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Essay | Commentary
Non-Dual Awareness in The Book of Job
The Book of Job: A Journey from Dualistic Confusion to Non-Dual Realization
The Book of Job is an enigmatic text on several dimensions. At the core of the Book of Job lies the question: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Or, in the religious rendition, “Why do some of the worst things occur to those most faithful to God?” The question implies not the morality of why but the ontology or psychology of why. While the good should not be smitten by life, they routinely are.
The text does not provide any straightforward answers to these questions. Still, its contents consist of phenomenological descriptions of the state of being one is in when such questions arise in one’s spirit, which is of paramount importance. This state of being is one of anxiety and angst, or existential dread, where one’s uppermost valuations devalue themselves before one’s very eyes.
The Book of Job does not explain or answer how one might handle being in such a state. Still, it describes how certain manners of thinking and feeling within this state causally transpire for the one whose being is undergoing such thoughts and feelings.
The Book of Job –especially 40–42 — makes clear, as per the voice of God (whose praxis is…
