The Answer to Everything? The Flying Spaghetti Monster, Of Course

It's come to my recent attention that most people in the U.S. fall into the evolutionist or creationist camps. And now I understand there's a growing contigent of flying spaghetti monsterists (see right for artist's depiction).

According to Wikipedia: "Flying Spaghetti Monsterism is a satirical parody religion created to protest the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to allow intelligent design to be taught in science classes alongside evolution."

More intelligent Americans are familiar with flying spaghetti monsterism than a complete different way to look at the world: nondualism. It's time to protest that nondualism be taught right along side flying spaghetti monsterism in schools.  Should you think that nondualism fits neatly into any three of the above schools of cosmology or philosophy or whatever, consider this nondualism summary:

There is no future, there are no people, there is no earth, there is no one seeking Enlightenment, and no one gaining it. This is the final and only Truth. - Sri Poonja

Sounds radically nihilistic, huh? I came across the book, The Translucent Revolution, at a bookstore recently. I just posted my very first post at Worthwhile Magazine's blog today, "Schtick-Free Translucence  Anyone?" on the book's intriguing intro (small snippet below):

And rather than being holy, pious, or "spiritual" in an external way, [translucent people's] most easily distinguishable quality is a wild sense of humor about themselves and their lives. They are honest, deep, remarkably wise, and at the same time remarkably human and humble about their weaknesses. They are mostly "shtick-free."  - Arjuna Ardagh, The Translucent Revolution

In hurry that day in the bookstore, I didn't dig into it nor buy it. So it was only in searching for an online link to the book today that I find out that author Arjuna Ardagh was a student of Poonjaji (as known as Sri Poonja, and Papaji) - the author of that nihilistic-sounding and very nondualistic quote.

Ardagh interviewed a total of 170 people for his book - that's 170 happy, creative, grounded people that "glow from the inside."

I'm not going to do justice to nondualism today, but it's not as foreign in Asia as its the underpinning to much of their way of living as well as the ancient wisdom traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism (especially the Upanishads), and Taoism. Without understanding nondualism at some level as being distinctively different those texts make little sense and some Asian's responses can be misinterpreted or downright puzzling.

I'm curious how many folks out there have even heard of nondualism? (I know folks rarely want to be perceived as ignorant, so you can email me your comments too.) And if you have, if you recommend any resources and/or practices that helped you?

Bonus: A short excerpt from book...

Robert had it all: the beach house in Malibu, the latest SUV, designer clothes, the right connections. He also had a small drinking problem, and a few personal difficulties to resolve at home. He had made his money in California real estate, and when the market crashed in the late eighties, so did Robert. He went from a net worth of millions to bankruptcy. He lost the house, many of his friends, and his confidence. By 1992 he was thinking about killing himself.

Late one evening, he was out taking a walk. He stopped and stood motionless, his mood blacker than the night. He had a thought, a simple thought. “I am finished,” his mind announced.

He still has trouble explaining what happened next.

“I was overcome by a sense of relief,” he reports. “A sudden feeling of inexpressible freedom. I even began to laugh out loud. My body was filled with happiness, as if I was suddenly getting a joke I’d been missing. For the first time I was feeling really good for no reason at all. I was totally here, in this moment. I could feel the trees around me, and hear the sounds without having to listen to thoughts telling me things needed to be different in some way. Everything was being experienced, but the ‘me’ was gone.”

Robert’s friends warned him it would pass, that he had tasted a fleeting glimpse of a state only great yogis could attain. “It didn’t pass, though,” Robert says today. “I still have ups and downs, of course. But this mysterious sense of well-being I found that night, this feeling of lightness for no reason, has stayed with me for more than ten years. I couldn’t get rid of it if I tried. In fact, it only seems to grow deeper and deeper. It is not happening to me, it is who I am.”

Comments

[Jay Sennett]

Hi Evelyn,

When you ask for resources, do mean beyond the Tao De Ching and the like?

