Non-duality refers to nondual or ‘not two.’ It is the oneness that is the center of everything. Everything is a portion and made of a single non dual consciousness. When you think about what is non duality, it circles the idea of oneness.

The question arises often, if everything is one, then why don’t you experience it that way? Oneness does not mean sameness; it means everything is one. However, things may look different without being separate.

For example, if you look at your fingers, they are separate, but everything is one if you look at your hand. Your fingers may be different and dissimilar than each other, but they are not disconnected because they are all a part of your hand.

Similarly, the animals, objects, plants, and people in the world are all certainly different in their looks and functioning. However, they are all connected at their source, meaning they all belong to the same source. Moreover, the single being behind all life has an immeasurable number of different expressions that you experience as dissimilar objects.

What is Self?

The Sanskrit word for ‘self’ is ‘Atman.’ In nonduality, a self is not known by anything other than its self. Self is the real you, and you can attain the real enlightenment by knowing about the self. What’s happening to you, the conditions, what things you have, and everything around you is nothing but a part of you.

Your self is affected by the happenings of the world. You may think that you control yourself, but you don’t. You react, respond, and talk to people, but that is not your real ‘self.’ Self is inside you, and you are not aware of it.

The true self, according to nonduality, is nothing but self-consciousness. Everything or anything that you experience is not a part of yourself. Rather, it is the self in you that enlightens everything in and around. The identity of self is beyond everything, and nothing is separate.

The Self-Consciousness is Complicated to Understand

The self-truth of nondual consciousness, or oneness of being, has mostly been thought of as something hidden or challenging to experience. When something is quite ordinary and easily available in every moment, it is self, but you are not aware of it.

Nondual consciousness is the natural flow of life, and if anything happens in your life, it is just an incident and has no impact on your true-self.

The Power is in the Self

The power in the world is present in you. Whatever is there in the world, you can achieve it. You have the power to make things happen for you. Once you are enlightened about the true self, you will realize the power you own.

Happiness, sadness, love, hatred, jealousy, and all other emotions and feelings are illusions and have no impact on the self. When you ask what is nonduality, the first thing that emerges as an answer is your self-enlightenment.

Once you accomplish self-enlightenment, you can be sure that you achieve everything you want in life. As you begin to know your inner self, you will start to feel the inner strength that you own. Once you know the power of yourself you will experience all the feelings and desires of the world as mere delusions.

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What is Self-Enlightenment?

You can take self-enlightenment as a deep understanding that there is no separate entity situated inside your body. Either you are nothing or everything. All that is present is in yourself, and all that your ‘self’ has is present in the universe. You are made up of the universe, and the universe is made up of you.

Self-realization or self-enlightenment can be taken as re-absorption of your mind, body, and world into this meaningful presence from which they precede and from which they were never for a second detached. It gives you a sense of awareness and unlocks the deep recesses in your mind to the oneness around you.

Enlightenment or self-realization is a re-alignment of your mind, body, and the world. You understand that this knowing presence takes the form of thinking, sensing, and observing. As a result, it seems to become a mind, a body, and the world. However, in the real truth, it never becomes anything other than it already everlastingly is.

Finally, as now you know much about what is nonduality and what is ‘self’ in this concept, you can conclude that the self is the most powerful thing, and it is within you. Hence, human beings, things, and everything is one thing, and nothing is separate.