Point Zero: Non-Duality

To realize and fully live by your true nature, you need to break the inner and outer cycles that are making your life miserable or, in the best case, difficult.
In this chapter we'll talk about something which is fundamental to our understanding of the cycles of life: duality.

In this world everything is dual, meaning that everything has its opposite aspect:: day and night, light and darkness, male and female, right and wrong, good and bad, like and dislike, sadness and happiness, etc... In the manifested world, these cycles alternate continuously and need their opposites to find balance. Being stuck in one part of the cycle is adopting a strong point of view upon something, which has, of course, to do only with a personal perception of life.

In our world we see and consider things through the eyes of duality. We either sit on one opposite or the other, even though our placement doesn't necessarily need to be an extreme one. It is like having two opposite sides of a scale and every event, or anything, needs to have a location between these two opposites in order to be understood by our mind. In other words, we need to classify it somehow so that we can decide what to do with it and be in control.

If something it's not so easy to classify, then we use the intellect in order to find a suitable place for it between the two opposite poles of the scale.
When we have a totally new experience we immediately need to classify it. Is it good or bad? Do I like it or not? etc... As a result, everything in life has to do with finding an "appropriate" place in the scale.

Now, once a place in the scale it's found, whether it's on the good or on the bad side, then it creates an imbalance. If we classify something and experience it as "good", then there is an imbalance on the "bad" side. Here is where the cycles of nature come into play. Nature absolutely needs to balance both sides of the scale and what happens is something of opposite nature through which this balance can be found. Nevertheless, that creates another imbalance and, yes my friend, this cycle never ends. That's why it is so difficult, or almost impossible, to find permanent peace under these conditions. Needless to say, this is the world we are living as our own perceived reality every day of our lives.

This law of the cycles of nature applies to anything, and it cannot be stopped for any reason, no one can stop it and it will go on forever.
It is like breathing, after an inhalation there is an exhalation, it's automatic. If this doesn't happen you would die within two or three minutes. Your "life-cycle" in this case would stop. Your experience of this world as you have experienced it up to the present moment would have come to an end. A cycle would have come to and end. However, think about it, did the cycle of nature stop? No, it didn't, it goes on and on and so will you. You would finish a cycle to enter a new one.

Everything that has a cycle, like day and night, is about duality. Duality, with its opposite aspects of nature, is the "breath of creation" and this breath cannot be stopped.
Until your mind and perceptions are caught in duality you are bound to suffer, because you will never have real control upon your life as well as yourself. This is what it means to be stuck in the state of “Maya” according to the Indian tradition. You will have the feeling to be dragged from one side to another. One day happiness the next one sadness, and so forth.
So, how can you stop this cycle and be free? This is where meditation comes in. But let's not rush, since everything is about to be explained here.

You have duality within you, starting from all your contradictory thoughts and behaviors, to your own very breath. In order to be free from duality you need to stop at the center of the scale, where you cannot run to another opposite anymore. This can sound easy, but its practice is more subtle than you can probably imagine.

To go from one opposite to the other, there is a need to pass every single point of the line until it reaches the other opposite and, in all these points, there is one point which we can call "Zero", perfect balance, middle, non-duality, nothing or, more properly said, no-thing. The arrow of your consciousness passes on that point, staying there for a tiny moment before going into the other direction. Before you know it, you are on the opposite side. If you can be aware of that moment, it's done, you experience non-duality, a whole "new dimension" opens up for you. This is the emptiness that contains everything. Even so, you cannot get there by using your mind, because the nature of mind itself is to classify within the opposite sides of the scale, therefore it will naturally miss the point (it is the nature of the mind itself to miss the Point Zero). You need to get to the Point Zero in a natural way and not by an intellectual self-induced way. This is what the meditation technique brings you to accomplish.

Now, even if you are aware of the Point Zero at the moment you pass it, you are still not free. You might have entered into a state beyond waking, sleeping and dreaming (the turia state), but still it will be a state a phenomena. To be free you need to be a master of all phenomena. You now know where to look in order to find your true nature but, to be free, you need to be able to stop there at will for as long as you like.
Now, let's say you get to the Point Zero, will this stop nature to continue its cycle? No, it won't. But you, the "experiencer", has happily skipped the cycle and neutralized it. You are free from it, completely free. Everything regarding that event, or that cyclic pattern, will go onto the opposite side, but not you. There will be no one to experience the direct consequences of that pattern as its cyclic torture.

Whatever happens in that moment does not create imbalance anymore in your life, because everything is seen from the light of perfect accomplishment, perfect balance and perfect truth. There are no labels or classifications, there is only being and pure awareness.
Night and day will continue their cycles, but you are not locked in the cycle because your perfect balance cannot be affected, even though you can experience night and day. Awareness of non-duality as perfect balance and perfect accomplishment is what you are, and your nature now is in perfect harmony with one or more aspects of God.
The Key to be free from duality is in the breath. The breath is the tool we use to stop duality in a natural way.

You need to remember, first of all, that your true nature is beyond the breath. You need to breathe in order to bring oxygen to the blood so that it can carry out its work of regenerating the cells of your body. However, you are much more than your body. As a matter of fact, during normal activity and even during sleep, you often forget about your body and find yourself lost in your thoughts and mind. Is your mind breathing? No. Does it need breath to be active? No. Our breath is directly related to our experience of duality in this world and, when it naturally finds perfect balance, we experience our true nature.

A monkey breathes very quickly, therefore it has quite a nervous nature. It cannot stop breathing, it is caught up in the cycle. Its breathing doesn't allow pauses to find space for centeredness, and it performs everything in a rush. Some turtles breathe very slowly and their movement is slow and calculated. Their lives can be very long since the perception of time is widely expanded thanks to the slow pace of their breath. For this reason they might be a little closer to perceive eternity but, having no self-conscious awareness, they remain caught up in the cycle.

When our breath finds perfect balance we tap into eternity. Through meditation this is possible and easy to do. It comes easily because eternal awareness is our nature.

The true experience of God is there when we stop fighting with duality and join Him at the point where mother nature has left a door open to the Point Zero, and that's the point where Her primordial energy pushes the arrow of the scale in the two opposite directions. Then we can say: "No, I can stop now, I don't need to fight in order to hopefully find balance through opposites anymore. I am here at the center, perfectly aware". Everything you have ever looked for is already there waiting for you to be taken, you can find it in the eternity of that point called "Zero".