In the Ariyan Dhamma, the practice of meditation unfolds from start to finish as a process of mental purification. The consummation is reached in the complete destruction of the defilements through the cultivation of their wholesome antidotes. Finally, in the domain of wisdom the Ariyan Dhamma and the non-dual systems once again move in contrary directions. For such systems, liberation comes with the arrival at the fundamental unity in which opposites merge and distinctions evaporate like dew. Hence, to know things as they are, wisdom must respect phenomena in their precise particularity.
Wisdom leaves diversity and plurality untouched.
It instead seeks to uncover the characteristics of phenomena, to gain insight into their qualities and structures. It moves, not in the direction of an all-embracing identification with the All, but towards disengagement and detachment, release from the All. Spiritual systems are colored as much by their favourite similes as by their formulated tenets. For the non-dual systems, two similes stand out as predominant.