Loibon Kali Baaba: Indigenous Non-duality

my name is preceded by title of livon which is l-o-i-b-o-n this is kimasai from east africa and it's like identifying me as a shaman or teacher or actually a medicine keeper and it's called live on my name is oldowino laitoli libaba okay it translates in two ways baba being father or teacher the red lily from the mountain that's the literal translation but the inferred meaning of that is the teacher a fount of consciousness from the ancestor so this is a very mystical name that was given to me by the maasai prior to that i was raised muslim and so i have a very very long islamic name which is sufi in in persian and arabic and base and that was my name but as a result of my growing up and different cultures and being exposed to different traditions what i do now is simply try to help people to see things from a very basic primitive tribal type of way of thinking which is not denying any philosophy it's not in opposition to any religious precept in fact it incorporates every possible way of believing or thinking but it does it in such a primitive fashion until immediately it becomes transcendent of any doctrine or dogma or set traditional way of believing my understanding is that there is no difference that's real there is a difference that's relative duality is not duality in the sense of non-duality but that's a relative definition ultimately because all there is is what is that that is cannot be divided and separated into being other than what it is so while on the relative level we need to definitely see the non to any particular precept or concept of reality okay but that's not to say that we should avoid being attached to it the problem is that we become attached to the attachment of whatever there is so then we begin to see the separate reality when in truth reality is one existence is one life is one but that oneness is so diverse and so multiple in its understanding until we have religions we have philosophies we have different sciences but there's a key in the word religion which deals with understanding duality and non-duality and that is the etymological root the etymology of the word religion meaning a prefix to do again legion is taken from the latin light l-e-g-e-r-e which literally means to rebind or to re-tie back but then the question is to what to nothing not nothing but no thing and once you say that you immediately are connected with everything it's just the limitation and the condition or qualification that we place on whatever it is that we're referring to that allows that thing to be an obstacle instead of the opportunity that it's intended to be hence the problem with religion we say that i am that i am because i am not because i am not i am all that ever was is or can ever possibly be now the way we understand that is that the i am the great i am is the state of being which is not a being but a state of being which you can call be-ness or is-ness and the i that perceives the eye is the ego and so that ego must cease to exist as real but not cease to exist would cease to exist as ultimately real and surrender to a reality greater than itself hence the i am that i am and the i which is the ego must be not and by it being not then the i am is all there is which encompasses every living thing not only the human being the animal the insect the vegetable the mineral the element the elemental without exception every star or moon or planet is part of that i am we are not generally we are not able or willing to grasp that reality that is appearing so abstract we want to anthropomorphize it we want to deify it we want to qualify it as being this and not that this is why i love the sanskrit phrase which in this conference you've heard many times neti neti but it's followed by etieti netinetti not this not that but etiety not not this and not not that so this is the problem with i me and my contrary to you your and yours it's an illusion it's a it's a state of ignorance it's advia that leads to this and it's not wrong it's not right it's not good it's not bad it's whatever it needs to be in order to bring us to where we need to be and how we need to be so the cliche is it's all good whatever it is it's okay no matter how unokay no matter how not okay it is it's okay it's a process there are no accidents ultimately there's no wrong or right i rephrase ultimately relatively there is very much that is right and wrong and we need to correct that relatively as beings living in a three-dimensional realm we can only do what we can do made up of a first and second and third dimensional reality as we get into the fourth dimensional and other dimensional realities then we find less meaning and less restrictive significance of the third dimensional reality that we are so comfortable with we are not the doer we are that which is the instrument of the doer now this brings us to understanding the difference between relative and absolute reality or relative and ultimate reality relatively we are the only doer relatively ultimately where what's done we're the instrument and that's all we are there's everything to do in fact there's even more to do we must do all we can do in every way possible to do it using whatever is available to make the change to grow to learn to evolve to involve in order that we may better evolve we must make every possible effort for that but don't be attached to your effort don't be attached to the outcome of your action selflessly egolessly act without the attachment to the result of your actions good or bad right or wrong just be the best you can be do the very best you can do nowhere because it's going everywhere mathematics explains this very beautifully in geometry there's an area of geometry that becomes meta geometry and in that you have finite numbers representing finite reality and you have infinite numbers representing an infinite reality okay one is measurable which is commensurable one is beyond measurement which is incommensurable these are represented by pi and phi this is mathematical terminology for that so that shows us that yes there is the cyanide but the finite is only part of the infinite which has no purpose it's purposeless in its purpose it's causeless in its cause it is theosophy calls this the state of sat or the state of be-ness versus a being tribal people indigenous and aboriginal people we live according to something called animism animism is well in the western world we're taught that there's animate and inanimate living and non-living animism perceives understands or believes that there is no non-living it all lives everything everything in this room is alive but then we take it another level it's not only living it's intelligent it's not only intelligent it feels it thinks it knows because it is only part of that which is and always has been you see we don't believe that there's literally any time of creation nor will there be literally any time of destruction it's all cyclic it's all cyclic and so because of that we're at peace we have an inner sense of peace and unity with everything there's no death there's only change there's no birth there's only change now i use physics to try to explain this to the western world and there i use the first law of thermodynamics which says that matter or energy can never be created or destroyed but only transformed e equals m c square all matter is energy