individuality & nonduality

I received a really well thought out series of questions from a reader and friend. She has allowed me to share her questions and my response here:

“One of the reasons why I think I’ve separated my spiritual side from my academic/economic side is that to me spirituality seems to be fundamentally individual – it’s all about the person coming to terms with their self and everything else, and no one’s path is ever exactly the same as another’s.”

Do you really know that you have separated these things? From this perspective it seems that attention has simply been drawn to academia. Perhaps you have a sense of making a decision to separate these “sides” of yourself but maybe it is just appearing this way. I’m not really into the word spirituality because it conjures so many ideas and images. But if we are equating spirituality with the way I use the term nonduality, then it is very individual, actually completely and ultimately alone. Nondual literally translates to not-two. The way that I use it is not even meant to point to “oneness,” not-two but also not-one. It’s not like we are all one connected together. It’s like we are literally the same with no boundaries and no location. All the sides of a personality and mind (academia, political, spiritual, etc) are like reflections appearing in this moment. Nonduality points to this moment where without thought there is no way to know separation or individuality. Yes it absolutely seems that no-one’s path is ever the same as another’s. But this moment is always the same for everyone. It is this moment that all spiritual paths emerge, appear to play out, and they all lead always to this moment where they have always been. This might sound too simple but it is all there is from this perspective.