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First thoughts about dualism
often understood to be mind and matter (or mind and body), or good and evil.
Dualism is the belief, or philosophy that leads to an understanding of the world in terms of separation. In other words, it is the understanding and belief in duality - that we, ourselves, are separate and separated from the world around us.
At first, I was at a loss to understand this notion of dualism, that appears to pop up in various philosophies, religions and ideologies. It is used extensively to explain opposites and even used in religions to represent notions of good and evil, and light and dark. It is used in science and philosophy to explain the notion of balance or Universal equilibrium, "Yin and Yang". Even the mystical "Tao" holds itself within duality, and both existence and non-existence.
Yet it is quite a simple model of thought, borne from the ego, or the self, and one which we take for granted at every moment of our existence here on Earth. The philosophical understanding is that the duality lies between the mind and body, or further, between mind and matter, (energy and matter?). It has been a hotbed of discussion for centuries, and indeed, anyone that really contemplates their inner self or origins, will not evade the important questions, "who am I?", or exactly "where am I?", (in my mind). "Am I mind?" or "am I inside my mind?".
But let’s not run before we can walk. These are very deep and profound questions. They have no easy answers, and may in fact be impossible to resolve using logic and reason alone. Yet, with the mind that we have been blessed with, we are at least able to contemplate the understanding of them. We have the freedom to question these thoughts and ideas, or not, as the intention takes us.
Can we really know the world around us for certain?
The simplicity lies in the understanding (or perhaps even false notion?), that we are separate from the world around us. That we exist, separately, each of us, on the one hand, and that the world exists around us; a world we interact with, and that counter-wise, interacts with us. That we are, each of us, the observer. All is thus divided into "subject" and "object"; in other words, we are "object", and the world around us is "subject" for observation and subjected to perception.
You may notice immediately, that this duality between subject and object, places great emphasis and importance in separation, and the "self". We are thus bound inextricably with identity. Duality is the only way we can perceive and understand the world, or in fact any thing at all. Duality is our nature.
We use our senses to understand this world external to us, and use them to help us find our way around. And there lies the duality, between us and the world. Yet we have only five senses to interact with this outside world. That is, we have five senses, and maybe a sixth sense that should be labelled perception and understanding. For without this understanding of the senses, they are at once, totally irrelevant and useless.
This separation, if you reason with it, is really therefore, not between ourselves as bodies, and the external world; but rather the separation is between our own understanding and perception, (mind), and our body and senses. All is governed in this understanding and communication, and between this separation of mind and body.
Yet there appears to be no direct connection between this mind and body that we can immediately see? Almost mystical, is this spacious void that seems to connect a mind and the physical senses and brain that analyses and feels, and relays information. Perception is all we have to guide us. We can only "perceive" and try to rationalise what our senses pass to us. We can only interpret what we sense around us, using our own understanding and knowledge of what maybe happening.
Because there is no definitive connection of mind and body, there can be no definitive truth in anything that we realise about us, external to us. The differences between each of us, our senses, and even our own understanding of the world gives rise to error and misunderstandings. What I may perceive I see, may be different to what you may see? and moreover, what I may perceive has happened, maybe entirely different to what has actually happened?
For people with disabilities such as blindness or deafness, this will mean a quite different perspective of the world as the rest of us find it. With just a single sense missing, the world can become a hazardous place indeed, full of hidden dangers and obstacles to be overcome. Yet even with all our senses, can we really rely on them to give us the real information as to what is going on around us?
If, for example, we take a colour, say "Blue", and discuss it. We will almost certainly come to an agreement about the subject, that it is definitely "Blue" in colour, as we have been raised to acknowledge and accept. Yet on further investigation, if we question more profoundly, we may find that we are at a loss to explain the phenomena entirely. Can you explain "Blue" in terms of vocabulary, and language? You may indulge in descriptions of different shade, and contrast, but you cannot really explain "Blue". How would you explain it to a person who is blind?
All that you have really grown to understand, is that as a child, you have been taught to recognise the colour "Blue", point to it, and say "Blue". We may even see different shades of the same "Blue" from each other, or more radically, I may even see a completely different colour altogether, who knows? I only recognise the colour Blue from my childhood learning, and I have not re-evaluated the subject since.
To read more about this, please see the item - "is it all just a dream?".
So where does this leave us with the understanding of dualism?
Well, all we need to really accept at this point, is that duality exists, that it is real, at least for each of us. Until we can understand otherwise, or maybe even overcome this idea of duality - the separation between ourselves and the world, and with others, exists.
This duality, or separation, may be the root cause of all our misconceptions and problems; yet this attribute to understand the world in terms of duality, is governed by our freedom and freewill to contemplate it. Freewill is, in fact, a result of choice - itself duality to choose "yes" or "no". Without duality, and without freewill to choose, we may not be separate at all?
Our whole being, mind and consciousness may, in fact, rely on the existence or perception of duality. For example, without the separation of "self" and "non-self", there would be no need for "self", the "self" would cease to exist at all?
Something further to think about perhaps?
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