What is non-duality?

[Stranger]

Then this morning I went to the gym for my "spiritual work-out." I continued thinking about the light, which is the Creator, within a dry and dead personality shell - only a concept. And I realized that the trick is to recognize that I am actually the light, not the identity shell, and that in being the Light I am one with the Creator. We are just so used to seeing ourselves as the shell, we forget that the shell has no inherent value or connection with Being, it simply shapes the Light. And I was told, "can you picture what it would be like to see the world from this perspective?" And that is what I attempted doing - only seeing the identical light within everyone, surrounded by a dark and lifeless shell of concepts that was the light's temporary pretend identity.

Then, I applied the same perspective to myself, recognizing that the light within me and the light of the Father are the same. Then He said to me, "would you like to work together to transform your personality?" In other words, would I, continuing to see myself as perfect light, work with the Father who is also perfect light, to transform the personality shell I inhabit. "That is how it's meant to be done," He added.

This is very different from "self-transformation" because the shell is no longer seen as Self, but rather as raw material that has nothing to do with who I am, but can be shaped into a more efficient configuration. The better configuration is one where the shell is crystalized, and therefore allows light to shine through it unimpeded.

Because I am not the personality shell in any way, I don't have to feel inadequate about its current configuration. In some ways, in molding our personalities through our choices, moment by moment, we are like small children attempting to build a house out of wooden blocks. But we are not very skilled at it, and it is not a very well-constructed house. It's not the house a grown-up would build - not symmetrical or pretty. But, that is exactly what a child is supposed to be doing, being a child, and it would never occur to us to think of the child as inadequate or worthless because of it! We would rejoice in the child's play, in the same way that Father rejoices in His children.

Some helpful analogies: the personality is like a warped funhouse mirror that distorts the image of who we really are. But the mirror cannot ever change what it reflects, which remains as it truly is, undistorted and, in the case of a mirror that reflects the perfect Creator, perfect. Only the image appears distorted. But we don't see our real selves, so we assume that we ARE the distorted image (cf. Plato's Cave, Ramana Maharshi, etc.)! And from this we can conclude that we ARE distorted, and ugly, and inadequate, and have to perfect ourselves. In truth, we are the prefect and undistorted light of the Creator. The task ahead of us, the task of many lifetimes, is to refine the mirror and make it reflect that perfection more accurately.