Musings on Duality...

Having had this conversation elsewhere, a few times actually, I thought I'd muse a bit on it here as well ...

So what IS duality?

Duality is the belief in a power of good, and a power of evil ... most
traditionally seen as the "battle" between God and the devil.

But the battle is all in our minds ...

It also breaks down into the insistence of seeing things as polar (& competing) opposites, i.e., black/white, up/down, hot/cold, right/wrong, in/out, included/excluded, painful/joyous, acceptable/unacceptable, brokenness/wholeness, me/you, heaven/earth, life/death, and so on ...

But what if, rather than being opposites (& thus in competition), what we really have is a display of a spectrum ... a continuum of the same thing, depending on our perspective when we see/experience it..?

What if we're meant to see these as two sides of the "same coin," and that both to be understood, appreciated, and even embraced, in order to enhance and bring meaning to the human experience...? For how do we learn what something is, until we've experienced what something is not?

Ponder these quotes for a moment:

“When you make the two one, and when you make the inner as the outer and the outer as the inner, and the above as the below, and when you make the male and female into a single one, then shall you enter the Kingdom.” Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas

“The human mind rarely sees beyond these opposites to the Greater Unity that necessitates them. But the mind can awaken to Greater Unity, and in this lies the purpose of Creation and of humankind.” Reb Yerachmiel ben Yisrael

“The creating intelligence must become what it creates if it is to fully express its own non-duality.” Laurence Freeman in Jesus, the Teacher Within

As I now see it, and as I find affirmed in scripture, there is One Power, and
that is God ... God is good, God is love. God is all in all. God created all
things, including humans with a penchant to "fall" (& I now believe that the
fall was necessary) ... and God called all that He had made "good", even "very
good" (& He never took it back).

And all things work together for my good -- no matter how I may perceive them and judge them at the time (for my perception is very, very limited and skewy). I notice that the way in which I perceive/judge a thing (or a person), is the determining factor in the way in which I then experience a thing (or a person)

Any other "power" is only in my mind ... and I can project that "power" out, and "see" it and experience it (and we see the effect of this in the world around us -- the collective belief in evil creates manifestations of evil.) As a man thinks in his own heart so IS he. Jesus says that evil comes out of our own hearts (or "unrenewed minds"). What comes INTO us doesn't affect us, but what comes OUT of us can defile us.

If we believe lies, the lies will seem like "truth" to us.

I see that the belief in duality (seeing more than one power), is to go against
the first commandment ... the Lord our God is ONE - beside Him there is no
other. In choosing to see a world filled with duality, we are creating the mental image (an "engraved" image in our minds - or, an idol, if you will). On that foundation will be built much (all!) shame, guilt, pain, suffering, and the very human vs. human mentality we see manifested in the world all around (and even within) us...!

If we believe a thing, then that thing will be "as truth" to us.

I see that we were told to stay away from the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil"... the level of self-deception that there is anything BUT God in operation "out there".

In looking a bit more closely at this, I notice that trees are often biblically symbolic of a "way of understanding," or a "mindset." We're told to eat from the tree of Life (God's Life, God's Perspective), not from this tree of Duality. I also see that the Hebrew word for "knowledge" can also be translated as "perspective" ... interesting. So, perhaps it could more clearly be said: "do not partake, or let into yourself, the mindset of the perspective that things can be defined as 'good' or 'evil'." IOW, while we are in human form, and subject to our carnal/egoic minds, we have no business, and indeed no *ability*, of correctly discerning what is "good" and what is "evil." Further, God declared ALL that He had made to be "very good." And what exists, anywhere, on any plane, which was not created by God...?

When I connect the dots, I see that the concept of duality is nothing more than an illusion in my own mind.

I have to settle the matter within me, and then I will observe the world around me differently ... I have to be willing to have my eyes opened, to have the veil lifted, so that I can see as God sees ... and I do believe that this is His will and desire for me, for you, for everyone. And I do experience that we can either cooperate with Him, or resist Him.

I believe I will come (& am coming) to see that everyone is doing the best they can, based on what they believe -- if they believe lies, if they believe they are evil, if they believe they are an enemy of God, then they will ACT that way.

I believe I will come (& am coming) to see that people are just confused ... they do not know Who is within them (what other Source of life do we imagine there IS?). I will come (& am coming) to see that the Kingdom of God/Heaven is within me, and once I see/experience it there, and everywhere, it transforms everything else I see.

Duality, is believing that there is anything BUT God.

I see that God is Omnipotent (all powerful -- no power but God), Omniscient
(all-knowing, no knowledge but God), and Omnipresent (there is nowhere in which God is not -- "where can I go from Your Presence ... if I go to Sheol, You are there").

AISI, we're *still* to stay out of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ...
all too often, religion trains us to climb that tree, judge everything we see as
"good" or "evil" and then throw rotten fruit.

It all depends on what we deem to be the truer reality ... the world we see
around us, or the spiritual realm. This takes a shift in consciousness ... I've
come to see that I'm a spiritual being having a human experience.

(this is also backed up by discoveries in science, i.e., quantum physics)

Let's go back for a minute to those seeming "opposites" that we observe through the lens of duality ... if I change my thinking, and accept that they're sides of the same "coin", and that they show me a divine dichotomy, and if I allow them to be perceived as a WHOLE, something amazing happens:

- When right and wrong are united, I experience compassion.

- When love and hate are united, I experience forgiveness.

- When good and bad are united, I experience non-judgment.

- When male and female are united, I experience balance.

- When hope and despair are united, I experience trust.

- When Heaven and earth are united, I experience peace,and joy.

And when I see that, I can enjoy this world around me far MORE than when I used to fear it as "evil"...!

Shalom, Dena


P.S. I am aware that two areas in my life, which are in need of a "shift," are health/sickness and finances. God-incidentally, after putting out this desire, I received a book in the mail yesterday, that directly addresses a shift in the perspective of sickness/health ... I'm excited about it, and cannot wait to share it here!