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Volume 1

THE SUN RISES IN THE EVENING

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Written by Gary Nixon - Journal of Nondual Psychology, Vol 1: Spring 2009

Our First Editorial: Gary Nixon, PhD

WELCOME to the first issue of Paradoxica: Journal of Nondual Psychology. This journal is grounded in the paradoxical consciousness of failure of seeking and efforting in the world of spirituality in all its forms. From the journal’s conception, we understood Paradoxica to be destined for failurehood. After all, awakening and academic writing seem perpetually at odds with one another. And yet, we believe out of this hopelessness that somehow, some way, something miraculous will emerge.

GRACEFULLY EXTINGUISHED: Seeing beyond the illusion of a separate self

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Written by Brian Theriault - Journal of Nondual Psychology, Vol 1: Spring 2009

Summary

This article is derived from a completed Master’s thesis entitled: “The Nondual Experience: A Phenomenological-Hermeneutics Investigation of the Seeker’s Journey Towards Wholeness”. It examines the psycho-spiritual transformations encountered on the journey towards nondual living with a particular emphasis on the end of spiritual seeking. This research study set out to interpret and understand the lived experiences of spiritual seekers who, through their own searches, came to understand the futility and utter failure of personal seeking which, in turn, facilitated new awakening experiences of the nondual nature of existence. A transpersonal phenomenological hermeneutic research approach was used in this study. Six of nine core themes are presented in this article. They include: 1) seeking is suffering 2) nowhere to go 3) the illusionary seeker 4) the collapse of time 5) beyond knowledge, and 6) gracefully extinguished.

NONDUAL PSYCHOTHERAPY: Letting go of the separate self contraction and embracing nondual being

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Written by Nixon & Sharpe - Journal of Nondual Psychology, Vol 1: Spring 2009

Summary

This article summarizes the pivotal task of moving into nondual awareness by seeing through the veil of the separate self. Formerly this nondual state was understood as the final stage in an arduous journey of ego-transcendence; but nondual psychotherapists are now recognizing this nondual state as readily available to clients as part of the therapeutic process. The first author recounts his own journey of seeing through the illusion of the separate self and embracing nondual awareness. Following this, he presents a nondual psychotherapy case study describing the process of a client having an awakening experience – the letting go of her egoic separate self in the moment – and her subsequent realization that surrendering is not a one-time event but an ongoing process.

A PEAK AT ENLIGHTENMENT: A personal account of the experience of conditional nirvikalpa samadhi

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Written by Wade Prpich - Journal of Nondual Psychology, Vol 1: Spring 2009

Summary

The overall aim of this article is to present the experiential elements of a non-dual experience and then to explore this experience in relation to a nondual model of human development. The article provides a first person account of the nondual experience of conditional Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Nirvikalpa Samadhi is the formless realization of the inherent nature of reality or a state of union with undifferentiated Oneness that is the priorly and perfectly ascended source-reality. The first person account is then explored and compared in the context of contemporary mystic Adi Da Samraj’s work.

INTRODUCING TRANSPERSONAL PHENOMENOLOGY: The direct experience of a sudden awakening

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Written by Solowoniuk & Nixon - Journal of Nondual Psychology, Vol. 1: Spring 2009

Summary

This paper introduces a transpersonal approach to conducting phenomenological research with the emphasis on illuminating a first person account of a sudden awakening. Although within Eastern cultures awakening is typically understood as the purposeful undertaking of spiritual or religious practices toward transcending the ego, liberating the self, contacting the divine, or becoming consciousness itself, the unsuspecting Westerner who suddenly finds himself or herself without a self may not have the reference to ground such a radical shift in identity. This was the case for the first author in this study. Through our transpersonal inquiry (i.e, dwelling and beholding, noetic reduction, noumenal parsing, and recognition) we were led to understand that a sudden awakening can involve psychological upheaval, terror, mental collapse, a search for balance and integration, and an understanding of how to trust existence in the absence of a permanent self-orientation.