This is a series of videos on how Nonduality and Native wisdom intersect. We’ve gone through some interesting points. We’ve been talking about how language works in our heads, how our thoughts actually are language. We’ve looked at history and how these long ago stories make up our worldview and inform us of who we think we are as human beings. Who we think we are as human beings, then, creates the type of spirituality that various cultures have.
Spirituality creates the culture, and culture creates the spirituality. It can be a loop. The world spiritual we inhabit can be an attempt to reconcile beliefs with reality, and it can also be an intimate sharing with the reality around us. Spiritual unity would exist in a unified culture. Spiritual duality would exist in a dual culture.
When I say that Nonduality and Native wisdom intersect, I am not saying that they’re the same thing. In Nonduality, we’re not supposed to talk about the fact that there might two things in the world. But that’s nonsense. The cultural/spiritual connection is an example of two very distinct different things.
Native wisdom comes from native cultures which have not been infected by what we call civilization. Nonduality comes from a culture that is extremely hierarchical. This fixed hierarchy is clearly the opposite of native wisdom. So, I’m not saying that there’s something similar about the two. I’m talking about how they intersect in the context of how we can get ourselves out of our fixed dualistic thinking.
What I mean is that native wisdom shows us our potential; who we could be. We have beautiful philosophers and writers coming forward now and bringing this native wisdom to us. It’s like a waterfall. A volcano of information is starting to bloom forth from the current generation of native communities. Native wisdom is telling us how we can live our fullest potential.
Nonduality is a tool that comes from a broken society. Let’s be honest. Take a look at the societies that nondual teachings come from, and you’ll find a brutally hierarchical society. Women are treated terribly. The horrors of the caste system are incredible. In the Hindu tradition you have fixed levels of people. You can’t move from level to level in one lifetime. You’re born into something and that’s where you stay. There is a whole philosophy that says, ‘The rich deserve to be rich’ or ‘The poor deserve to be poor.’ It’s a society with tremendous suffering in it.
Notice that one of the basic philosophies of Nonduality, as it is typically given to us, is how to step out of suffering, how to stop suffering even though your society is horrible. We’re back to my first point where I was saying that spirituality creates the culture. We can even say that spirituality allows cultures to be horrible by keeping the people in control. Without this kind of drug, without people trying and trying and trying to become enlightened so that they’re not suffering anymore they wouldn’t be willing to tolerate the society.
These are two very different things: native spirituality and the Hinduism that Nonduality comes from. The reason I say it’s important to look at where these two things intersect is that Nonduality is the key of to we can get back into this native worldview. Hopefully you’ve noticed this thread going through all of my videos. The big difference is getting over the lie that comes from the Nonduality world that attaining enlightenment is really hard to do, because that’s part of what keeps that society in slavery.
Imagine if the entire Hindu world came from a worldview that enlightenment was not only easy and simple to attain, but that it was your birthright. Imagine if everyone was born into amazing enlightened families, enlightened societies and that’s where they lived their lives. That would be a totally different place.
I’m wanting to get rid of this one lie that opening up to the nondual state is hard to do. Then, with the blinders off, look at Nonduality and go, is this a useful technique?
The answer is, yes. It’s an extremely useful technique. Basically what Nonduality says is that there is not two beings inside you. In the full wide world there are tons of things. There’s me and there’s you, we’re both different people. There’s you and there’s that other guy, totally different people. There are millions of plants and animals. There are rocks and trees and buildings. But… there are not two beings inside you. You don’t have a happy person and a sad person inside there. You don’t have a smart one and a dumb one. You don’t have the voice of your mother and the voice of your father as living entities stuck inside your head. All those things are not you. There’s only one you.
A perfect example is the story of Eckhart Tolle reaching enlightenment. He was very, very depressed. He’s getting ready to commit suicide, and he thinks, ‘I can’t take myself anymore.’ He suddenly stopped and goes, “Wait, how many are in here? ‘I’ can’t take ‘myself’ anymore? Wait. Two selves don’t exist. All that’s in here is just me. I’m the only thing in here.” He stepped into himself. He became the one looking and the false dropped away. With it went all the depression and angst.
This is the key of Nonduality. It show us that we can very quickly drop this false self.
I’m trying to describe this false self not as some weird thing that’s captured you in some way (ego), but as the conditionings that you have been given by your society. That’s what the false self is. It’s the ‘idea’ of you that has replaced the real you. It’s simply a tape recorder of language going over and over and over in your head telling you who you are… when you aren’t any of that.
There is only one person alive in each of us. I’m me, you’re you. The simplest, easiest concept in the whole world. Once you can really grasp that, ‘Oh, I’m me,’ now you can start making sane choices. You can go, ‘Okay… what in our current worldview is going to serve us? What is based on reality’ There are lots of things you are going to see and go, ‘Wait a minute, that doesn’t make sense,’ because now you’ve stepped into this place where your selfishness is gone. It’s not necessary. The actual you is this blend of everything in the world.
So… what’s going to most serve all of us?
I’m saying native wisdom is what it is.
I’m also saying that reading native wisdom from our currently divided state is not going to step us completely from that state. It’s going to become another story that is interpreted by your worldview. You can sit down and study native wisdom, but you’re going to spin around in circles trying to figure out what it means. You’re going to put hundreds and thousands of misinterpretations on top of it unless you do this non-duality work to clear yourself of the addiction to the current mind that has been conditioned all the civilized stories you’ve been told.
You have to be willing to sit in a place of zero in order to let this new information really come in. And then start figuring out, okay, so now what do we do? What do you want? What do you and I do now about this? How do we meet? How do we live in our world?
So, I’m talking about how Native wisdom and Nonduality intersect. I’m not talking about how they’re already the same. Hope that makes a little sense.