Daily Nonduality Podcast

Kat (Katrijn) Van Oudheusden
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Spirituality
  • Updated Daily

Short, free reflections on our true nature. New content most weekdays. dailynonduality.substack.com

  1. 10h ago

    It’s the me that comes and goes

    You don’t actually have glimpses of awareness. It’s the other way around. In this aware being, there are frequent glimpses of a separate “me.” The unlimited aware being that you really are, contracts down into frequently believed illusory limitation to a separate someone. These are so frequent and so convincingly coherent, that they create the illusion of a continuous separate individual person. But even this very convincing illusion is not that good. It’s not as robust as we’re led to believe. It’s actually full of gaping holes. And so sometimes you notice there’s a gap in that belief in separate identity, and all there is is your true, unconditioned, unlimited being. For example, when you wake up in a strange location, maybe in a hotel somewhere, perhaps after an eventful few days different from your routine, have you ever noticed that it takes the “me” longer to come back “online”? Before all of who you supposedly are, your past, that you’re an individual inside this body, before all that rushes in … isn’t there a moment of just being, of being no one? It’s pure being but not limited to a someone. It’s being aware but not being shrunk down into a supposed limited, personal awareness. Actually, this is always the case and many many times during an ordinary day the apparent contraction into a “me” is what is absent. Many times, when in flow, when doing simple activities and not thinking much, in moments of wonder and awe, there is no “me.” We know expansion, freedom, peace. If in those moments that expansiveness is explored, it’s seen to be impersonal: It’s free from my story, my past, my troubles, my issues, my concerns, my imaginations. And that can happen right now by noticing the very same expansiveness while hearing these words. Is that which is aware right now, contracted or limited? It’s the limitation to a personal identity that comes and goes. It’s the sense of being a separate “me” that comes and goes! It comes and goes many times during the day and in dreams, and it just takes some noticing to see that it is most definitely not constantly there. How could I be what comes and goes? How could what I am come and go? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailynonduality.substack.com

    It’s the me that comes and goes

  2. 1d ago

    Unthinkable simplicity

    When there is just being, just this without thinking, everything is simple. The mind that makes it complicated is silent — or at least the volume is turned down and it’s easy to ignore. But the ego, the self, the character doesn’t want this simplicity. It needs to feel in charge and in control. It creates the illusion of control by trying to understand, discuss, argue, compare, contrast, make distinctions, question. And that’s all fine. It’s what the character is conditioned to do. But this apparent separate character, this selfing mechanism that believes it owns and lives this life, lives only in thought, in the added complexity of thought. If right now, all capacity for language disappears, then there is just this, as it is. We can play a little game and pretend we never learned a single word of language. Try it. All capacity for words has just been erased from your brain. You are wordless. Without words, there are no thoughts. There are perceptions and sensations, supposedly external or internal, but no thoughts. Look again, pretending you’ve never learned a single word in your life. Just whatever this is. Pure being. Without the capacity for language, there is no narrator, no thought, no thinking about what this is. Only the direct experience of it. Without language, without thought, there is no story of you, the character mentally added into this. Without thought, there is no someone to own this life. You have to think yourself into this picture. You need to mentally add yourself onto this with the thought “me” to know yourself as a separate person. It only works if you really try it: Right now, imagine you have somehow lost all capacity for language. And as soon as I stop speaking, look around. Look also at what you name my body. But now you have no name for it because you never learned language. So where is the “me”, the person with your name? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailynonduality.substack.com

