From earlier articles, it is probably evident that a mystic regards everything as interconnected. In this article we will explore this perspective further.
Quite often, the mind divides something in the world into a pair of polar opposites, such as day and night, male and female, light and dark, higher and lower, true and false, passive and active, good and bad. This is the dualistic perspective. It is generalised in the Taoist tradition with the yin-yang pair. By dividing existence in two in many different ways, the dualistic view is sufficient for us to perceive the whole multiplicity of things.
In quantum physics, the term duality is used to refer to the (much more mysterious) fact that the fundamental bits of the manifest world behave as both particles and waves simultaneously. There are some other beautiful examples of duality in quantum theory, for example matter and anti-matter, or pairs of entangled particles having complementary spin.
In common experience, the dualistic way of seeing things includes some important distinctions regarding oneself. Firstly, there is a duality of me and you, or more generally, me and not-me. This allows one to feel separate and regard oneself as having free will.
Another significant dualistic pair is mind and body, or consciousness and matter. This is a particularly challenging duality for science and one worthy of a separate article at a later date.
In the field of spirituality the most significant dualities relate to the ground of being. The source of all that is – God – can be viewed as separate to everything manifest – the creation. This source, the ground of being, is then also regarded as separate from oneself.
The Hindu teachings of Vedanta include an assertion of advaita, meaning non-duality. Specifically, this states that oneself (atman) is not actually separate from the ground of being (brahman).
Vedanta is not the only tradition to assert non-duality. In general, spirituality can be regarded as a journey during which we transcend dualities. Ultimately, there is a longing to be reunited with God, to no longer feel oneself as separate from the ground of being.
The understanding of the mystic is that all these dualities are creations of the thinking mind, superimposed on a non-dualistic reality. And in a moment of truth, this is not only a mental understanding but also a felt reality.
