Existence within Non-duality philosophy refers to the totality of reality, encompassing everything. It includes physical objects and living beings and thoughts, emotions, sensations, and all aspects of subjective experience. Non-duality holds that existence is not composed of separate and independent entities but is an interconnected web of relationships and interdependencies. However, existence is qualified by a state of existence—one has existing experience.
Existing as the physical, the mind/body activity.
You exist with a knowing of what? Nothing. Your individual and intimate perceptions and subsequent activity dictate your life as being alive, just knowing you are. Not what you are. One perspective you are in the physical reality you perceive, guided by your mind/body organism and controlled through the situations and circumstances of your environment. This present physical here-and-now reality is a part of your existence, the lively expression of who you are within the depths of pure existence. The unfathomable being of pure existence is within this depth and the depth itself. This is who you are, your actual reality.
To exist is to have an awareness of being.
You are here as a multifaceted expression of pure existence in becoming conscious awareness. You are here, wherever that is, and within awareness is a perpetual hidden feeling, an essence, a sense of being that transcends any concept of physical existence. You can sense it; it has always been with you since birth. A pure knowing, something so vast yet untouchable, A ‘no thing’ yet here closer than close, but you can’t find it. It is fleeting. Looking for it diminishes its hereness. Yet it is still here; what is it? Nothing and everything, and deep inside, you are familiar with it. Pure existence will never leave you; it was never born and will never die; it is your essential nature. This non-doing, non-moving pure presence, or pure being, is who you are and is a constant.
From being to becoming, the sense of I am.
What and where are you in deep sleep? Where and what would you be if you lost consciousness in the waking state? “To be or not to be” is the question. What about your being? How close are you to it? So close that you miss it and misappropriate your surroundings, including your mind/body, acting as the sole proprietor of existence. I am what? The vast range of existence lies from the pure existence of I, the sense of being, to the am-ness of existing in an apparent physical reality.
The sense of individual existence or selfhood we typically identify with is only a tiny part of the whole that you are. Suggesting that the mind creates the concept of a separate and enduring self, and actual reality is devoid of such divisions. In this view, the boundaries we perceive between ourselves and the external world are artificial and do not reflect the underlying unity of existence. Recognizing and directly experiencing this underlying unity can lead to a profound shift in our understanding of ourselves and the world, bringing about a sense of oneness, wholeness, and interconnectedness, transcending the limitations of the individual ego.
In acknowledging pure existence as who you are, don’t look for it; you will never find it; it will find you and flourish in your ease of existing, knowing yourself to be.