfillment in objects substances activities states of mind and relationships if you are watching this video the chances are that the search for happiness in objective experience has failed you sufficiently often to make you doubt that it can ever be truly found there the nondual understanding suggests not in fact it suggests that in order to find lasting peace and happiness one must know the nature of oneself
as one essentially is as such self- knowledge is considered to be not only the means by which peace and happiness may be found but the very experience of Happiness itself it is for this reason that the Nal teaching starts with an investigation into the essential nature of our self and you can find a video giving an introduction to self- inquiry in this section of the website this clear knowledge of oneself is also the basis of the second aspect of the N understanding namely the recognition that reality is an infinite indivisible whole made of pure Consciousness
from which all separate objects and selves borrow their apparently independent existence everything we know or experience is mediated through the mind and therefore the mind's knowledge of anything can only ever be as good as its knowledge of itself in order to know what anything truly is that is what reality truly is the Mind must first know its own essential nature therefore the investigation in to the nature of the Mind must be the highest Endeavor upon which any mind can Embark and the knowledge of its essential nature the highest knowledge thus whether we approach nonduality as
a means of finding lasting peace and happiness or more philosophically as an answer to the ultimate question about the nature of reality we begin with an investigation into the nature of ourself this understanding is found at the heart of all the great religious and spiritual traditions and is expressed in the particular language of the time and place in which it arose for instance in Christianity it is said I and my father are one that is the essence of our self and the Ultimate Reality of the universe are the same in the Sufi tradition whosoever knows
their self knows their Lord that is whoever knows the essential nature of their self knows the Ultimate Reality of the universe and in Buddhism samsar and Nana are one meaning the nature of the world and the essence of the Mind are identical indeed the words know thyself carved above the entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Deli indicate that at the very Foundation of Western Civilization lies the nondu understanding that our knowledge of ourself is not only the means by which lasting peace and happiness may be found within an individual but is also the basis
for peace amongst individuals communities and Nations and must as such be the foundation of any truly civilized society
