2 – Duality

When Oneness manifests as Two-ness.

‘Love is the bridge between you and everything.’  – Rumi

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Matthew: Another term for Oneness is ‘Non–Duality’, isn’t it?

Jez: Yes, meaning the non-separated, non-divided.

Matthew: So we’d better define the word ‘Duality’…

Jez: Duality is when Oneness becomes ‘Two-ness’; it refers to all appearance, all manifestation.

Matthew: You mean form, objects… stuff? (Laughs.)

Jez: That’s right. When Oneness expresses its potentiality, the ‘everything’ of Oneness becomes the ‘something’ of manifestation: you, me, this glass of water… Everything.

We’ve discussed the Absolute Level, which refers to the essential Oneness of all things; when we talk about Duality we’re referring to the ‘Relative Level’, in which things relate to each other: That glass is in front of me, I am slightly taller than you, the moon is smaller than the earth etcetera.

Going back to the definition of energy as ‘matter in movement’, the Relative Level refers to that potential energy of Oneness manifesting as physical matter. It has ‘moved’ from the formless to form.

Matthew: And once it’s manifested, that energy keeps moving. At school we learned about something called the ‘kinetic theory of matter.’ It says: ‘All matter is made of atoms and molecules that are constantly moving.’

Jez: As we said in the last talk, molecules can also change form: When heat is applied they expand; if I were to pour boiling water into this glass it would probably shatter.

Matthew: That expansion happens because the atoms in the glass vibrate faster and the space between them increases.

Jez: But I’m not just talking about size… Once upon a time the glass was just sand, and that sand was once a rock; and so on, leading all the way back to the Absolute Level of potentiality, from where that rock manifested.

Matthew: So anything you can see – mountains, clouds, trees, cows – that’s all Duality, all the Relative Level.

Jez: Yes, but it’s wider than that: It includes sound waves, light, smells as well as lots of things we can’t perceive. When the Oneness of potentiality has manifested, in any form whatsoever, that’s the Relative Level.

Matthew: So if everything we see is the Relative Level, that includes us human beings who are seeing it…

Jez: Yes, we’re observing this Relative Level, identifying it and discussing it, but this apparatus, this body, this brain is of course all part of the Relative Level as well.

Matthew: So the Absolute Level is discussing itself, through the Relative Level of our bodies and minds.

Jez: Exactly.

Matthew: You talked about the Absolute Level using the word Love; seeing as the Relative Level arises from the Absolute Level, are you saying that everything is a manifestation of Love?

Jez: Yes, in this story I’m relating, ‘All is Made of Love.’

Matthew: So by association, as part of the Relative Level, we too are made of Love?

Jez: If you accept the notion that ‘All is Made of Love’, then you have to take on board that human beings are made of Love too; or you might say: We are Love. It would be pretty weird if we were an exception, if all manifestation in the Relative Level was made of Love, except human beings!

Matthew: (Laughs.) As if we were somehow made of… the absence of Love.

Jez: In fact we are the presence of Love, literally, the embodiment of Love.

Matthew: This all sounds very nice but, playing devil’s advocate, how can we be the embodiment of Love when there’s obviously so much violence in human beings? What I mean is, if this story you’re telling is true, how can there be wars, for example?

Jez: When I say ‘All is Made of Love’ I’m talking about the Absolute Level, the core of who we are, what we’re made of. Hatred is a psychological manifestation that arises in the Relative Level, in the emotional life of human beings.

As we know, in the Relative Level, Duality gets to play itself out; Oneness takes on all sorts of disguises. Hatred, just like grief or fear, is something that can take root in Personality. The Personality is a manifestation that arises in the Relative Level; but again, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We’ll go into hatred and its origins in detail once we’ve defined what Personality is. All of this is leading us to answering that fundamental question.

Matthew: When you say ‘We are Love,’ I don’t really understand how or why this is true, but I’ve always felt it is.

Jez: This can be felt and known by the human heart but it can’t be measured or scientifically proven. Love will never be isolated under a microscope in a laboratory!

Matthew: No, but in the last discussion we talked about how people on psychedelic trips often describe experiencing this Love you’re talking about.

Jez: That’s why such experiences are called transcendent: because they transcend the Relative Level and allow at least a passing recognition of the Oneness in all things, which is the Absolute Level. In that recognition of Oneness, Love is felt. Love is the feeling and perception of Oneness.

Matthew: What do you mean?

Jez: Let’s take Love in the form of relationship as an example. If you’re really close to someone, you begin to feel this overwhelming Love; it’s what all Love poetry is about. There comes a point when Love is so strong you transcend the Personality; the lovers disappear and only Love remains. That’s an experience of two lovers, disappearing into Oneness.

As we’ve noted in the case of psychedelic trips, this can be experienced not just through bonding with fellow humans but with the manifest world, by just looking at reality manifesting around you, for example as a field of wheat or a beautiful sunset.

Matthew: Are you advocating the use of psychedelic drugs?

Jez: No. I have nothing against their use, but they’ve never appealed to me. It’s a bit like gate crashing into heaven: You know you’re going to get thrown out of the party when the drugs wear off. I was always more interested in arriving there without the use of drugs, probably because that was my early experiences of it in the Openings. What I’m saying is, if what I’ve described really is our Natural State then we shouldn’t need foreign chemicals in the brain to induce it or to remain in it.

Matthew: You could argue that those chemicals – LSD, mushrooms, whatever – are natural too.

Jez: Of course, they are all part of the Oneness – how could they not be? But it seems that we’re born with the capacity for our own perception of this naturally, without the need of foreign chemical stimulation to the brain. That’s what I mean by ‘natural’. Taking anything that isn’t already part of our bodily equipment to induce this can lead to dependency and addiction, both of which are products of the Personality, not the Natural State in which we enter this life.

My experience is that if there’s openness, anything can stimulate an experience of ‘All is Made of Love’. There’s a story of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna falling into a religious trance after watching a flock of swans flying in front of a bank of grey clouds.

Matthew: But it doesn’t have to be as poetic as that, does it? You said you had an Opening just listening to a woman’s voice in a department store…

Jez: Yes, that recognition of Oneness is always potentially available; the circumstances are just the excuse. Another Indian mystic, the poet Kabir, said: ‘Wherever you are is the entry point.’ For me it used to be cycling by the river, or hearing a certain tone in a voice; you wouldn’t normally ascribe such things to being the cause of what some people would call ‘religious experiences’.

Matthew: People who haven’t had such experiences might find the idea that ‘All is Made of Love’ simplistic, unscientific or perhaps even naïve.

Jez: I’m sure you’re right, but as I’ve said before, there’s a very direct way to experience what I’m talking about which anyone with friends or family who’ve recently become parents can have access to: Go and sit with a newborn baby that’s at rest. They are manifesting that Love I’m talking about without filter, there’s no mind yet, no emotions, no hatred or fear so there’s nothing to obscure that Love. To use a religious term, newborn babies are fresh from heaven; that’s why it’s so lovely to be around them.

Did you know that the first organ that grows is the human heart? I think that says it all: The heart is the centre of Love in a human being. It’s like a portal, a bridge that spans Duality, from the Relative, physical Level to the Absolute Level.