As we continue working through this idea of how to find a harmonious intersection between native wisdom and nonduality, I hope that you’re starting to see that nonduality is a bigger, riper, more robust philosophy than we are typically given in nondual studies.
Nondual teachings can seem very dry and obscure. But what we’re looking for is how to become this fully awake human being in the here and now. We’re not trying to become a fully awake human being back in the 1700s or even back in the 1920s when many of our popular teachers were around. We’re talking here and now in the amazingly complex and interconnected world we have. We’re talking a world of rock and roll, and all different kinds of people. We’re talking human beings coming together with our extensive ways to travel, with our education, with the information that we have available to us, with the internet, with YouTube videos. This is an amazingly complex interconnected world that we’re living in, and we’re participating in the here and now.
Bring native wisdom into this so that we can start creating ways to live that are sustainable with the whole earth. We don’t have to tear down everything that exists; we simply have to take what we’re doing and turn it into a beautifully sustainable way of life. We can create a way of life that’s always moving because as human beings, we’re very, very capable of creating things. It’s easy to create things that are damaging. So we have to get ourselves into this place that’s fluid and intelligent and brings forth our entire creative being to be here.
Nonduality is this incredibly ripe awake state that we are looking for. We are not going to all turn into disassociated people who just sit there staring at their bellybutton, right? Can’t do it; we’re needed in this world. The actual non-dual state is a ripe fullness that we can all participate in. It’s the relationship of us to everything else, the living reality that is left when concepts are gone.
Movement is part of it. Full vision is the key—this state is a fully ripe and awake place.
This is what you’re looking for inside of yourself too. You’re not looking for a dead spot inside of you where everything stops and it’s still. Life moves! Your mind can’t be still, your heart’s still beating, your breath is still going.
In this state the mind doesn’t go still; your mind is still moving but you are still as things happen around you, and you’re not being swayed back and forth by the false. Being swayed back and forth by the false turns us into uselessness. If at every moment you’re buffeted around, swayed around then you can’t go in the direction of harmony.
With Nonduality and enlightenment teachings we’re looking for this solid core of being that exists inside. This dynamic rich fullness that makes us human.
As we move along through our talks now on intersecting native wisdom with nonduality I’m going to get into some specific steps. How do we take nonduality teachings and really use them to get ourselves into this state, so we can start participating in the world with this full worldview that comes from native wisdom.