Here is a quotation from Jana Dixon's encyclopedic 'Biology of Kundalini'. It has relevance to the error of living from the Zen programme, as I called it in my previous blog post, without due regard for the Other programme, the one that acknowledges and affirms the value of dualities.
"Theorems of Nondualism, No-self, and EST, propose the idea that the central core self is just another limitation on freedom. However, a more advanced way of looking at it is not the negation of self, but the acknowledgement that the self is plastic. Saying that the habitual self is 'non-existent' when all selves and organisms consist of morphogenic habit is silly. But we can proceed if we acknowledge that indeed new habits can be made along with a perpetually 'new' self-concept."
And, even more to the point: "The no-self thought virus is part of the feudal extortion system of religions and cults. Rather than emphasizing that we are a 'vehicle' of spirit, they emphasize that we are no-self and so can be enslaved to an external regime. Evolution is always in the direction of autonomy not slavery, and self-sacrifice is a control device of exploitive power structures that rule by fiat." (Biology of Kundalini, Part Two, Section 'Existential Escapism'. Actually, the contents of quite a lot of Jana's book have been made generously available online).
I also like this quotation, because I was delighted to find another person who agreed with me about the delusory nature of identifying non-duality as the truth. Jana's book is truly astonishing, and has been an invaluable guide in recent times.Also invaluable at times in my life has been 'Not in His Image', the book by John Lamb Lash. Like me, you may not go a bundle on absolutely everything that John has written or said over the years. But his grasp of what the Gnostics were on about is unique. And for an understanding of what the archons and the demiurge are about, he is the best source, in my view. 'Not in His Image' remains one of the most important works on my bookshelf.
To all the authors of instruction and inspiration, I give thanks.
