Q. Today after meditation I find myself again in a non dual state, completely present and not separate. So why does anger, irritation, fear, loneliness, sadness etc still arise?

Tom: There is a “great secret’ which many non-dual teachings do not mention, and without this vital teaching, liberation will not occur for most (for some this teaching can occur spontaneously without it being taught, but for most it will need to be taught outright).

The reason disturbances and difficulties keep on coming back is this. However when the mind first hears this teaching, it may often resist it based on what it thinks it knows about non-duality. So it is important to keep an open mind when reading about these teachings, otherwise your mind, due to its beliefs and conditioning (eg. about the nature of non-duality and non-dual teachings), will not allow you to see the truth or effectiveness of what is being presented.

The key teaching seldom taught is this: it is that you will never attain liberation as long as you stay on the level of objects (savikalpa, which means on the level of objects).

This is why all the great sages and great teachers, and all the ancient non-dual teachings recommend that the mind should go within, away from objects, which is called ‘nirvikalpa’ (without objects), and discover the self or your true nature within.

Then, and only then is the genuine non duality reached in which suffering and egotism never returns. Otherwise these both keep on returning, together with the associated frustration and bemusement.

I explain this in more detail in this video here below. Please also see the introductory articles on tomdas.com together with the recommended reading list which go into more detail. The rest of the website goes on to answer almost every single question you can have on this path. All the teachings are available for free 🙏

Here is the video, please take a look if you want to know more:

https://youtu.be/s9LgE9u6PhI?si=25hBbMfLdYZ-lud7