Comparative Framework of Non-Dual Teachings
Meditation & Practice
• Adyashanti: True meditation is allowing everything; no control, no technique, just radical surrender.
• Rupert Spira: Meditation is being aware of being aware; resting as awareness itself.
• Eckhart Tolle: The practice is presence: stepping out of thought into the Now.
• Nisargadatta Maharaj: Meditation is unnecessary; just hold to the sense 'I Am' until its source is revealed.
• Krishnamurti: No system or method; meditation is choiceless awareness of what is.
• Papaji (Poonja): No practice at all; realization is instant when you see who you are.
• Francis Bennett: Silent prayer/awareness as God’s presence; Christian contemplative approach.
• Marshall Davis: Christian centering awareness: resting in Christ as non-dual presence.
The Self & Identity
• Adyashanti: The “meditator” is an illusion; the true self is the open field of awareness.
• Spira: The separate self is just thoughts/feelings; our real nature is self-aware consciousness.
• Tolle: The ego is identification with thought; the true self is presence.
• Nisargadatta: The 'I Am' is the doorway; ultimately, even this dissolves into the Absolute.
• Krishnamurti: The 'self' is psychological conditioning; freedom is when this conditioning ends.
• Papaji: The self you think you are does not exist; you are always the Self (capital S).
• Francis Bennett: False self is ego; true self is Christ in you, the indwelling divine.
• Marshall Davis: Our identity is hidden with Christ in God; the “separate Christian self” is illusion.
Suffering & Transformation
• Adyashanti: Suffering arises from resisting life; allowing everything leads to liberation.
• Spira: Suffering is identification with a separate self; dissolves in recognition of awareness.
• Tolle: The 'pain-body' feeds on resistance; presence disarms it.
• Nisargadatta: Suffering comes from mistaken identity; know the Self and be free.
• Krishnamurti: Psychological suffering is created by thought/time; ends in direct awareness.
• Papaji: Suffering is a dream; realize your nature and it evaporates instantly.
• Francis Bennett: Suffering refines us; surrendering to God’s presence transforms it.
• Marshall Davis: Suffering is the cross; resurrection is non-dual awakening to Christ’s life.
Death & Mortality
• Adyashanti: Death is release of the personal; awareness remains.
• Spira: Awareness is never absent; birth and death are appearances within it.
• Tolle: Death is dissolving into timeless presence; only ego fears it.
• Nisargadatta: You were never born; how can you die?
• Krishnamurti: Living without psychological time is dying to the self in each moment.
• Papaji: No birth, no death; realization ends all fear.
• Francis Bennett: Death is union with eternal life in God, already present now.
• Marshall Davis: Death is not loss but unveiling; we already live in eternal Christ.
Love & Compassion
• Adyashanti: True meditation reveals natural compassion and intimacy with life.
• Spira: Love is recognition of shared being; beauty is the transparency of objects to awareness.
• Tolle: Love arises when presence dissolves ego boundaries.
• Nisargadatta: Love is natural once the false 'I' dissolves.
• Krishnamurti: Love is not desire or attachment but arises in freedom from self.
• Papaji: In truth there is only love, because there is only the Self.
• Francis Bennett: God is love; awakening is experiencing divine love at the core.
• Marshall Davis: Love is Christ’s life shining through us when separation ends.
Truth & Awakening
• Adyashanti: Enlightenment is seeing things as they are, not an achievement.
• Spira: Awakening is recognition that everything is made of awareness.
• Tolle: Awakening is living fully in the Now.
• Nisargadatta: Awakening is abiding in the Absolute beyond even 'I Am.'
• Krishnamurti: Awakening is freedom from conditioning and time.
• Papaji: Awakening is instant; no path, no practice.
• Francis Bennett: Awakening is realizing Christ-consciousness as our true nature.
• Marshall Davis: Awakening is the gospel rediscovered: Christ and you are not-two.
Key Insight
All these teachers point to the same reality: what we are is
timeless awareness, love, and presence.
- Spira/Tolle highlight recognition.
- Adyashanti/Krishnamurti highlight surrender and freedom from control.
- Nisargadatta/Papaji highlight radical directness.
- Bennett/Davis highlight Christian non-dual expressions.