Stop trusting your mind

The most urgent and dangerous existential risks all exist due to the presence of unskillful and untrained human minds on this planet. Almost nobody wishes for a nuclear apocalypse, and if there were no human minds on this planet then there would be no risk of a nuclear apocalypse. This doesn’t mean the human mind is bad, but we should pause before trying to use the untrained human mind to fix the problems of our age.

So many before us have tried to use the untrained mind to fix the problems of their age, and the net result is the situation that we find ourselves in today, in which we are at greater risk of destroying ourselves and all life on Earth than ever before. This should give us pause before trying the exact thing that has been failing for so many millenia, namely using the untrained mind to fix problems.

Instead, we should identify the root of the problem inside the human mind, address it there, uncover a new kind of mind, and then resolve the problems of our age from a place of surrender and harmony.

The practical recommendation is: if you think you’re righting the wrongs of the world, but haven’t done the deep internal work to be absolutely sure of the trustworthiness of your own mind, then consider that you may be unconsciously causing the wrongs of the world. Next, stop doing what you’re doing and find a community of people who know how to train a trustworthy mind. Finally, return to addressing the problems of our age, this time resolving them at their root.