Nonduality

I sometimes used to ask myself if I should strive to be part of the force for change. But that's not really the point, I don't think.

The Unbroken Line
Thoughts on Nondual Activism

Dustin LindenSmith

Just watched a good movie called U-571 about submarines in WWII. Made me think about life as being a rough ride on a choppy sea, alternating between confusion, frustration, ambivalence, and peace; I try to focus on the peace most often.

This really is a dream. It has been hitting me hard, that fact, this week. It's an interesting question, that: what body, what consciousness, is dreaming this dream? Whatever that body is, it seems incontrovertible that it originates from a single source. If everyone was aware of that reality (irrespective of such inanities as race or religion), I imagine that the world would be a pretty different place. I think that might be what nondual activism means.

Social activism from the nondual perspective: what a profound and potentially effective concept. Activism borne not out of pursuit of a common goal, but rather out of abidance in a shared understanding and awareness of a universal reality. Environmental health because our own health is directly shared and interdependent with it.

One day, maybe not quite in our lifetimes, it will actually become essential for us to change our societal values in order to guarantee our very survival. I sometimes used to ask myself if I should strive to be part of the force for change. But that's not really the point, I don't think.

Doing your own part is actually the only (and the most effective) activism there is. It's great if you can play a supportive role to help others participate, but if you're doing your own part, then you're the greatest social and environmental activist there is.

In the short term, is there a business opportunity lurking about in there somewhere? Some portal to purchase environmentally-friendly products, to learn about everyday practices we can each undertake to do our own parts? What about a web-based car pooling site? Something to help people share rides, pick up people going to other places when you're driving somewhere alone?

I think we're all like one of those drawings you make when you're a kid where you never lift your pen from the page - one unbroken line, each object in the world connected in some way to the next, and so on. Doesn't that make sense?