Sunday, August 02, 2009

Living In Duality

Abandon the search for Absolute, Synthesize a Point-of-Reference

Although we experience duality, we are unable to satisfactorily understand the truths about duality. Our deepest craving is to know the unsublatable truths about origin, nature, purpose etc of duality. Neither Religion nor Philosophy or Science has provided us with unambiguous and irreplaceable answers.

Concept

Religion

Philosophy

Science

Existence

Existence was created by God.

The ground of existence is the transcendental, timeless, ultimate reality.

Big-bang is a popular origin theory. The ground of existence is some fundamental particle.

Self

You are not God.

The self immediately evident to you is non-different from the ultimate reality.

The self is a product of brain’s processes.

Path to Truth/God

Live a life of faith following scripture to approach God in after-life.

Cultivate mental poise that is conducive for realization of the truth.

Look forward to better theories to explain reality.

All the three approaches; religion, philosophy and science agree on the presence of Existence but differ on its origin and nature. All the three agree on a self but differ on its nature. All the three agree that it is a process to obtain the truth and not immediately available to anyone at any time. So, our answer to questions about duality is: we don’t have unsublatable truths to understand duality at the moment.

If we look closely at the proposed paths towards truth, one way is to live a life of faith by following a religion. Another way is to live with noble ideals of an ascetic/monk which is required for mental poise as rationalized by the Philosophy. Yet another way is to pursue a career in fundamental physics or neuroscience to better understand the fundamental particle or the brain respectively. Some folks of faith may indeed pursue the above paths in search of absolute truths (rather than as a profession to make a living). But for most people, it is not very convincing just because of the lack of communicable proofs.

In this blog, I present a logical solution to only those people (including myself) who cannot commit themselves to the paths proposed by religion, philosophy or science. It’s based on the fact that life continues even without figuring out the so-called absolute truths. In light of that fact, it seems to me that the sensible thing to do would be to continue living life in duality and forget about the quest for truth. If the question arises in mind, be aware of it and ignore it. Move on and do the usual stuff. Ignore existential questions, indulge in duality is the mantra. However, can this be done?

Without the unsublatable truth there is no real point of reference for life in duality. Nothing is right/wrong, good/bad, better/worse unless there is a point of reference. Without a point of reference, living in duality is miserable as there is no way to form ethics and rules for decision-making when faced with choices etc. Metaphorically speaking, we need a map when we are lost.

A point-of-reference is an over-arching set of ideas that would explain in a very broad stroke all the happenings in duality. This set of ideas is knowledge we create by reflection on experiences in duality and are not equivalent to the intangible, absolute truths. Such a point-of-reference is our map; it should explain all the happenings of duality in a satisfactory way for us to lead a life in duality with a certain peace of mind. So, a point of reference has to be synthesized by us if we are to relinquish the quest for absolute truth.