One day in the early 1940s Douglas Harding, an English architect, was hiking in the Himalayas when he had a shocking realization…he had no head. He realized that we can’t see what he called the eight inch ball on the top of our body, except by looking at a photo or a reflection in a mirror. If we cannot see ourselves the way other people see us, how do we know who we are?

At the moment he realized this, all sense of time past and future fell away. He forgot his name, gender, even what type of animal he was. All the traditional markers of identity ceased to exist. In Buddhist terms, Harding is describing nondualism, a mature state of consciousness in which the self is transcended.

 Harding says the eight inch “ball” on the top of his body doesn’t contain, but is all that is on offer. Chew on that, if you will. With us. As you listen to episode 28:

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