The number two thing to avoid is other seekers. This may sound totally crazy because—I mean, it’s better to be in community, right? But avoid talking about what you think nonduality is. That’s a trap. So maybe I should say that the number two thing to avoid is conversations with other seekers.
Two things will happen if you’re constantly having conversations with other seekers. One: you’re going to try to put your opinion in there. If you start thinking that your opinion is correct, you’re going to destroy yourself because now you’re going to be stuck on that opinion… particularly if everybody agrees with you. If you say something wonderful, something that you learned about spirituality, and everybody else is like, ‘You’re so wonderful, that’s so fabulous,’ now you’re going to start thinking that you’re wonderful and fabulous. Don’t ever do anything to take away the emptiness of not knowing.
The other thing that can happen in conversations is that people say this thing and that thing and this thing and that thing and it just turns into a big description of something that can’t be described. This is so bad in nonduality.
It’s a simple fact that people who don’t understand the nondual state don’t understand it. (Duh), people who are not in the non-dual state, are in a dual state. If you are in the dual state everything you talk about, think about, write about, read about is coming from this divided perception. The tool of nonduality is to say, ‘No, that’s not it. No, that’s not it. No, that’s not it.’ It’s not much of a conversation.
Imagine sitting around with a whole bunch of nonduality seekers and everybody’s just like, ‘Nope, you’re wrong. Nope, you’re wrong.’
Come to think of it, however… that is actually what they do, isn’t it? [Laughter]
The other problem is, say you actually heard the truth of reality expressed well from someone who knows what they are talking about. Say you’re actually with an enlightened master? Then you go off and have lunch with all the other seekers. You guys are going to sit around and interpret what you just heard… and you’re going to interpret it wrong, because dual is always dual. You’re gonna get it wrong but you’re going to believe yourselves more than you believe the teacher you’re listening to. Your interpretation is going to fit in your worldview and make more sense. So you’ll erase the teaching you just heard.
There’s no way that you can completely avoid other seekers because we need to be in community, we need to be helping each other, but take it all with a grain of salt, particularly the things that you believe.
Sidebar: the second you set yourself up as a spiritual teacher, you completely stop your own development because you now have something that you have to stick to. As soon as you start believing that you can teach other people, you completely stop your own development at that level because you cannot overcome yourself. You’re not going to challenge yourself, you’re going to be stuck in the non-dual state. Don’t do it, okay?
Back to my main point however: This is a series on the intersection of native wisdom and nonduality. I’m saying you can get there, wait till you get there. I’m not asking you to wait lifetimes… but give it a few weeks at least. Yes?