One between Two

I read this quote from Andrew Cohen today and I resonate with it. This “intersubjective nonduality” describes also my experience with more than one but rather all of us at Sharing Group at times. Thanks Linda for sending this quote.

“The goal of Evolutionary Enlightenment is the emergence of a miraculous potential that I call “intersubjective nonduality.” What does that mean? “Nonduality” is most commonly used to mean oneness, or not-two-ness. It points to the perennial spiritual revelation that there is no other. And “intersubjective” means between subjects. So “intersubjective nonduality,” to put it simply, means one between two. It means the experience of oneness in a context of relatedness. Usually, we experience other people as being separate, outside of our own experience of subjectivity. Except in rare moments, such as sexual intimacy, it seems as if there is an impenetrable wall between us. But I have discovered that when two or more individuals awaken to the truth of Oneness, in the same place and the same space, the liberating knowledge that there is no other—which is the ground of enlightened awareness—can become a shared experience.

When this occurs, we mutually experience a paradox: You appear to be there as a separate individual; I appear to be here as a separate individual; and yet my experience of myself and my experience of you is that we are not two. And this changes everything. Why? Because this is when enlightenment, which is the direct experience of Oneness, breaks out of the purely subjective experience of the individual, and becomes the shared intersubjective context in which relatedness occurs. Miraculously, nonduality is no longer just an abstract idea or even a personal revelation, but becomes the very foundation of the culture between us. To me, this is what enables the power of enlightened awareness to affect real change in the world. The discovery of intersubjective nonduality is nothing less than the ground for creating an enlightened culture.”