What Does It Mean To Be Undivided?

~by Adyashanti

In these teachings, I’ve talked about being undivided, and I’ve equated awakening with being in an undivided state. But I want to make sure that no one gets a mistaken idea of what it means to be undivided. Nondivision is the effect of awakening; it is the expression of the realization of our true nature. As I have said, being undivided has nothing to do with being perfect or saintly.

Also, there is no guarantee after awakening that, in any particular moment, you will not experience division in some way; there is no guarantee that division will never happen again. In fact, to be free, to be awakened, is to let go of concern with such things, with how awakened one is or isn’t.

One of the great poems of the Zen tradition ends with this description of the awakened state:

“To be without anxiety about imperfection.” So, to be undivided does not mean to be perfect. Being undivided does not conform to images we might have in our mind about holiness or perfection. If someone were to look at my life, I’m sure they could come up with lots of reasons to say something like, “Oh, that doesn’t fit my idea of what an enlightened being would be. That doesn’t fit my image of what an undivided being is like.”

I’m sure that my life would probably not conform to a lot of people’s ideals about what they think enlightenment should look like. Because, in truth, I’m much more of an ordinary person than most people would imagine. To me, part of awakening is dying into ordinariness, into non-anxiety.

Regardless of what someone might say looking at my life or anyone else’s life, the state of Nondivision is not something you can understand until it starts to wake up within you. I can only encourage you not to believe any image that may arise in your mind of holiness or perfection, because these images only get in the way.

Being undivided—seeing and acting from nonseparation, from oneness—is something that we must each discover for ourselves. What is it to see beyond love and hate, beyond good and evil, beyond right and wrong? These things must be discovered in your own experience. Evaluating other people’s experience of Nondivision is not helpful. The only thing that matters is where you are. In any moment, are you experiencing and acting from division, or are you experiencing and acting from oneness? Which is it?

~by Adyashanti – From his Book: The End of Your World

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