You hear a lot of things about duality; most of it negative. But when it comes right down to it, dudality is a very necessary part of our existence. Or rather, duality is a very necessary part of our being able to experience our existence. But what exactly IS duality?
Quite simply; duality is the act of being twofold, of each thing having an opposite.
It is the dualistic nature of the world is what allows us to exist as individuals – separate from each other; “Me” as opposed to “you.”The dualistic nature of the world is what allows us to experience one thing by comparing it and contrasting it with its opposite, ‘hot’ as opposed to ‘cold’ or ‘light’ as opposed to ‘dark’, ‘male’ as opposed to ‘female’ and even ‘living’ as opposed to ‘dead.’ Without comparisons there would BE no experience.
The very fact that we are in a physical body – a body created to experience – means that we are, physically, completely immersed in duality. It is what helps us to function, to think, to be able to disassociate ourselves from the quantum soup of possibilities form which we arose and get on with the experience of being human.
And yet – and yet – the spirit cries out for more. It cries out to be separate, yes, but still a part of something. It yearns to belong, to have a place – a purpose in something bigger than itself.
But how do you connect opposites? How do you merge light and dark? How do you combine hot and cold? To do so is to negate the light and the dark, the hot and the cold. To merge two opposites, it was argued, was to lose the integrity of both. You may have more by combining the two, but they will have lost their definition, their delineation, their ability to experience themselves AS themselves and so become (from the view of physicality) worthless.
And there were still others that argued that by combining two things together you get something more than you had to begin with – something greater than you had. That combining two opposites you entered a third, greater realm, a realm of oneness where yes, the two objects have lost their individuality, but they have but become something more than they were.
But both the idea of absolute separateness and combining opposites to become something “more” have their drawbacks; primarily that of their being both still based in duality. And neither does anything to truly satisfy the spirit’s need to belong to something greater than itself – BUT AS ITSELF.
Instead, let’s look at this from a different angle, and to do so I’m going to use an example.
It is coming on winter here in the Northern Hemisphere. Days are getting shorter and colder. All the crops have been brought in from the fields and people are unpacking their winter clothes. But in the Southern Hemisphere it is coming up on summer. The days are getting longer and hotter, the gardens reaching full bloom, the growing season is well underway and shorts and summer dresses and being worn.
Opposite sides of the same coin, yes?
Opposite sides of the same planet.
And there is the key you see, for these opposite sides of the same coin ARE part of something bigger than themselves. They are both part of the planet, even though taken separately they seem like completely separate and individual states of existence. The planet is what unites them and ties them together. It is still summer there, and winter here, but together they make up something greater than the season in their half of the hemisphere – together both hemispheres unite to create one WHOLE sphere, or the planet.
Duality combined in “oneness.”
Being a part of the “oneness” of the planet does absolutely nothing to diminish the seasons in either hemisphere; the illusion of being completely different “things” or “places.” So too, being part of the “oneness” of all that is does nothing to diminish your individuality, but merely reminds all individualities that we DO have a part in something greater than ourselves; that we DO belong. We always have.
In one form or one shape or one season or another, we always have and we always will.
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