Non-Dualism is a contemporary movement, though we may trace its roots back to the Indian philosopher Shankara and his Advaita Vedanta. Non-Dualism speaks neither Eastern or esoteric language but addresses us in terms of daily life. More a psychology than a philosophy, Non-Dualism finds 'salvation' in a simple shift of awareness to the space that contains all conflict, the silence that enfolds every battle. This space is consciousness itself, inherently peaceful and always already here. A world teacher who traveled and spoke from the 1940's until his death in 1972, Jiddhu Krishnamurti was a fountainhead of modern Non-Dualism.
"Conflict of any kind -physically, psychologically, intellectually-is a waste of energy.
"Most of us are brought up to struggle, to make effort. When we are at school, that is the first thing that we are taught: to make an effort. And that struggle, that effort is carried throughout life. To be good you must struggle, you must fight e...vil, you must resist, control. So, educationally, sociologically, religiously, human beings are taught to struggle.
"You are told that to find God you must work, discipline, do practice, twist and torture your soul, your mind, your body, deny, suppress; that you must not look; that you must fight, fight, fight at that so-called spiritual level which is not the spiritual level at all...
"The conflict between "I should" and "I should not," "I must" and "I must not." Once having created duality, conflict is inevitable. So one has to understand this whole process of duality: not that there is not man and woman, green and red, light and darkness, tall and short; all those are facts. But in the effort that goes into this division between the fact and the idea, there is the waste of energy."
~J. Krishnamurti, 'The Book of Life'
