Nondualism

The blog I link here has taken one of my past stories and used it for itself. This discovery, a year after the fact, brings me to revisit the time of when I posted my original story (at the beginning of 2010 for a review of 2009), the experience that led to the story (a day spent with dear friend and co-conspirator Ryan Hochstatter), and my feelings regarding Nondualism in general, which follow.

According to Jerry Katz, writer of Nonduality Blog, "Nonduality means 'not two' or 'nonseparation.'" This idea says that while everything is individually its own, everything is simultaneously linked, connected.
I believe this can be described several ways. For example, the Bhaghavad-gita quotes Krishna to say "All paths of worship lead to God." Therefore, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, so forth, it matters not to whom one worships, but that one worships, and by this, we are connected like spokes on a wheel leading to the central point. We are all connected by the theme of what I call "that which is beyond us" (what others call God, Allah, Yahweh...), which we celebrate.
Another view of this idea of Nonduality is a universal energy that connects everyone. While we each have our own energy of emotions, we are connected in that others share these emotions and, whereas each has his own reason and circumstances for feeling, we have all felt sadness, joy, anger, fear, and are therefore one great body. This is a basic explanation, I realize, as nondualism connects us to all things, not only people. Perhaps it is better to say that while we are individuals, we are not remote. We are, when aware, part of the whole, humanity, animals, plants, water, sky, deeper and beyond.
Nonduality: a never-ending existence that depends on each of it's innumerable parts. Everything in existence is a linchpin.

For a long while I have believed that things are not segregated as religions and leaders might have us believe. This is what saddens me when I hear of conflict in political, religious, social, environmental, domestic, and other facets of life. This conflict comes from overlooking the connection we share with one another and all.
I am reminded of something I heard on the Colbert Report: "If we lose all our bananas, in office break rooms, what will we reach past to get to the Doritos?"
Nondualism is the bananas so many pass the opportunity to savor, thereby submitting to conflict.
Then again, according to nondualism, conflict exists with, or because of, stillness or peace. That without one the other cannot exist. Long cannot exist without short, light cannot exist without shadow. Like colors on a color wheel, when colors are opposites, they are complimentary. In fact, this is the exact reason I am in love with colors. They illustrate the idea of coexistence by conflict, which is harmony.

Where does this bring me? To the extent that I believe in nonduality, we all exist so that we may not exist. We are connected universally with the atoms of each others bodies and the atoms in and beyond the far reaches of our known universe. Existence is a fractal, never ending, which therefore never begins. And within this are we.
How do we reconcile the differences between us? Acknowledge they exist and acknowledge they are few. We are each other.