We’ve been talking about the intersection of Nonduality (enlightenment teachings) and Native spirituality. I’d like to start painting a new picture. Imagine a monastery in a world that is full of integrated people and full of women. What’s it going to be like?
Very different, I hope, than our stuck-up idea of spirituality that we have today. No rows of monks walking around slowly with their hands tucked up their sleeves, eyes rolled back in meditation. No. It would be full of children running around, screaming, throwing balls, laughing, getting their knees scraped, being held, being kissed. It would be full of everybody: everyone would be cooking, everyone would be chatting and talking and getting along. Imagine if everyone was safe from each other because everyone was trustworthy. This would be a very, very different world than what we have now.
This is a totally different vision of spirituality than what we have now.
It would be noisy, it would be dirty, kids running around. It would be exciting; there’d be music, everyone would be playing music. People would be knitting stuff and sewing stuff. People would be digging ditches and building walls. There would be all sorts of things going on: growing gardens, dancing in the evenings. It would be real people.
This is a vision of how nonduality and Native spirituality can intersect, because both of them are talking about the true, fully awake human being. Both of them are talking about a deep interconnectedness so deep that in nonduality, you cannot even say ‘I became enlightened.’ This is because when that separate thing goes away, and what’s left over is this totally interconnected, trustworthy, honest being.
This is a very, very different vision than what we see in our typical enlightenment stories.
Sometimes I’ve really got to question why people are studying nonduality! What is it everyone think’s gonna happen?
Are we going to end up just sitting around? No, not if women are around and if there’s babies. When women are there everybody’s an aunt, everybody’s a grandma. There are mothers, yes, but it’s not like a person is going to be having babies all the time, right? Children come from everywhere: cousins, friends, visitors. Adults are everywhere and there is always going to be someone to care for, someone to do the caring. Women taking care of men, men taking care of women, everybody taking care of the babies. Chaos and confusion and fun, really good food, living in harmony with the Earth, with each other.
This is the vision, this is the story I want to tell.