Today the question arrives as a tension rather than a problem.
There is the viewpoint—call it belief or perception—that everything is one. Non-dual. Undivided. Whether this is ultimately true or provable almost feels beside the point. It is a way of seeing, a lens through which awareness recognizes itself and what appears within it.
From that view, everything belongs to the same substance. The same field. Like saying everything is chocolate cake.
But then the body steps in.
If everything is chocolate cake, I can’t fly off a building made of chocolate cake and expect to land safely in more chocolate cake. Gravity still works. Bones still break. The body insists on a different order of truth—one rooted in physicality, consequence, and limits.
So the question sharpens:
How does a non-dual view live inside a dual world?
It’s like going from my house to my son’s house. On a map, the distance is small. Direct. Almost touching. But the road curves outward, forcing a long loop of a mile or more. There is a shortcut—a direct road—but it’s gated, reserved for emergencies only. Knowing it exists doesn’t mean I can use it.
Flatland requires roads.
And then there’s helicopter land—another dimension entirely. From above, the separation vanishes. The path is obvious. But unless you have a helicopter, that view doesn’t change how your tires meet the pavement.
The non-dual view may be like that. Real. Valid. Transformative.
But not always actionable at ground level.
And maybe the mistake is trying to live from the helicopter while standing on the road.
As I stand here, four deer move quietly up the hill beside the house. They don’t seem confused by this question. They don’t collapse unity into abstraction, nor do they deny the terrain beneath their hooves. They move through what is given—alert, responsive, whole.
Perhaps non-duality is not an instruction to ignore form,
but a reminder not to be trapped by it.
Unity seen.
Differences honored.
Roads driven.
Shortcuts known—but not forced.
And somewhere between flatland and the sky, life continues.
Spiritual Gravity 