Can non-duality be applied practically to improve people’s lives?

Photo by Simon Shim on Unsplash

Absolutely! There are many ways non-dual can be practically applied to improve our lives. I will highlight one example.

Everyone has heard of the Golden Rule — treat others how you’d like to be treated. The one thing about the Golden Rule is oftentimes people interpret it to mean we should treat others well. But it’s actually not saying that. It’s saying expect to be treated how you treat others. If you want to to be treated well, then you must treat others well. If you wanted to be treated poorly, then treat others poorly.

This idea actually points to non-duality. Why? Because the Golden Rule reveals there’s some relationship to how we treat the world, and how the world treats us. Think about it like this: if you only feed the body junkfood, the body is going to “treat” you poorly, meaning the body isn’t going to serve you in the way you want it to. It’s not going to function optimally.

In the same way, when we treat the world poorly, were literally feeding ourselves (the world) junkfood. So then of course the world “treats” us poorly back. Why does it work like this? Because the World is of us. There’s no separation between the world that appears and us — the world that appears within us the consciousness.