We live in a polarized world.
We live in a world increasingly polarized, where differing opinions are met with hostility rather than understanding.
But what if there’s a different way? What if we could transcend the limitations of dualistic thinking and approach politics with compassion and clarity?
Nonduality is something realized when we directly experience who we are beyond name and form. The ancient traditions call this by many names — Samadhi, Moksha, Liberation, the Kingdom of God.
Through deep inner inquiry, we come to see the biases and attachments of our own characters and our own filters. We will naturally transform our understanding of politics and promote a more harmonious world.
Nonduality is realized by dropping identification with the characters we have been playing and directly awakening to our true nature, which is something that can’t be described in words or understood analytically.
Samadhi is waking up from the delusion that we are separate, independent entities, and there is a direct knowing that everything is part of a unified whole.
The wisdom of the third Zen patriarch offers a profound insight into the nature of non-dualism. He famously stated: The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.
When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for or against anything. To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind.
Preferences are at the root of the ego — the root of the “I” thought — and by their very nature create division. They establish a hierarchy of values and are at the root of all violence. Egoic thought, by its nature, is violence, and it is preferences which fuel conflict when those egoic outcomes are not realized.
Non-preference doesn’t mean apathy or indifference. It means approaching situations with an open mind and a willingness to accept what is. This allows us to see things more clearly, without the distortions of our own biases and desires.
When everyone drops their own egoic agenda, then life flows more freely. Some misinterpret this teaching as a call for detachment that could lead to indifference or apathy. Critics will say it is important to care deeply about certain values and to advocate for them. But this is a profound misunderstanding of the path of awakening.
When we drop our own egoic agenda and our own biases, then action flows from a place of true compassion and love rather than focusing on what is just for one’s own benefit. To love is to be one with.
And it is to humble the egoic mind. The Great Way involves bringing the typically unconscious human ego into awareness. It’s about recognizing the dualistic mechanism that binds the sense of self to the world of form and perpetuates suffering through these attachments.
There is a saying: “What you resist persists.” Where attention goes, energy flows. By resisting anything in our inner or outer world, we give strength to the ego. It is foolish to resist what is, because it already is. We just add more suffering if we resist it. The first step to liberation is to see the madness of resisting something that already is.
It was the German philosopher Hegel who said, “Evil resides in the very gaze which perceives evil all around itself.” When we label ourselves as good and others as evil, we create an inner and outer resistance and cultivate egoic attachment, empowering our own ego. We become the very thing that we resist.
Likewise, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.” Anything and anyone you push away becomes a source of inner struggle — a kind of shadow within that will continue to follow you until you turn the light of consciousness on.
Instead of trying to eliminate people and things that are uncomfortable, you accept them — not by giving them control, but by welcoming them with openness and understanding. Through this acceptance, they lose their power over you, transforming into energies you can access and comprehend. They become a natural part of the full experience of being conscious, alive, and present.
In this way, all aspects of yourself come back together, harmonizing into a unified whole.
We don’t see things in the world as they are; we see them as we are. When we change ourselves, we change the world we perceive. Emotional and spiritual maturity involves reconnecting every part of yourself, leaving nothing ignored, denied, or hidden — allowing for true wholeness.
The pathless path to liberation for all is for each individual to know themselves, and by awakening to their true nature, to see that true nature in everyone and in all things.
