What are duality and non-duality?

Examples of dualistic concepts:

• Good and evil
• Light and dark
• Love and fear
• Male and female
• Self and other

In Western cultures, duality is often perceived as opposing forces working against one another, such as with good vs. evil and light vs. dark. The mainstream interpretation of Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) fall into the dualistic category. These religions recognize God and humanity as two separate, distinct entities existing in a hierarchy.

Non-duality

Spirituality operates on a philosophy of non-duality.

Non-dualistic thought recognizes that binary opposites are an illusion arising from the illusion of separation. Rather than viewing good and evil as opposing supernatural forces acting upon them and ultimately attempting to vanquish one another, adherents of non-duality perceive light and shadow as forces which exist within them that require balance. Only when there is an imbalance of this internal force does it manifest outwardly as “evil.” This is closely tied to the model of the self in Jungian psychology.

Non-dual religions view humanity as a part of God rather than separate from it, and as such, they recognize the separation of self and other is an illusion.

New Age concepts that are rooted in non-duality:

• We are one
• Unity consciousness
• Love is the foundation of the universe
• We are all connected
• Nothing is separate from you

The Illusion of Separation

Incarnating into a physical human experience is what creates the illusion of separation, via the human ego, which is the mechanism through which the physically incarnate are able to perceive and experience separateness. The ego gives us a sense of separate identity from other humans as well as separateness from the spiritual realms.

The product of this separateness is duality in its most basic form: the presence of love and the illusion of the absence of love (which we label “evil”). When we perceive that there is an absence of love (particularly for ourselves), we create beliefs around that perception, our thoughts are based from that perception, we filter our experiences through that perception, and we take actions from that perception which harm those we perceive as an “other.”

Only when we recognize that love (particularly self-love) has never been truly absent or unavailable to us can we heal the separation within us, and within our society.