    Unthinkable simplicity

  3. 2d ago

    Meeting excerpt: Seamless

    So start from everything. Start from the totality of this. It’s all here now, right? There’s no chopped off little piece of this that you’re inhabiting. If we just look at this direct experience now, it’s everything all at once. And so all that’s ever going on is that beliefs arise, thoughts arise that are believed, that there is a center, a contracted identity in this, and that that is the limit of what I am. If we just look at this experience now, not naming anything, not chopping it up into pieces, all of it, and we don’t use concepts, we don’t use words, we don’t separate: It’s all here, all at once. You can’t say something ends here and then something else begins. The experience being had right now. It is always here, in whatever form, with and without content. With forms changing, shifting. The experience itself, this, is. And unless a thought comes in and chops it up, it’s seamless. So imagine there is no body. Imagine there’s no perception, no sensation whatsoever. You’re in a complete sensory deprivation chamber. No content. Still you know you’re alive. So all of this content here now is appearing. All of these shapes and forms and sensations and perceptions. But if we look at the pure presence aspect of it, just from the experience of the presence of it, not from looking at the content, just the knowing I am alive: This is seamless. Presence is not chopped up into pieces. There’s no my presence and your presence. It’s just presence. There’s no beginning to presence or an end to presence. It’s always presence. So you can’t travel to the edge of it and then fall off into non-presence. Being, awareness, it’s the same thing. It’s all trying to say this. This, as the experience itself, without the overlay of human thought and interpretation, is seamless, eternal, infinite, no edges, no separation, none of it is personal, belongs to anyone. It’s not owned, it’s not controlled. There’s no island in it that’s mine and the rest is not mine. — Excerpt from a monthly Nondual Inquiry Lab. Always free to join, the info is on katoudheusden.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailynonduality.substack.com

    Meeting excerpt: Seamless

  4. 5d ago

    More than an understanding

    For about ten years, all I had was a “conceptual understanding” of nonduality. And that’s being generous because I didn’t really understand it on any level, no matter how much I read. But I was obsessed. I wanted to know what this was because I was convinced it could end my psychological pain. All the reading and thinking may have done little but that was apparently my path. I wasn’t the type to go on a retreat because what I heard from those teachers was just more concepts, endless descriptions, not anything to help me realize it myself. But I had this insane drive to find out. I didn’t find nonduality entertaining. I was reading all those books looking for the information that would show me how to be free. I read more than 900 of them! And somehow, over time, the bits and pieces of direct inquiry I managed to find started “doing me”. Looking started to happen and I didn’t even know. There would be a clear insight into lack of volition and personal control without thinking much of it. There would be recognitions of a spaciousness I didn’t have words for and barely even knew were happening. Now I know how crucial those moments were. The best books I read contained at least some instruction for inquiry: How to see that I’m not a separate self, and how to recognize what I always already am beyond that. And that’s how I wrote my book Seeing No-Self: straight to the inquiries that are essential, and only enough context to get you to do them. One of the only books I ever found with nothing but clear inquiry was Liberation Is by Salvadore Poe. That was in 2016 and for me it was final confirmation and the end of seeking. Now I know it’s a written version of what he shows you on the spot in his intensives. Now I know that is so much more powerful and direct that it would have spared me many years of reading. And that’s okay. I have no regrets. But it is why I now recommend those intensives. November weekend intensive: https://www.liberationis.com/a-new-paradigm-of-being This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailynonduality.substack.com

    More than an understanding

  5. 6d ago

    It has its hooks in you

    There is always the naked fact of being. Your presence is the one “thing” you can’t deny. You’d have to be present in order to deny it. This simple fact of existence — knowing that you’re here, present, alive — is what everyone is trying to point to, using all these different words. The words used depend on the body sharing. Many will follow the tradition they’re from or what helped them, so they’ll speak of Awareness, Being, or Consciousness, for example. I can’t tell you how long I was confused about these words. Is it A, B, or C? What do these words really point to? How do I get there, let alone abide there? How do I know I’m doing it right? But this is about what already is, before any thinking about it whatsoever. What is not dependent on what is going on? What already is before any thought occurs? Or turn it around: What can’t be removed, subtracted, or turned off? It’s impossible to turn off the pure fact of being, the simple fact of presence. There is presence even in the absence of all experience. Being can’t be removed. Just try to not be. It doesn’t have to be found, practiced, understood, achieved, abided in, or realized because it already is — noticed or not. So: What always is? What can’t be turned off? You may notice this requires no understanding, no thinking or “getting it” whatsoever. It’s totally mindless and totally obvious. Because it is You. This may seem like nothing special now. It didn’t do anything for me either, at first. But in an inexplicable, often unnoticeable way, it grows on you. In fact, it illuminates the real You in the apparent darkness of a separate, ordinary you. You may forget about it after hearing this. But it will come back, you’ll see. It has its hooks in you now. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailynonduality.substack.com

