WHY STUDY IT?

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Jeffrey Angelson

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May 4, 2026, 5:38:35 AMMay 4
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If It Can’t Be Experienced… Why Study It?

I’ve heard it said:
“You can’t experience non-duality. Experience is always dualistic.”

That makes sense conceptually.

And yet… there are moments—
quiet, ordinary moments—
where the sense of separation softens or disappears.

Not an achievement.
Not something to hold.
Just… different.

In traditions like kensho, this is sometimes described as a glimpse—
a moment where the usual sense of self drops away.

So I find myself wondering…

When the self drops away, what is that?
Is that still just another “experience”?
Or is it something else entirely?

Maybe it’s not an “experience of oneness,”
but a moment where the usual division isn’t running.

So what are we studying?

Not to collect experiences…
not to arrive somewhere…

But perhaps to become sensitive to what is already the case.

To THIS.

Not as an idea…
but as what’s undeniably here.

So I wonder—

If it’s not something to experience…
what is it that keeps drawing us back to look?

Nothing to get… and yet something here keeps calling us to look.


Paul Rezendes

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May 4, 2026, 10:10:59 AMMay 4
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Jeff,

Hey, I've been enjoying reading what you're coming up with. You said you heard: “You can’t experience non-duality. Experience is always dualistic.” I have to question whether experience is always holistic. Is the observer the observed, the subject the object? Is how I experience the computer screen I'm looking at separate from who I am? If all of a sudden I turned into a deerfly looking at the screen, would it be what it is when a human looks at it? Is experience really dualistic? Is there an experiencer that is separate from the experience?

Peace,

Paul

P.S.: I don't think I'm saying anything much different than what you're pointing to or trying to articulate… Thanks.

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Paul Rezendes

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May 4, 2026, 10:15:51 AMMay 4
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OOPS! This sentence is incorrect:  I have to question whether experience is always holistic. 

I meant to say: I have to question whether experience is always dualistic. 

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P

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Jeffrey Angelson

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May 4, 2026, 10:41:21 AMMay 4
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Paul Everyone

Paul,


I don’t hear you saying something different in essence.


It feels like we’re circling the same thing from different directions.


Where I might describe it as wholeness… One Field… THIS as undivided,
you’re going a step further and stripping away even that—questioning whether any description holds at all.


And what’s left isn’t something we experience…


It’s that we are THIS.


Whether it’s a human looking… or even a mosquito seeing…
it’s still THIS.


So rather than replacing duality with unity,
you’re pointing to what remains when even those distinctions fall away.


We may be using different language,
but it feels like we’re sitting around the same fire.


One describes the warmth.
The other removes everything that isn’t the flame.


Thanks for simplifying this—less really does seem like more here.


THIS is LIFE.




Jeff Angelson

Paul Rezendes

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May 4, 2026, 11:06:17 AMMay 4
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Jeff,

I don't think I'm pointing to something deeper or a step further. Just pointing to something which I think you understand: there is no experiencer of the experience. The experiencer is the experience. The room I am in can be experienced in many different ways depending upon the observer.

Paul

Jeffrey Angelson

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May 4, 2026, 11:25:22 AMMay 4
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Paul

“Yes—that’s it. Everything experiencing everything at once.”




Jeff Angelson

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