One can discover in Bishop George Berkeley–and it’s the writings of Greg Goode that pointed me in this direction–the basic elements of a nondual metaphysics. Obviously, he was a theist, but his ontology can arguably lend itself to a proto-nondualist interpretation.

These basic elements are: ideas, finite minds, and God’s Infinite Mind. Below, I’ll add “God’s Body” to the set.

1. All ideas (i.e., experiences) occur in finite minds. This means that perceiving (“the world”), sensing (“the body”), and thinking and imagining (“the mind” narrowly construed) are all occurring within the finite mind, broadly construed.

2. Each finite mind is a modulation, in temporary name and form, of God’s Infinite Mind.

3. To perceive ideas, God’s Infinite Mind “turns outward” in the mode of the Witness.

4. Therefore, all there ultimately is in this nondual ontology is Infinite Mind. Ideas and finite minds are reducible to the Infinite Mind.

5. One would need to add “God’s Body,” which would be understood as the universe (or universes), to the elements that Berkeley provides.

5. Then God’s Body, which is just the vibration of God’s Infinite Mind and which is known as manifestation, would, so far as the waking state of finite mind is concerned, function in accordance with certain Laws of Nature. These laws could help to explain how there can be regular occurrences or appearances of certain ideas–for instance, why John’s finite mind, in the waking state, leaves his car in the garage the night before and finds it in the same place the following day. (A different set of laws would obtain in the case of the dream state.)

6. Of course, “car” is just a conventionally agreed upon bundle of ideas: of certain colors, shapes, textures, sounds, and so on. Ditto all other so-called ordinary objects.

7. Among the many unconventional consequences of such an ontology is that there are no mind-independent objects that have an independent existence. Instead, all ideas, regardless of content, are intermittently appearing and disappearing. There are also no independent subjects, or finite minds; that is, there are no independently existing selves. However, for those who have meditated for a while, there’s nothing at all surprising about this: every experience rises and falls, and the apparently separate (or ego) self is likewise nothing but a temporary expression of God’s Infinite Mind.