If so, I have always found Zen Flesh, Zen Bones a good place to ponder nondualism.

I'm thinking Alan Watts, though no titles leap to mind.

And Donna Haraway (Prof at Santa Cruz) wrote her Cyborg Manifesto (I can send you the link or just google Haraway and Cyborg Manifesto) several years ago, in part, I think, as a way to address feminist and socialist tendencies to describe totalizing theories that are largely fictional creations.

Yoga and meditation, of course.

Massive Change by Bruce Mau is another useful tool for me.

And the Christian Desert Fathers and Mothers.

Hope this is what you are looking for.

Yours in the work.
Jay

[Chris McMahon]

We prefer to be refered to as Pastafarians

[Christopher Carfi]

Chris McM beat me to it ... _Pastafarianism_ it is.

rAmen...

[Tom Asacker]

Chris and Christopher. Thanks guys. You friggin' crack me up!!!

P.S. My most profound change (in worldview) came to me - believe it or not - in High School (please . . . no juvenile jokes.) ;-)My literature professor handed me his copy of Alan Watts "The Book." Profound. And WAY ahead of his time.

I've tried to introduce these "concepts" to the world of business and work through some of my past writing (e.g. Sandbox Wisdom and The Four Sides of Sandbox Wisdom). Alas, the business world is grounded in dualism and impressed with peudoscience. Too bad. HA!

[Dr. Waheguru Khalsa]

A bookstore here in Los Angeles called the Bodhi Tree (open in 1969) is full to the brim with spiritual, astrology, healing titles. I go there once in a while. I pick up a book that is talks with Sri Nisargadatta (?), thumbing through it, putting it down. At the time I did not know who he was & the book made no sense. 3 years later in the same store I see it again, I Am That, sitting there. Opening it, I read this passage:

"To me nothing ever happens. There is something changeless, motionless, immovable, rock-like, unassailable; a solid mass of pure being-consciousness-bliss. I am never out of it. Nothing can take me out of it, no torture, no calamity."

I know I have to read this book. I recommend
it now as a place to start in understanding nondualism.

[Evelyn Rodriguez]

Jay - yes exactly. The Tao De Ching did not make sense to me for a long, long time. An old boyfriend once gave me the Tao of Pooh and I was totally baffled by it. In looking for "beginning" stuff, I remember long ago a comic book - yes, a comic book! - on Zen that helped me a lot called Zen Speaks : Shouts of Nothingness. Zen Flesh, Zen Bones was also an early read - great reminder!

Chris & Chris...Didn't know they were known as Pastafarians! This is too funny. I think the nondualists and Pastafarians might have much in common...at least in terms of having a sense of humor. I used to think this was very serious stuff, you know. But having of late met nondualist teachers that are very joyful and very funny, it's really been "enlightening."

And look at the rich mythological lore of the Pastafarians! ...
"According to the pastafarians, the monster created the world starting with a mountain, trees and a midget and continues to guide human affairs with his "noodly appendage." Heaven is depicted as having a stripper factory and a beer volcano. Their prayers to "Him" are typically ended by "Ramen", instead of "Amen"."

Tom, I think that perhaps the business world is asking more questions than ever before about meaning, purpose, fulfilment, truth, creativity,... For instance, I was shocked and pleased when Randy Komisar, whom is Buddhist, joined the most "prestigious" venture capital firm here in Silicon Valley.

Thank you Dr. Khalsa. I have heard so much of this teacher and that is definitely a very profound quote that gets to the essence of nondualism. He is also in my reading list.

I think No Boundary by Ken Wilber if you tend to be scientific/intellectual is a good start; engineers seem to resonate with Wilber more. Also Pointing to the Moon by Osho might be accessible for those new to non-dualism. Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi is more advanced and highly recommended. I'll keep thinking of more....

As far as a teacher alive today, I recommend Adyashanti.

Thanks all!!