The document discusses the "folk theory of nondual enlightenment" which refers to popular conceptions and visualizations of what nondual enlightenment is that are present in mystical spiritual traditions. It notes that these folk theories are built on conceptual metaphors and can interfere with the actual recognition of nondual awareness by displacing attention onto conceptual images rather than pointing to awareness itself. Specific metaphors discussed include the idea of enlightened beings having special powers or being in a perfected state, as well as notions of non-existence of the self. While folk theories help make sense of the world, they also contain assumptions that are uncritical and can prevent realization of the nondual nature of ordinary awareness.

1. The Folk Theory of Nondual Enlightenment

2. How can the supreme Reality be described, since
It is neither white nor any other colour, has no
qualities such as sound, and is beyond voice
and mind?
~Dattatreya
Many rely on the folk theory of nondual enlightenment to
help them “understand” by visualizing and/or imagining
what they believe they are seeking as nondual
enlightenment.
A folk theory of nondual enlightenment is probably present
in most systems of mystical spirituality that posit the
possibility of being one with the universe, God, or of having
a null existence.
These are the popular definitions of nondual enlightenment.
This actually represents a significant problem that is under-
recognized within the nonduality spirituality community.

3. In Philosophy in the Flesh, George Lakoff and Mark
Johnson argue that primary (or embodied) metaphors
and folk theories are among the basic building blocks
of human reason.
They define a folk theory as a “basic explanatory model …
[which] make up a culture’s shared common sense …”
“There are often good reasons for these models, and in
many cases folk theories work sufficiently well to serve
everyday purposes …”
Folk theories are explicit, helping to form the more or less
widely-accepted “common sense” of a given sociocultural
group, yet they also operate implicitly, becoming
“unconscious and automatic, taken as background
assumptions and used in drawing conclusions …”

4. While folk theories help us to make sense of the world
around us, they are often full of noncritical assumptions.
We can identify a folk theory of the human soul.
We exist as beings apart from our body, and when the
body dies, we will somehow continue, maybe in a good
or a bad place.
There really hasn’t been any definitive proof of an existence
of personal consciousness after death, but since the idea of
a soul has deep roots in our culture, many accept the folk
theory that describes it.

5. Any thought regarding the Atman (nondual
awareness) is a speculation.
~Swami Dayananda Saraswati
There is no possible description of nondual enlightenment.
Nondual enlightenment refers to the moment of and
subsequent recognition of the nondual nature of our
consciousness within the context of ordinary awareness.
The recognition brings a permanent ability to notice nondual
awareness as the origin of one’s ordinary awareness, which
is to say, our awareness apart from any objects within our
attentional space.
Nondual enlightenment is not a glimpse, peak experience, or
spiritual experience as they are commonly understood.
It’s a recognition of what has always been present in our
ordinary awareness—as its foundation—rather than a
singular, shining moment of glory when we find ourselves to
be divine.

6. The impossibility of a description of nondual enlightenment
hasn’t stopped descriptions from arising within the culture
of nonduality spirituality, which includes the larger part of
Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, Zen, Sufism, the
Western mystery traditions, New Age thought, and most of
the modern variants collectively referred to as neo-Advaita.
Descriptions of nondual enlightenment in the literature of
these traditions is commonly hyperbolic.
This has resulted in a rich and fantastic mythology that
attempts to describe what nondual enlightenment
is like as an experience.
Spiritual marketers often use this mythology to promote
themselves as beings who enjoy a privileged, divine state of
existence, often including the idea they can bestow the
same state to others.

7. A swelling glory within me began to envelop towns,
continents, the earth, solar and stellar systems,
tenuous nebulae, and the floating universes. The
entire cosmos, gently luminous, like a city seen afar
at night, glimmered within the infinitude of my
being.
~Yogananda
To the enlightened one, the world as he knew it
ceases to be, and everything now stands shrouded
by a shining vesture of divine effulgence, hitherto
invisible to his normal vision.
~Swami Chidananda
A Sadguru [enlightened spiritual master] is
endowed with countless Siddhis (psychic powers).
He possesses all divine Aisvarya (powers), all the
wealth of the Lord.
~Swami Shivananda

