Lightness and Darkness

LIGHTNESS AND DARKNESS
LIGHTNESS AND DARKNESS

In your life experience, everything tends to appear and disappear into lightness and darkness. You generally think of the relationship of light and dark as a fundamental duality, but it is more accurately a dynamic interplay within the context of relative experience. In an absolute sense, the light and the dark are not static things to which you compare everything, but an ever-changing non-static expression of All That Is, One Life.

The play of lightness and darkness occurs within the field of relative manifestation, while the luminosity of All That Is, One Life, remains as it is and as it has always been. The idea that luminosity can be temporarily obscured by conceptualization, attachment, aversion, and ignorance, paints the picture of light as being more pervasive, solid and in some manner able to be hidden or obscured by invasions of darkness. However, if you dive deeper, you come to know that light does not exist without darkness as dark does not exist without lightness. So both are always present and one cannot truly obscure the other because to do so would alter itself.

By transcending the distinctions between lightness and darkness, an integration and understanding of the true nature of reality that goes beyond dualistic conceptualization arises. The fundamental nature of reality and consciousness is beyond conceptualization and dualistic distinctions. This understanding is commonly known as non-duality.
Non-duality is a philosophical and spiritual concept that challenges the conventional understanding of reality as divided into separate and distinct parts. Non-duality suggests that there is an  infinite and indivisible reality whose nature is pure consciousness, from which all objects and selves derive their apparently independent existence. Non-duality also implies that there is no real difference between self and other, mind and body, observer and observed, or any of the other dichotomies that shape your perception of reality. .

Non-duality is not a belief system or a dogma, but rather a direct experience of the underlying unity of existence. Through practices like meditation and self-inquiry, you can bypass the limitations of conceptual understanding and directly apprehend the interconnectedness that transcends superficial distinctions.  Realizing the non-dual nature of mind through meditation and direct experience, you can cut through the illusion of duality.

Furthermore, the nature of dualistic perceptions is illusory. The seeming separation between self and other, light and dark, and all dualities is ultimately unreal. Once you sense the non-dual nature of reality, you can see the conventional world of dualities as existing without substantiality. You can integrate this understanding into everyday experience, recognizing the unity within apparent diversity. That integration can assist you to free yourself from the habitual patterns of trying to hold onto pleasant experiences and avoiding unpleasant ones. By transcending dualistic preferences, you can attain a state of equanimity and liberation.

Non-duality is also not the same as monism, another philosophical concept that deals with the nature of reality. While both philosophies challenge the conventional understanding of dualism, they approach it differently. Monism asserts that there is only one substance or principle that constitutes reality, while non-duality denies the existence of any substance or principle at all.

Non-duality is a central teaching across various traditions, such as Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Taoism, and mysticism. However, non-duality is not limited to a particular cultural or religious context; instead, it emerges as a universal insight that can be found in various expressions and forms. Non-duality is also compatible with science, as it does not contradict the empirical observations of the natural world, but rather offers a deeper perspective on the nature of reality and consciousness. 

​Explore the relationship between lightness and darkness as a symbolic expression of the understanding of non-dual awareness. As you come to know that light and dark cannot exist without each other, open up to know that nothing exists independently and that all is simply One Life, non-dual awareness.