Don’t let non-duality make you stupid.
You had to click on that one, right? And you’re probably sitting there poised, ready to click down and leave some comments to straighten me out.
“But wait,” she says. I would like to invite you to follow the link that I have put in below this video and check out some wisdom from a Navajo Native American Elder who is talking about the way he was taught to use his mind as a small child.
He goes on and on about the importance of learning things and of using your mind correctly. This is a very deeply understood non-dual statement.
Now, in non-duality, we get mixed up really easily. We start thinking that we’re saying we’re not two that we are nothing.
‘You are not your mind.’
It’s not saying that you don’t have a mind or that mind doesn’t exist; it’s saying that you are not your mind. Your mind is something that you can control; your mind is something. It’s a tool that you have. You should use this tool that has been given to you. Use it in the very best way that you possibly can. It is like an information black hole; you can put information in, and put information in with no end.
You can actually use your mind in a way so you can remember things better. There’s also ways you can use your mind where you can picture the whole universe and put it together, and intertwine things together and understand them in new ways.
So don’t let non-duality make you stupid. Don’t fall for the trap that your mind is not something that’s worth having.
Or worse, to make you think that your mind doesn’t even exist at all. “I’m in the state of no mind. I am the I am. I am not this, I am not that.”
You know, you can just go crazy by understanding the principles of non-duality wrong. You are not your mind; that doesn’t mean that your mind doesn’t exist.
It also doesn’t mean that you don’t exist, and that’s the other thing people do. ‘I am not my mind, I am drifting into the cosmos.’
No. You exist. Your mind exists. I exist.
Please, I do!
Don’t treat other people like they don’t exist. Don’t treat existence like it doesn’t exist. Don’t treat the Earth like it doesn’t exist, like it doesn’t matter. It does, it exists. Your mind does exist.
You are not your mind, and that’s really good news because that means that you can, on purpose, master your mind. You are not your imagination. You can use your imagination with a high level of self-mastery. You can create things, you can think about things, you can contemplate things, you can talk back and forth with other people and take ideas and make them better.
You can actually sit and learn things. We live in a society where every single piece of human wisdom is out there available somewhere. You’ll never learn it all, but you can learn the very, very most that you can.
Listen to this video:
Wally talks very specifically about using your mind in order to become the very best person that you can. So you can take care of your family. So you can take care of yourself. So you can do your job.
If you really see your mind as a fabulous tool, then you’re going to want to use it to the very best of its ability in your job. Get a really difficult job and excel at it.
You’re also not your body, right? But you can use your body and you can keep your body healthy. You’re not your emotions, but you can use your emotions to understand the world and to connect with other people.
So don’t let non-duality, your ideas about non-duality, make you stupid. Use all of these teachings to fully enhance yourself into the most fabulous, most reliable, smartest person that you can possibly be.
So watch Wally’s video and then go read a really difficult book, maybe watch a few documentaries. Use non-duality and your spirituality to make yourself brilliant.”