Nonduality Blog

The big duality of nonduality is the two kinds of teachers or communicators.

One kind of teacher is the guide. He or she functions to guide you to toward a full understanding of the way things are.

The other kind of nonduality teacher is the confessor. He or she confesses or simply states the way things are.

Many nondual teachers function in both capacities.

The guide

Most people are comfortable with the guide. The guide makes a promise that you’ll gain a better psychological condition. The guide has a plan, a program, a practice. The guide is extremely useful and helpful. By all means, allow a guide to guide you!

The confessor

The confessor is different. Either you get what the confessor is saying or you don’t. The confessor says that this is … it, perfect knowledge.

What is this? You could say it is the moment. However, it is finer than the moment. Since this is so refined and small, it is incredibly vast, just as subatomic particles are associated with a vastness of knowing.

The moment vs this

The moment is not the same as this. You can be in the moment, perceive the moment, recall a time when you were in the moment, do a meditation to put you in the moment. You can Kodachrome the moment.

None of that is true for this. You can’t be one with this. You can’t perceive this. You can’t photograph this.

The moment is the Now. People are convinced about the value of living in the Now, in the moment. That’s not true for this. This is only confessed. The confession is the Kodachrome.

But let’s be honest

There’s nothing unusual about this duality. In any field, whether it’s spirituality, organized crime, or anything, experienced people within those fields will teach in one or both of the ways described.

Teaching as a guide, many people will be reached.

Teaching as a confessor of the truth that you personally know — through your actions, the way you live, through a few simple words — you’ll impart that personal knowledge to very few people. But you’ll become a mentor or guru to those people.

Presence

The confessor not only teaches through confession of his or her truth, but also silently. The silent teaching is called presence. Again, it’s not only the spiritual person who has presence. Anyone in any field of endeavor could have presence and teach through their presence. Presence is silent confession.

Two in One

As I said earlier, many teachers function both as guide and confessor. They express themselves through clear instructional guidance and through verbal and silent confession. Guiding and confessing are not necessarily separately occurring functions. While the teacher is guiding you in the steps for proper meditation, she or he is also being the confessor, silently, as presence.