    It has its hooks in you

  6. Sep 29

    Meeting excerpt: Porridge

    This is what the ego, the self, is made of. It’s self-consciousness. It’s self-reflective. And it becomes self, thinking about the other thought called the self. This is our daily bread. This is what we love. But if for a moment we would stop being interested in that, the whole thing collapses. And if it’s really seen, to be non-essential, literally non-essential, it has no effect on anything, the whole thing collapses and it is seen that it’s just beside the point. And that is freedom. I mean, when that really hits, it is the end of giving a s**t about any of that stuff, even while it continues. So for the past two or three days, there was all this thinking about how to have this in the life more, how to have this express more in the life. And there was a lot of stuff going on about these really deep thoughts about that. It was like, oh, this is so fascinating to think about. How could this be expressed more in the life? And at the same time, as that is going on, it’s like there’s this huge porridge of super interesting s**t. And at the same time, it’s like, I do not want to eat this porridge. I’m not interested, you know, while it’s there and it’s cooking and it’s smelling nice and this porridge of deep philosophical thought about expressing nonduality in this life. And at the same time, it’s just like, who gives a s**t? Who is going to express what? That to me is the freedom. That is how it’s experienced. — an excerpt from Monday’s open meeting. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailynonduality.substack.com

    Meeting excerpt: Porridge

  7. Sep 28

    A working hypothesis

    All these things you believe need to happen first, let them go. All the concepts you don’t yet understand, forget them. All the insights you haven’t had yet, ignore all that. Here you are. Right here, right now. Don’t follow the thoughts and just be here, as you already are. You’re no different than before. You still don’t understand. You still haven’t realized anything. Fine. Here you are though. You’re already fully present to whatever this is without lifting a finger. You don’t do presence; it already is. You don’t do anything to be; you already are. Already the case. Already given. What if everything you’re looking for — all those insights, attainments, or realizations — are already here as this simple presence? What if you just take that on as a working hypothesis? You can always go back to looking for that other stuff later. The thoughts of you as a person who must attain something are added onto this presence because you learned them somewhere. They now feel like the truth only because they keep repeating and reinforcing themselves. The more attention goes to them, the stronger they get. But maybe something different can happen. Maybe the strength of all that attention can leave the thoughts and go to the simple fact of being here, of being present. As this simple, obvious presence, and ignoring the many thoughts, where is this person who needs to attain something? What could possibly need to happen first? What is there to understand? It is hiding in the unbelievable simplicity of it, so obvious and transparent that you constantly look right through it. See if you can notice the obviousness: I am here. See if you can become curious about that and explore it a little — mindlessly. See if this ordinary presence is not completely free from all limitation, from stress, even from the need to be someone. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailynonduality.substack.com

    A working hypothesis

  8. Sep 25

    How do you know you’re alive?

    How do you know that you’re alive? How do you know that you’re not dead? It’s obvious and certain. You are here, you’re alive, you’re not dead. And of course, you’re always here. Always there is this simple fact of aliveness, any time you care to check. When you “check” that you’re alive, you don’t see or find anything new in your experience to confirm it. There’s no pop-up window that needs to declare you’re alive. There’s no new information coming in. There’s no content to the confirmation. It’s just obvious. The fact of aliveness confirms itself. No new understanding, feeling, or thought is needed to confirm. The aliveness, beingness, or I-amness of life confirms itself in the noticing. To experience anything at all, there has to already be this aliveness. But we never pay it serious attention. We’re always looking out into our world of thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. We’re obsessed with the content of life and not interested in the aliveness powering it. Even if we think about this aliveness, like you’re maybe doing right now, that’s looking out at a thought about it, not directly noticing it. But the content of life is always changing and completely out of control. It’s just doing its thing and we’re always at least a nanosecond behind, trying to make sense of it, trying to manage and control what’s already gone before we even catch up. Meanwhile, aliveness itself is always directly and immediately available. It has none of the drama of the content. There seems to be nothing to it really. But we can find out that it also has none of the stress or suffering. One of the biggest shifts comes when we realize that this aliveness itself may be worth our attention. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailynonduality.substack.com

    How do you know you’re alive?
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About

Short, free reflections on our true nature. New content most weekdays. dailynonduality.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Kat (Katrijn) Van Oudheusden
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    40
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Katrijn Van Oudheusden
  • Show Website
    Daily Nonduality Podcast