If the Creator intended us to exist as harmless, ever‑smiling beings, soft, white, fluffy, and endlessly forgiving – He would have placed us in a sterile paradise. A realm without friction. A world of warm seas, gentle breezes, butterflies, and eternal sunlight. A place where nothing challenges us, nothing provokes us, and nothing forces us to grow.
But that is not where we were placed.
We were born into a reality of duality. A world where light and darkness coexist, where love meets hatred, where loyalty is tested by betrayal, and where every soul is confronted with choices that shape its destiny. This was not an accident. It was not a cosmic oversight. It was a deliberate design.
Zen Master Takuan Sōhō once wrote:
“The mind must be wide and open, not caught by any one side.”
Duality exists so that we learn not to cling to extremes.
This reality does not teach us to be “good” in the childish sense of blind obedience or forced kindness. Instead, it teaches us to discern – to recognize the subtle difference between compassion and naivety, between strength and cruelty, between surrender and collapse.
As Lao Tzu said:
“All things carry Yin and embrace Yang. They achieve harmony by balancing these forces.”
Our task is not to dissolve into unconditional love that ignores truth, nor to sink into hatred that destroys the heart. Our task is to remain centred. To stand in the middle of the storm without becoming the storm.
Zen Master Dōgen taught:
“To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.”
And forgetting the self means not being dragged blindly by emotion – neither by the sweetness of attachment nor the poison of resentment.
Duality is the training ground of the soul. It is here, in this tension between opposites, that choice becomes meaningful. Here we learn:
- whom to love with an open heart
- whom to release without bitterness
- when to remain still
- and when to act with fearless clarity
This world was not designed to make us comfortable. It was designed to make us awake.
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