4 days to go...

Duality is okay

I wondered this morning about experiencing happiness and sadness at the same time. Is that a good thing? Or does it mean there’s something in me waiting to be dealt with, to be resolved?

I got up quite early and had a workout on my secluded terrace, followed by meditation on the daybed in the gazebo, and a dip in the plunge pool. I unpacked my sax, and wondered if any Balinese tunes could come out. I can stretch myself to make it happen.

Surya, the hotel manager, came to see me at breakfast and lent me his favorite book by Gede Prama, Dari Keindahan Untuk Kesuksesan (The Art of Success Mastery). Another stretch, to improve my bahasa Indonesia!

Gede writes about moving onward from a life controlled by the mind, symbolized by the yin-yang circle, to wisdom in everyday life, symbolized by the yin-yang circle without its dual colors, and finally coming to surrender, shown as a simple circle without contents. Duality seems to fade as this metamorphosis progresses.

From Surya’s earlier description of Gede Prama as a writer on spirituality, my mind had created an association of a serious older man. My mind had tricked me again. He actually looks like a laughing happy man in the picture, age below 50 I would say. Surya said he also leads a herbal medicine company. That’s interesting to me, to lead a company and be a spiritual leader at the same time. A duality?

David Niven writes in The Best Half of Life that transitions can be both happy and sad, particularly during major life changes. I can see that. There is simultaneous “leaving” and “entering.” I am experiencing that, for sure.

Mysteries of duality have puzzled people the world over. Quranic verse 51:49 describes the nature of all created things, and the English translation reads "And all things have We created in pairs in order that you may reflect on it." No life flow without duality, it seems to suggest.

The yin-yang principle points out a similar wisdom, that there is no energy flow without polarity, like between day and night, male and female, good and bad, hot and cold, strong and soft, etc. While the mind seeks resolution, like in “you are right, or I am right, but we can’t both be right”, life actually doesn’t work that way.

A google search brings up further interpretations of duality:

> The condition of one thing having two sides, parts, or faces.

> The perspective that the universe is essentially an arrangement of binary oppositions, such as spirit and body, good and evil, male and female, creator and created, etc. Ultimately it implies the very presupposition behind subject-object consciousness, ie, that the objective world is experienced through the subjective perception of it as things, objects and ideas that are separate, "out there" and thus distinguished from the perceiver.

> The mistaken perception separating the perceiver and the world, self and other, this and that.

> The separation of two opposites and places those characteristics into two God forms. For example, good and evil, as characterized by the Christian God and Devil.

> Pairs of interconnected opposites, neither of which can exist without the other (ie, beauty-ugliness, positive-negative, male-female, etc.); one of the mechanisms by which the totality of manifestation operates; when the ego becomes involved, duality becomes dualism.

What I learn from my reflection is that duality is part of the Universe as I see it around me. Observing duality brings more understanding, it stretches my limited awareness. It also challenges my mind which always works to produce simplistic and linear versions of reality. Experiencing duality seems healthy from that perspective.

However, I don’t like to be dualistic in my actions. I would like to be clear and focused in everything I do, and also in what I do not do. Not wishy-washy, neither being here or there.

I will learn more about duality in the days to come. For today, I conclude that each moment allows me to be in that moment totally with whatever emotion I am experiencing at that time, without duality. The next moment can be different, and that’s okay. Do, dedicate, and let go…


Photograph: Duality of fruits on the palm in the compound of my villa (top), and morning light (bottom).