Non-Duality: A Chef’s Spiritual Journey – interview with Simon Crumbwell

I’ve just published my first video after the introduction!

The videos start where my spiritual journey started too: non-duality. It’s a spiritual teaching, a philosophy, and for some people, it’s like a religion. Non-duality literally means not two, which implies that there is no separation. This teaching negates the usual way of seeing things, e.g. I’m over here looking at you over there. Instead, non-duality tells us that the usual way is an illusion which appears within a greater truth.

My first insights into non-duality came about through meditation. In a non-dual meditation you would typically take attention away from the content of your mind, such as thoughts. You would then shift your attention to the source everything arises from, which non-dualists often call awareness or consciousness. Such a state of consciousness expansion then gives you a sense that there is no seperation or duality.

The next step is insight and realization, which is different from meditation. Meditation is an experience, which comes and goes. But insight and realization have more of a lasting impact. Insight and realization can come during meditation, or just during daily life. There’s no limit on that.

These days I’m more critical about non-duality. The issue that I have is with it is that it can easily become a belief system. This happens through repeating the insights and realizations over and over, until they become a fossilized belief system. This is how religions are created.

My questions in the video are a reflection on crucial questions about things that I felt were holding me back on my own journey.

1. In Simon’s non-dual view everything is part of a cosmic soup of consciousness. If concepts, labels and identities are all part of the ingredients, then why negate them by saying life is an illusion? If you’re enjoying the cosmic soup, appreciating all the ingredients would be a part of that.
2. Neti neti, the way of negation, strips away layers to see what’s underneath them. Why strip anything away that is also part of the cosmic soup?
3. I have found that negation pushes personality parts further apart. This is because it’s hard to connect to something that is being negated
4. To me, the heart connection is crucial. I feel that non-duality undervalues this. Is it because of the singular focus?

One goal of these videos is to encourage critical thought. Non-duality can give a feeling of expansion in the short term, but is it sustainble? That’s the big question.

I hope you’ll enjoy this video.