Relationship Spirituality

Saint Dominic (left) meeting Saint Francis (right)

Realize that the God-Self or Pure Awareness, our true Identity, always transcends yet includes relationship. So, what is this nondual Self in its dance of relationship? What is healthy commitment, communication, and peacemaking? What is it to fulfil the commandment of Torah and Rabbi Jesus to "love thy neighbor as thySelf?" Read this essay on relationship to find out.

Many people today are involved in the "self-enquiry" practice suggested by Advaita Vedanta and Zen Buddhism, that is, to deeply inquire: "Who am I?" I would say that it's incredibly important (lest we become merely self-centered with this self-enquiry) to also explore a relational form of "self-enquiry," that is to say, wonderfully contemplating... "Who, really, are You?"

One way this can profoundly proceed is along this line: "My partner (anyone we meet, human or nonhuman, in any kind of situation) might seem 'other,' with his/her bodymind personality seemingly 'over there' distant from me—but where is my partner's true Awareness? Is it also a mere object over there, or is it not truly the Infinite Subject right HERE?"

The more we explore this "relational self-enquiry," the more we find that the true Identity of our partner is the vast, open Awareness which is our intrinsic Truth, the Reality from which we are always operating, feeling, perceiving, thinking. This is the single Reality that is doing everything and being everyone.

Hence, our partner's true reality as Awareness is not "out there," but RIGHT HERE, closer to us than our own mind or body or ego-sense.

This is real intimacy and gives entirely new meaning to the old injunction from the Jewish Torah, echoed by Jesus as the second of his two great commandments, namely, to "love thy neighbor as THY SELF."

Enjoy the profound revelation of finding everyone to be the One Right Here—the infinite God-Self of Pure Spiritual Awareness.

You might also wish to read a gorgeous piece on nondual friendship at the very short introduction to the life and work of the amazing 13th century yogi-sage-mystic-poet-philosopher, Sri Jñâneshvar (c.1275-1296). At this webpage are exerpts from Jñâneshvar's letter of friendship to Chângadev, one of the most significant gems ever written on God, nondual relationship and true Love-through-Identity.

Lord Krishna, Hinduism's most beloved Avatara (Divine Incarnation), with his consort Radha; "The All-Attractive Couple," painting by Vishnudas--see website http://www.krishnaland.com