Originally posted by longchen:
[[quote]
I will like to share my current experience... I have more time in
non-dual state now.
That is, there is no-self in the experiencing of things aka no
subject-object split.
Also, i have noticed that non-duality has various depths and
degrees.
Certain times there are more mental thoughts, certain times less
and they give different degrees of vividness and sense of oneness.
At times, sense of being at a location is greatly diminished...
what is being felt are all the sensations that made up
'here-ness'... For in truth, 'here-ness' is made up of perceptions
and sensation... Like the sensations of pressure of the feet
against the floor... they are just that..sensations. Likewise, the
visual perceptions and hearing and so on so forth are just
that
.
Yes LongChen, very very well said. What you described is very
true about the experience of non-duality and no-self is really
referring to the illusionary view of a subject-object split. In
actual case, there is no such split and like what you said, there
are varying depths and degrees to this experience of non-duality.
It will be good to find out more about the 7 factors of
enlightenments and five wisdoms in Buddhism.
Sensation is just a word. However when we named it as sensation,
there are whole lots of imprints and definitions that come along
with it and that makes seeing it in raw difficult. So what is
sensation in its raw state? It is what we called Presence, our
Pristine Awareness. And yes they are all just THAT, that sensation
in raw and the purpose of why Buddha taught mindfulness will
become clear; it is to experience all is just that, the One
Reality. This has to be experienced intuitively and directly. There
is no other way.
Next, we must experience more clearly about its emptiness nature.
Awareness is a luminous presence with emptiness as its nature. Its
nature is empty in the sense that there is no way you can point to
a who, or a place or a moment in time and say here it is. It
subsides as it arises and never remains. It is symbol-less and
therefore we should not rest ourselves in either form or formless.
It is neither this nor that and not even an IT. Simply empty of a
self! A Source that cannot be pinned down is purely an ever
manifestation of phenomena that rolls on. Its arising and ceasing
is best described in the following:
When there is this, that is.
With the arising of this, that arises.
When this is not, neither is that.
With the cessation of this, that ceases.
(Dependent Origination DO)
Do not even ask where it comes from and where it goes. To ask is to
satisfy our cognitive thirst. In actual case it is no where to be
found, only mere arising and ceasing in raw. The profundity of DO
has no depth, zoom deeply into it. Sense the entirety of the
moment, the manifolds of Presence, the vividness, texture and
fabric of the raw, experience earnestly the luminous and emptiness
truth of our nature.
The experience of this is the awakening of the mirror-like wisdom.
This is important because it is the base that prevents us from
falling into lower realm. But contrary to what that is being
commonly explained as a clear mirror reflecting the phenomenon
which is again dualistic (by now u will not be able to accept such
view 
), it is a wisdom that transformed totally the wrong
view of phenomena as out there or in here to all as the
manifestation of our pristine awareness due its emptiness nature.
It is the experience of Dharmakaya.
What i have noticed is that much of the karmic patterns and habits
still arises...but this time they arises without the agent of a
self
The karmic patterns that were diminished are mainly those
pertaining to the 'sense of a self'. Apart from these, many habits
are still largely intact. However, the awareness of this habits is
clearer... but without the 'willing/forceful intention' of the
false sense of self...
There is an apparent paradox here. Most of us uses the 'false sense
of self' to will ourselve from doing certain things. Without the
sense of self, the habits are still there and experienced. I think
absolute trust must be given that the habits dissolves away in due
time through non-willing.
It is a matter of how deep the experience of non-dual has
penetrated into our consciousness. At the coarser level of non-dual
experience, we will only be able to experience it at the conscious
level but not at the pre-conscious level. That is, the Self
consciousness does not surface that frequently and there are gaps
in between experiences but the stronger afflictions are still
there. The afflicted consciousness is the habitual propensities of
self that is deeply rooted and works at the pre-conscious level.
The experience of non-duality will not be able to overcome and
eliminate these stronger afflictions until we have habituated
ourselves to this understanding at the deeper level of our
consciousness.
At this juncture, a practitioner will experience the first 4
factors of enlightenment quite clearly, that is, there will be
mindfulness, investigative, joy and rapture but tranquility,
concentration and equanimity isnt strong yet. The first 4 factors
will result a sense of radiance bright, lightness, free, clear,
vivid and energetic feeling but the settledness, sereneness and
calmness will not be that obviously felt. It is here where one will
experience the dark night of what Dharma Dan described. Contrary to
what that is being thought, one may even feel more lustful due to
the new found energy. But somehow the non-dual experience also has
the strength to pull us back from falling further (you may
experienced it in some synchronic events that serve as reminders)
and eventually lead us to the experience of equanimity. You may
want to find out why
? 
Lastly hee
Having said that much, it seems that lots of effort need
to be put in -- which is really not the case. The entire practice
turns out to an undoing process. It is a process of gradually
understanding the workings of our nature that is from beginning
liberated but clouded by this sense of self that is always trying
to preserve, protect and ever attached. The entire sense of self is
a doing. Whatever we do, positive or negative, is still doing.
Ultimately there is not-even a letting go or let be, as there is
already continuous dissolving and arising and this ever dissolving
and arising turns out to be self-liberating. Without this self or
Self, there is no doing, there is only spontaneous arising.