8. The idea of siddhis is expressed through a “powerful being”
metaphor within the folk theory of nondual enlightenment.
The notion is popular in nondual spirituality culture primarily
because siddhis are discussed in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.
According to Patanjali, siddhis are paranormal powers that
are acquired by the performance of demanding spiritual
discipline and/or the cultivation of moral purity.
Some of the siddhis mentioned in the Yoga Sutras are the
power to “levitate, walk on water, swamps, thorns, or the
like,” as well as “radiate light … gain distant hearing …
become as tiny as an atom …”
Today, the concept of a siddhi covers just about any
paranormal ability a person may believe is possible.

9. Purna Avatars are born with an extraordinary array
of supernatural powers, and possess an
inexhaustible ability to perform divine miracles or
miraculous deeds …
~Dr. Chandra Bhan Gupta
The idea of the divine guru endowed with siddhis is the
beating heart of the “powerful being” metaphor within the
folk theory of nondual enlightenment, one that is anchored
to the notion of mystical power.
This is a figure presented as having reached the pinnacle of
existence and attaining the greatest wisdom, usually after a
long and arduous journey which often begins in a childhood
marked by numerous miraculous occurrences.
These include the satgurus and avatars, believed to be
direct incarnations of God Him/Herself.

10. Another key metaphor within the folk theory of nondual
enlightenment is the idea of the “perfected being,” anchored
to the notion of purity.
The perfected being is literally perfect because they are
nondual enlightened.
Or, they are nondual enlightened because they have made
themselves perfect, or have been made perfect by God.
Their every action is considered to be God’s alone.
They are imagined to be clear vessels of God’s love.
They lack any ego, or only have the faintest trace of one.
They are free from the influences of thought, feeling,
and desire.
Some have demonstrated otherwise.

11. Confusion … exists in the thinking that self-
realization is the elimination of all thoughts
in the mind.
~Swami Dayananda Saraswati
A third metaphor of the folk theory of nondual enlightenment
supports a flight of ideas about the essential non-existence
of the individual self. It is anchored to the notion of being
“empty.” This is a common mis-construal of the Buddhist
notion of “emptiness.”
These ideas can arise automatically when one is exposed to
the conceptual theater of nondual spirituality culture, and
while somewhat supported by recent discussions within
cognitive science, they often fail as a way to model the
individual self and its relationship to the world by invoking a
denial of nominal physio-cognitive realities and the impact
of a “real world” life.

12. 1 First conceptual bifurcation

13. 2 Keystone occlusion

14. 3 Composite metaphors
with their primary metaphor roots

15. 4 Transformations of divinity
and non-existence

16. 5 The occluding imagery of
enlightenment

17. The images and notions provided by the folk theory of
nondual enlightenment supply a rich store of material from
which nonduality seekers imagine what nondual
enlightenment is like as an experience.
These images may work to interfere with the recognition of
nondual awareness by way of what can be called the
conceptual displacement of awareness.
When attention attaches to conceptual images about
nondual enlightenment, those images are reified. The result
is something akin to inattentional blindness. The concept
displaces our awareness by becoming an object of
awareness itself, rather than pointing to our awareness
apart from its objects.

18. This can be illustrated by the reproductive strategy of the
brown-headed cowbird.
The cowbird is a parasitic species which finds the active
nest of another bird and lies in wait until the nest is
temporarily abandoned. She then sneaks in to replace the
eggs with her own.
The victim assumes the eggs are hers, and so she
unwittingly hatches and raises the cowbird’s chicks as
her own.
In much this way, our ideas and expectations about nondual
enlightenment can become one of its primary preventions.

19. The very expectation that thoughts and emotions
should cease is a misconception.
~Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche
A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your
efforts. What is there to realize? The real is always
as it is.
~Ramana Maharshi
Unadulterated wisdom is only to be found within
the stream of your own ordinary consciousness.
~Traleg Rinpoche
The only difference between an awake one and one
who isn't is that the awake one knows there is NO
difference.
~Sailor Bob Adamson
There is no difference between this moment and
enlightenment.
~Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
The true mark of recognizing your Buddha nature is
to realize how ordinary it really is.
~Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche