What is Duality, why is it causing pain and how religions give us a cure: Non-Duality

But, after all, who knows, and who can say
Whence it all came, and how creation happened?
the gods themselves are later than creation,
so who knows truly whence it has arisen? — Nāsadīya Sūkta, Rigveda

Ying Yang: Wikimedia commons

Do I believe in God?

I am an advocate of Intelligent Design. I believe in a higher power and don’t necessarily believe that the higher power has a specific look or personality.
That being said, I would also love to believe that Lord Ram and Lord Krishna existed as much as Jesus and Buddha existed. I also believe that religious scriptures are the key to understanding life as it is.

In the whole pandemic scene, a lot of us have been experiencing anxiety, bitterness, hopelessness and various other negative feelings. Without an end in sight, positive feelings do not seem to rise from the horizon. The uncertainty is debilitating. We have always had a balance between positive and negative feelings because events, for the most part, were under our control. If we did not like a job, we quit and joined another company. If the week wasn’t going so well, we would get together with friends and chill out with some beer. Things are much different now. The way we approach society and human contact has vastly changed. This is when the concept of Duality is relevant.

What is Duality?

Duality represents the two extremes of a concept. Duality exists in various areas like Philosophy, philosophy, religion, geometry, physics etc. Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, Happy and Sad, Positive and Negative among other examples.
Duality is called by various names like Ying and Yang or Dvaitha or Nums and Ngas of various other beliefs.
Let us see some rules and consequences of the Duality principle:

1. Duality is Binary. It is either this or that
2. Duality has a simple computation principle that dualities cannot dwell together. They are mutually exclusive as a concept.
3. Humans are the medium where the dualities exist or the mediums that Duality affects
4. When Humans are affected by Dualities, they suffer

But to appreciate Good, you need evil or lesser good. So in essence, we need a balance between Dualities. It is interesting how this has been handled in various scriptures: Non-Duality or the Middle path or the Balance.

Non-Duality

Introducing Non-Duality from the Religious scriptures. The Non-Duality doesn’t distinguish between Creator and Creation, Good and Evil or Observer and the Observed. This is a higher state of consciousness that comes with practising higher discipline like focussed awareness or Insight meditations or practising a non-thinking mind. So how do the various religious scriptures cover the Non-Duality principle? How is the balance achieved?

2 Corinthians 6:14 (The Bible)
Stop becoming unevenly yoked with unbelievers. What partnership can righteousness have with lawlessness? What fellowship can light have with darkness?

Bible is clear in its vision. It states that it is OK to talk to non-believers, but not OK to be “unevenly yoked” with them. Balance is key. The other lines also deal with the very nature of Dualism.

Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 2, Verse 57 (Bagavad Gita)
“One who remains unattached under all conditions, and is neither delighted by good fortune nor dejected by tribulation, he is a sage with perfect knowledge.”

The Bhagavad Gita also spells ou the technique to escape the dualities of the material world. “Unattached”. The Gita recommends Detachment from all worldly dualisms.

Kaccāyanagotta Sutta from the Samyutta Nikaya (Mahayana Buddhism)
“Everything exists”: That is one extreme.
“Everything doesn’t exist”: That is a second extreme.Avoiding these two extremes,
The Tathagata teaches the Dhamma via the middle.

The ever-practical Buddhism recommends the middle-path. Treading lightly

In essence, all three scriptures point to the existence of dualism, the balance of view when we approach the dualism and treading lightly.
This balance and the middle way is crucial in cruising through this predicament and the tools are with us.

The tools prescribed:

1. Balance our exposure to the negative extreme of Dualism
2. Detach ourselves from the emotional aspect of action
3. Follow the middle-path and tread lightly with focussed awareness.

In parting, I would like to quote the great Tamil Astrologer/Poet Kaniyan Poongundranar :

“சாதலும் புதுவ தன்றே வாழ்தல்
இனிதென மகிழ்ந்தன்று மிலமே முனிவின்
இன்னா தென்றலு மிலமே”

Which translates to:
Death is not new to this world as it has been decided on the day we are born.
Therefore, we do not celebrate life as sweet, nor consider it as misery and hate it.

Every philosophy points to the same direction. Tread lightly.

References:

1. The Bible
2. Bagavad Gita
3. Purananuru (Tamil Literature)
4. Dhammapadha
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasadiya_Sukta
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nondualism
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purananuru