Non-duality is a funny teaching. It’s this huge, complex, body of work full of teachers, and philosophies that are teaching us that reality is reality; thoughts are thoughts; a giraffe is a giraffe; a thought about a giraffe is a thought about a giraffe; an emotion is an emotion. It’s like, wow! We have to be taught this!
Okay, but yes we do. Because we have gotten so mixed up.
We are not taught from the very first day of our lives that reality is reality; and imagination is imagination; and I am me; and you are you; and everything is connected; and that the way I behave matters; and the way you behave matters; and that we belong to a society.
These things are so obvious when you look straight at them. But we don’t look straight. Instead we’re taught things like: you’re special, you’re beautiful, you’re strong. We are taught all these things that make you separate from everything else.
You’re strong. Boys are taught this, right? Actually they’re taught: be strong. You’re supposed to be strong. So, that means first of all… you’re not good enough. Second: there’s strong people and there’s weak people. Division.
Girls are taught you are beautiful. Maybe you’re not that beautiful? Even if you are, that separates. You got the beautiful girls and you got the unbeautiful girls.
So if you just go through the list and list all the things that we are taught in our western society about who we are? It’s all about division.
Us – them. Us – them. Even as groups we’re taught separation.
Say you live in New York City… then your identity is “I’m a New Yorker.” Say you live in the United States, “I’m a patriot.”
All the things that we’re taught, and the way we are taught, increases the level of division that we feel inside ourselves. It causes confusion. Then the mind tries to reconcile the confusion through more of the same type of thinking.
The counterpoint is Non-duality, this huge philosophy teaching us that a thought is a thought; an emotion is an emotion; a tree is a tree; a thought about a tree is a thought about a tree; when things happen to you that thing just happened to you; who you are matters and what the way you respond to life matters.
Our tendency is to always internalize it and turn it into a fixed thing. And again the counterpoint of non-duality teaches that there is not two. So yeah, non-duality is this really really funny thing.
It’s hugely useful, but odd when you stand back and look at it.
We need constantly to remember that there is not two; everything is one. If we always talked this way, if this was in our language, if this was the way we responded to each other all the time, the way we were taught from when we were young, we would be in a completely different world.
We’re part of everything. Everything is connected. You’re not specialer than anybody else. You’re not less special. Non of that matters. What matters is connection.
You’re not more beautiful or less beautiful than anyone else. What matters is how do you interact with things. You don’t have to always be strong, but it is good to value strength.
So non-duality is teaching us to really start looking at life through a new interpretation of how it is and who we are.
It’s really useful to think of these things every day. Don’t get caught up into all the crazy. I mean there are so many non-duality teachings that are just like “whoo-hooo!” You can easily tell the difference. When you listen to a good teaching it strikes a chord and gives a simple, “Yes.” Just like when you see a tree, you’re like, “Oh a tree.” Normal, simple, beautiful.
When someone says something like, “Your thought is your thought. It is simply a thought.” And if you have a response of, “Well of course it is.” Then that’s a good day.
If you hear a teaching that says, “An emotion it’s just an emotion.” And you think, “Well yeah, that’s true. But what does that mean? How do I live with that. When a huge emotion comes up do I suppress this emotion or can I look at it look directly? Can I look at it like it’s simply a thing?” Then that is inquiry.
You can look directly at your ego. It is just a thing. You can look at it directly just the same as you can look at a tree. You can look at the hard things, like global warming. It’s happening. Don’t avoid it. Look at it. It’s a thing it exists.
Look at our societal problems. If you look directly at it now, then how do you respond?
So yeah non-duality is a funny teaching because when you start grasping it, and thinking what does it mean that there aren’t two things happening?
First of all when you really see it you always laugh. It’s like well of course there’s not two things happening. How could there be? But second of all, how does that make you more integrated in the world?