The Field of Actuality We exist, physically, in a universe where there appears to be the difference of opposites; male and female, life versus death, hot or cold, profit and loss, etc. Each opposite, in any pair, is dependent upon its counterpart for its existence or definitive identity; for example, anything which can be said to have a beginning must be said to have an ending. These inseparable counterparts are connected by a continuum. The darkness of midnight is at one end of a gradient that has the brightness of noon at its other end. Both extremes tend to be neutralized at some median point where their definitional ranges merge. A ledger might show neither a “profit” nor a “loss” but a “break even” figure. Each of these contrasting conditions is in relation—that is, relative—to another. We say that something is “alive,” to the extent that it is not “dead.” Designating any point along the continuum of these two opposites (for example, to assert that something is “nearly dead”) is to operate within the context of what is called “duality.” Probably the most common expression of duality is the perspective of “me” in relationship to “you”; or, collectively, “we” as opposed to “they”: at one, separate pole are “these” humans, at another pole are “those” humans. The dualistic perspective can involve any two—or more— particulars: me versus you; me and god; god versus you, etc. (or me, nature and god; me and you versus nature; you, love and god, etc.)
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