Stepping Beyond Dualistic Thinking
The culture of confrontation is so common that one might not even notice it. It’s part of our daily lives: east vs. west, immigrants vs. natives, rich vs. poor, right wing vs. left wing, light vs. dark, science vs. religion, medicine vs. alternative medicine, etc. Even many of the most fundamental questions in our lives originate from polarities which are often artificial. However, to see beyond this dualistic thinking could free one from unnecessary fighting of life.
Beyond The Dualistic Thinking
by Johanna Blomqvist, Ph.D.
Views on Duality
The Indian guru, philosopher, yogi Paramahansa Yogananda writes in his book” Autobiography of a Yogi”:” Creation is light and shadow both, else no picture is possible. The good and evil of Maya must ever alternate in supremacy. If joy were ceaseless here in this world, would a man ever desire another? Without suffering, he scarcely cares to recall that he has forsaken his eternal home. Creation is only an immense movie, and our reality is not in it but beyond that.”
According to him, we consist of two opposites, light and shadow or good and evil and our mission is to learn from the state of suffering. For him, suffering helps us on our path towards our true selves within. The reality, however, is something different than we experience in this world, and the opposites are also just an illusion.
Carl Jung, the revolutionary Psychiatrist emphasizes balance when referring to the significance of opposites:” The word “happiness” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.”
Osho, an Indian spiritual teacher who lived in the 20th century, says in turn: “The mind is dualistic, it is always building confrontation: winner and loser, observer and observable, target and experiencer, day and night. Even those that have not been divided will be divided into opposites. The day cannot be distinguished from night nor birth from death. They all have the same origin. However, the mind divides everything apart, into opposites, in order to understand things better. Nothing is opposite in its occurrence; all discrepancies are apparent. From their deepest essence, all conflicts melt together.”
He explains the confrontation as a feature of the mind. Everything is of the same, and oppositions are only apparent.
Danish physicist Niels Bohr, one of the most prominent developers of quantum mechanics, also says” the opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. However, the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.”
Light has dualistic nature
This phrase by Bohr includes the connection of quantum physics to the Eastern philosophies – and also one of the views on confrontation.
To understand the behavior and qualities of light, we need – as it is – a dualistic model.
Light has the properties of both waves and particles: sometimes light behaves like a wave, sometimes like a particle, depending on how it is expressed.
Part of the particle-like nature is that the location of the light quantum is known at any given moment. Part of the wave nature is that the position cannot be determined. The particle nature and the wave nature are mutually contradictory, but both acceptable if one wants to understand all the attributes related to radiation.
Opposites complement each other and create the whole together
The particle nature and the wave nature are mutually contradictory in the same style as the yin and yang of the Chinese philosophy, two opposing but complementary forces. They describe how the two extremes are interconnected, that is, complementing each other and interconnected.
This dichotomy is also reflected in Chinese science, philosophy, and medicine, which seeks to restore the balance of yin and yang through various methods. In the yin and yang -a symbol the black and white droplets are interwoven, and there is a white dot in the center of the black part and a black dot in the center of the white part. The symbol depicts how yin contains a seed of the yang and yang of yin, and both parts give way to each other in turn. Yin and yang together are a whole. Both exist, they together form a reality. If either is “true,” that doesn’t automatically mean that one is not true, as usually in math the opposite is “false.”
The connection between quantum mechanics and Eastern philosophies can be illustrated by Niels Bohr’s choice of the coat of arms when the king of Denmark awarded him with Knighthood on the Order of the Elephant. As a knight, he chose the yin-yang symbol taijitu to his coat of arms with the motto “ The Opposites are complementary.”
The whole quantum mechanics, therefore, includes this idea of the complementary nature of the atomic world. Two contradictory parts can be complementary and jointly form a reality. There are even more such complementary quantities in quantum mechanics, such as place and momentum or energy and time. The more accurately one can be determined, the more imprecise is the knowledge of the other.
”What could we learn from all of this? Often opposites will guide you to choose one of them. When making these choices, it might be good to remember that they are only apparent and reality is something else. Making a choice does not mean that the other option would be wrong.”
”There is always light in the middle of darkness, likewise light also contains darkness.”
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About the Author
Johanna Blomqvist, Ph.D., physicist, speaker, Reiki master teacher, energy healer and author of the book “From Quantum Physics to Energy Healing – A Physicist’s Journey to Mind and Healing.” www.johannablomqvist.com
