Mentorship Project Proposal
Please note that this proposal replaces my previous submission.
The following guidelines have been supplied for submitting a proposal for the Pedagogy of Ahisma Mentorship Program and I reference each identified requirement.
For those of you interested in submitting a proposal for the mentorship program, you can reply to this email and write us a few paragraphs to talk about (1) what you propose to do; (2) where and with whom you propose to do this; (3) why you think your proposed project is worth doing; and (4) how what you propose ties in with the pedagogy of ahimsa. Please feel free to add any further information if you think it would help us understand your proposal better. Also, if you have a specific mentor in mind, please let us know (a reminder that the three mentors are Monica, Simone and Arief).
Living the underlying nature of Truth
in the illusory world of form
My proposal (1) for the Mentorship Program is to work with Arief to write an article/webpage (2) to be posted, if you are willing, on the IGINP, Mahatma Gandhi Canadian Foundation for World Peace and, perhaps, the ATA website. I say willing because this article will posit spiritual teachings, upheld by Gandhi and found in many spiritual traditions, that can seem controversial. Known by many as “Pure non-dualism”, it states that “Reality” simply is and that It has no opposite. Reality, being immutable, eternal and unchangeable, is beyond harm of any kind. Pure non-dualism maintains that “spiritual” teachings that believe this world is a “dualistic” experience that has meaning and significance; and that sin, karma and justice and injustice are real, are false.
This project is worth doing (3), because it explores a fundamental understanding of the nature of Conscious Awareness that was at the core of Gandhi’s understanding of Ahisma (4).
“Gandhi’s concept of non-violence seems to have been derived from the famous Indian Vedanticdoctrine of God being immanent as well as transcendent at the same time (Balasubramanian, 1996: 90–110). The implications of the doctrine are that all human beings, animals, and the rest of nature are divine. If nothing is possible outside God, then there is no scope for inflicting violence, in thought, word, or deed on anyone.”*
This concept, essentially that there is no world of separate beings with wills opposed to one another, will be supported by sources including, but not limited to, the teachings of Jesus, Sri Ramana Maharshi and Eckhart Tolle as well as the writings found in the Bhagavad Gita, A Course in Miracles, Journey Beyond Words, The Other Voice and other texts. For a fuller understanding of Pure non-dualism, I invite you to consider my PowerPoint presentation delivered at the World Religions’ Conference in Prince George in 2019, in response for calls to address “The Object of Man’s Creation”, which I retitled, “The Object of Our Creation.”
The article will also explore the nature of dualism (3) by specifically examining the role of the ego in fostering a belief in a world of separate beings with separate wills that can be in conflict with one another. It will also examine how these seemingly separate individuals worked in “harmony” to make the phenomenal world we seem to exist in.
While accepting the essential Oneness of existence, the article will discuss possible approaches to taking action as a seeming individual to “better” the phenomenal world (3). Many spiritual disciplines discuss an awareness of knowing exactly what to do at any given instant. This concept will be explored while also supporting the idea that, even if that awareness is not present, no action or inaction can impact Reality and that everyone is always acting as lovingly as they can at any moment.
Finally, the Truth of Reality will be explored, with the essential understanding that its awareness will inevitably return to everyone who identifies as a separate being. In addition, it will include the understanding that this world was imagined, experienced and dismissed in less than an instant.
As mentioned previously, there are many who do not ascribe to this understanding, and it’s my hope you will agree to this project as a means of generating a thoughtful debate (4) on the subject.
It will also, I hope, provide a vehicle for advancing one of Gandhi’s cherished ideals (4) when he stated:
There is no other God than Truth … and the only means for the realization of Truth is Ahimsa … a perfect vision of Truth can only follow a complete realization of Ahimsa.(Gandhi, 1969: 565.)**
As I believe is evidentially demonstrated, I have had a lifelong interest in our essential nature as spiritual beings. It’s my hope that your websites will provide a platform to forward the ideas that I have to share in that regard and that the funding provided will allow me to devote my time, with my mentor’s input, to creating a thorough and thought-provoking article. I’m not sure what your position is on the “ownership” of what will be produced. It’s my hope that all ownership and reproduction rights beyond your websites would rest with me as the author.
James Miller
*Page 138 “Gandhi on Non-Violence (Ahisma)” by Bhuvan Chandel (on behalf of the Centre for Studies in Civilizations, Delhi, India) as it appeared in Diogenes 2017, Vol. 61(3–4) 135–142, provided for background at the recent Pedagogy of Ahisma workshop in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in June, 2024.
**Page 135 “Gandhi on Non-Violence (Ahisma)” by Bhuvan Chandel (on behalf of the Centre for Studies in Civilizations, Delhi, India) as it appeared in Diogenes 2017, Vol. 61(3–4) 135–142, provided for background at the recent Pedagogy of Ahisma workshop in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in June, 2024.