Sam Harris & Jim Newman wrestle with the paradox of no-self (excerpt)

Is neo-Advaita a valid expression of nondual truth or a psychological trap and semantic minefield? From Sam Harris's conversation with Jim Newman. The full 100 minute discussion can be found via subscription to Sam's Making Sense podcast (https://samharris.org/podcast/). It's one of his Waking Up dialogues and is called Wrestling the Paradox.

After the release of the full dialogue, Sam added an introduction, which was generously transcribed by viewer Elizabeth Baird. Here it is:

"I originally posted this conversation without any introduction or disclaimer, but so many of you have since responded to it to express your frustration that I feel I need to give some context.

"As you’ll hear, Jim Newman is a teacher of nonduality and, as I say at the beginning, he is perhaps the most relentlessly nondualist person I have come across. Now, as to whether this is a mere affectation or whether it is the result of his direct perception of reality, it’s hard for me to judge. One thing I would point out here is that we shouldn’t mistake a person’s personality for his or her insight into the nature of mind. In an extreme case, someone can be extraordinarily charismatic and have no understanding at all of the nature of mind. Whereas somebody with deep insight may have all kinds of user-interface issues that could make them less charismatic than we might expect a Buddha to be. So this is just a note of caution. It’s hard to judge someone’s understanding from the outside.

"As you’ll hear at the end of this conversation, if you make it to the end, there were a few points that Jim made that seemed somewhat incongruous to me and, for his part, he was skeptical that I had realised this thing that he thinks he’s realised. And there’s no denying the fact that most of this conversation was me trying to walk across the minefield of terminology that Jim is allergic to and that, in turn, seems to have caused many listeners to be allergic to Jim himself. But let me just say in his defence, I see no reason to doubt that he’s honestly representing his experience and for that reason, it seemed well worth engaging him.

"One thing I resisted was the temptation to turn this conversation into a debate. Many listeners were waiting for me to push back harder against some of the things Jim said, as I did to some degree in my conversation with Rupert Spira. There’s no question that there can be a kind of nondual dogmatism or lack of flexibility in discussing conventional reality, and that can become tiresome. But it’s also possible to err on the other side and fail to acknowledge just how fully one’s vision of reality can be transformed. In any case, I found it an interesting conversation even if it was a bit of a tightrope walk. And I hope you all find it useful. And now I bring you Jim Newman."


My website has short essays and musings on the kind of thing this video is about: https://sites.google.com/view/....ponderingsofsomeguy/