and all energy is matter and if neither can be created or destroyed but only transformed then when does it cease to be when did it ever begin to be in tribal thinking we see life as a cycle and that cycle is the experiential cycle of the ancestor western culture calls it god other cultures call it whatever but for us it's the ancestor because the ancestor never dies it lives in fact i don't exist the ancestor is what lives i'm only the messenger i'm only the carrier of that which has come before me that's all i am see and so therefore the ego is unnecessary part of our being but it is not a part that identifies our being that is the lower ego the high regal is an ego that is an identity of all beings without exception so there's also no in tribal culture we have no sense of equality or inequality there's equanimity balance but that encompasses imbalance you cannot have the light without dark you cannot have up without down or right without left or hot or sweet without cold and sour it coexists you cannot have negation without affirmation affirmation requires negation and negation requires affirmation so what is versus what isn't it's the yin and yan it's the same not the same as same but the same as sameness see this is where we get caught up in thinking that there is a saying nothing is the same nothing is same but there is sameness you and i are different as day and night but the life is one the consciousness is one the soul is one now our process of life is to awaken to that so then the question that follows is then is there enlightenment not in the sense that we generally think of it in its true sense of being in the light enlightenment is being in the light well all there is is light which is not separate from darkness so it's nothing to achieve there's nothing to acquire there's nothing to accomplish we are that the only process is to realize that to become aware and then to accept it to accept it and then live it that's the challenge is to live what we are to live who and what we are it's not that we have to become anything and those that refuse to live or to learn it those that refuse to be it they're expendable as it was once said by a great teacher if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem the other half of what he said was i'm talking of malik shabazz which is commonly known as malcolm x the other part of that which people don't want to remember is that he said if you are to liberate you need to educate so education feeds liberation but if one chooses and refuses to not be educated and hence does not accept being liberated then that person must be eliminated by any means necessary now that's hardcore that sounds cruel but it's the law of nature anything that threatens the survival of the whole is compromising the existence of the whole and therefore it's expendable there are two principles that govern the universe universal law and universal order any person place or thing that breaks and refuses to abide by universal law not man law universal law is inevitably destroyed by universal order you want to see verification of this you want to see the proof of this turn on nature channel turn on national geographic and watch what the animals do watch how nature preserves itself then we say oh well yeah but we're we're human beings they're animals are we superior no no there is no superior or inferior except what the ego wants to identify it's language or barrier in tribal society no because we don't depend on language we simply depend on the experience which is the language for us it's not a verbal communication but it is a living translation of reality we live it you know we we envelop ourselves so deeply into the process of living until there is no interpretation there is no translation necessary you experience it whether it's hunting and gathering or dealing with what is called death it's the same to us it's all a ritual it's all ceremony which is why some of us in the tribal or in the indigenous community live the way we live and do the things we do hence head hunting had hunting cannibalism circumcision male and female these things are very difficult to explain to the western mind because it's so primal and basic in its reasoning and in its function that the western mind in its positivistic thinking its pragmatic practical logical way of looking at it its linear and empirical way of understanding finds it very very difficult to understand tribal ways of life and that's what i'm here for is to try to break those barriers of communication to try to find a way to translate that which is not translatable to share that which is almost impossible to share without the experience but i tried to find a way to still help people to relate if not to accept to at least appreciate and to not judge and to not deem as evil or negative or less civilized cultured or less purposeful or meaningful that's my job you see an insect like the praying mantis when they copulate and at the end of their copulation she decapitates the male the black widow spider she conceives and when the eggs hatch she feeds the male to the eggs to the young hatchlings this is nature's way of preserving and maintaining the psyche for the benefit of the whole at the price of the one or the few now in tribal culture the way that we think is very primitive in the sense that it's very primal for survival and it's the survival of the whole that is most important every individual is a potential sacrifice for the benefit the well-being and the health of the whole now this is kind of like a general understanding amongst indigenous people to the point to where when we have our tribal conflicts we go into conflict without trying to avert being killed we go into the conflict to kill but if we are killed the exhilaration of acceptance is almost as great in fact it's greater than if we do the killing because when we are killed we are sacrificing our individuality to become one with the ancestral totality of existence which sustains everything so this is the greatest honor it's an honor to join the ancestors you see and so our head is taken back to the village of the taker it's ceremonially decorated and kept into the main living space of the family of the taker and in some cases the head elder of the family sleeps on the skull as a pillow to absorb all of the energy because the life force energy is still there and that life force energy sustains life it feeds life life seeds life death is part of life it's a cycle the cyclic aspect of life but when that head is taken the liver or the heart is also eaten to carry on the dna the stamina the strength of that great warrior that just sacrificed his physical being because the life force is seen to be one and in that same sense when we kill an animal our thinking is that i take you today you take me tomorrow and as we take each other we join together in the great ancestral kingdom of life itself so there's no superior or inferior there's no taker or taken this is the way we think this is the way we think and it has many ramifications it has to do with the way we live the way we die the ceremonial way that we deal with the dead and the living the way we deal with the ecology that they the way that we totally see an inseparateness of i and me and my and you and your and yours so it's an honor whatever we do to each other it's a privilege totally different way of thinking you