Join Sean for

Varieties of Nonduality

A 10-Week Course in a Metaintegral Analysis of 10 Contemplative Traditions

January 11 – March 21, 2024

Join integral pioneer Sean Esbjörn-Hargens Ph.D. for a 10-week philosophical and experiential course in exploring 10 distinct traditions of nonduality – East & West, ancient and contemporary.

The course will cover 4 traditions associated with the East and 4 traditions associated with the West, plus two contemporary nondual traditions that have emerged since the 1970s and 80s. The 10 traditions are listed below in the order we will cover them. We will start with the major nondual traditions found in the East and then look at Adidam the nondual path established by the contemporary and controversial realizer Adi Da. He was deeply informed by the Eastern traditions.

Eastern Traditions of Nonduality

1. Taoism
2. Buddhism
3. Advaita Vedanta
4. Kashmir Shaivism
5. Adidam

The next five weeks covers the nondual traditions most prominent in the West and ends with the school founded by A. H. Almaas, which has deep Western roots.  Both Adi Da and A. H. Almaas’s approaches integrate Eastern and Western elements though they tend to be slightly more representative of each tradition respectively.

Western Traditions of Nonduality

6.  Neoplatonism
7.  Christianity
8.  Judaism: Kabbalah
9.  Sufism
10. The Diamond Approach

Each week I will post a 30+ min lecture on the nondual tradition being explored that week along with some study materials (handouts, articles, etc) about its unique practices and history. We will use the weekly live zoom call to discuss and engage the topic. These will be recorded and posted the next day. We will use Slack for weekly threaded discussions.

We will explore a number of interesting nondual metapatterns including:

This course is going to be an amazing integral exploration of the history, practices, and traditions of nondual realization. Inspired by David Loy’s classic 1997 text Nonduality: A Study in Comparative Philosophy – I wanted to take the analysis further. I wanted to go meta (identifying new insights about nonduality via a big-picture trans-tradition comparative analysis) and go integral (including many more traditions than the three he focuses on). I’ve spent over a year engaged in this metaintegral analysis and feel ready to share what I’ve found with you and to discover new insights together.

Some of the cool insights I’ll be sharing and we will explore together include:

 

  • The 3 major types of nonduality and how most traditions eventually include all three but not always in the same order.
  • The history of how the nondual realization evolves through distinct stages/phases
    of deeper differentiation/integration.
  • How “nondual seeds” planted withing various traditions often take 1000s of years
    to fully blossom.
  • The ways different traditions of nonduality have influenced each other.
  • The robust forms of nonduality in the West (who knew?!)
  • The future of nondual realization – how many more stages/levels of realization are possible and/or are already emerging?
  • The key texts and individuals associated with each nondual tradition.
  • What role do institutions (e.g., monasteries) play in the development and dissemination of nondual texts and practice.
  • What has allowed some traditions to develop nondual streams of practice before or more robustly than other traditions?
  • The global status of nondual realization across traditions – we have more nondual choices of tradition than ever before.
  • Interesting differences between solo realizers and those who awaken within a tradition.

Cost & Schedule

Starts the week of January 8th and goes till March 24th, 2024*

Each week, there will be one live call:

  • Thursdays @ 8:00 – 9:00 PM

US Eastern time zone (i.e. New York time).

*Note: There will be no live call on February 29th

We will use a Slack space for conversations each week. All calls will be recorded and posted in Slack.

Upon receipt of payment, you will receive an invitation to the course’s private Slack space so you can begin connecting with other participants right away.

If you have any questions about the course, email sean@metaintegral.net.

Cost: $495 USD.

Facilitator & Lecturer

SEAN ESBJöRN-HARGENS PH.D.

SEAN ESBJöRN-HARGENS PH.D.

Sean Esbjörn-Hargens Ph.D. has spent his life developing “metaintegral” approaches to the fields of ecology, mixed-methods research, psychology & consciousness studies, philosophy of science, holistic education, and post-capital models of measuring social impact.

Sean has been a long time serious meditator and practitioner within several nondual traditions: Tibetan Buddhism, The Russian Orthodox Church (Christianity), A. H. Almaas’ The Diamond Approach, The Ceile De Celtic tradition, and the Hermetic tradition. He is the Founder and Program Director of the MA/PhD program Integral Noetic Sciences at the California Institute for Human Sciences in Encinitas, CA.

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