Duality of Being

 

EDITION 1 Issue #7

What is “Duality of Being”?  We will identify this with an easy to grasp example from the Bugs Bunny[i] cartoons where the character has an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other.  Remember seeing this?  Well this is what your head is like when you are torn between two thought processes, the good and the bad.  Angel and devil…. Which one do I listen to?  Usually it’s the self-serving, ego driven thought process leads to self-satisfaction, or relief from pain.  Anything which gives short term pleasure with no regard for the other people in my life; for me it’s the easy answer, the easy solution is the one which will be self-gratifying and self-serving.  Often-times to the detriment of family, or friends, people around at the time of the decision and those I love the most suffer from my selfish, ego-driven thought process.

Relief from self

How do we find relief from the self-serving, ego-driven thought processes lead us to the feelings of being torn between good and bad?  Stevie Ray Vaughan (written with Doyle Bramhall ©1989 In Step (Epic EK-45024) used under “Fair use”) sings about being;

 “Caught up in a whirlwind can't catch my breath,
knee deep in hot water broke out in a cold sweat
Can't catch a turtle in this rat race,
feels like I'm losin' time at a breakneck pace”

And I can so relate to these words, so well defining my thought pattern of being caught up in the whirlwind of my lies and manipulation.  The crazy, insane things I did, and do, to get my way, to get what I need.  They further describe the ego generated insanity with:

“Afraid of my own shadow in the face of grace,
heart full of darkness spotlight on my face
There was love all around me but I was lookin' for revenge,
thank God it never found me would have been the end
I was walkin' the tightrope steppin' on my friends…”

Especially rings out to me is the part “heart full of darkness spotlight on my face” in my self-serving ego-driven selfishness i.e. “spotlight on my face”, my heart is full of darkness because I am taking away from any gift Grace would offer me by separation, separation from the Universal Mind, or Great Creator.  Separation (look for our blog on “SEPARATION” in a February 2015 issue) from GOD and any Love of fellows, Love for my family and friends sorta disappears when duality of being pulls me to the bad side, or tips me over the rope to the evil being my ego wishes to keep me in.

Photo by author © 2014 beyondthe12th.com

Teachings

Where in the Teachings of great leaders do we see insight into the relief from duality?   When Jesus spoke and told Satan to “stand behind me” (Matthew 16:23) could he have been talking to ego-mind? (Don’t miss the issue on “EGO-MIND” end January 2015. To be sure you get this directly to your mailbox, SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Don’t miss out.)  Could the Christ Jesus have been relating to something we all have to one extent or the other?  The ego-mind which drives us to self-destruction through self-serving, self-satisfying temptation when he speaks out to do the things of real men which would in fact be the God driven acts or thoughts which will be “doing the right thing’?  Doing what will benefit the whole and my brother (read sister too…) instead of the self-gratifying, so easy choice which takes only my needs into consideration?  Could this great teacher have been relating to this when he call for Satan to get behind thee?  Therefore if we work on the premise there is no hell, there is no Satan aside from our self-destroying ego centric thought pattern.  Driven by ego-mind which looks to destroy the real self, the soul which has direct connection to Universal Mind, the connection is constantly interrupted by these conditionings of egocentric, destructive thinking: Duality of being!

Relief

Relief from this duality and ego is what we need to continually work on, to bring ourselves to be one with God, or good.  To be ONE with creation, with life as it was meant to be lived and what our Soul is searching out to reconnect with.  We achieve this through Prayer and Meditation.  Our ‘Big Book’ of alcoholics anonymous tells us we have a ‘daily reprieve’ from our alcoholism, interchange, our self-serving ego-driven thought pattern (read insanity!), we can maintain this daily reprieve through and contact with a power greater than ourselves –which I chose to call GOD – this Power which is fundamentally omnipotent and omniscient (read - is all Powerful and is everywhere at once and always) This Power which is there at the tip of our finger to grasp whenever we actually reach out for it.  The power of choice grated us by this Great Creation allow us the Grace of God, we don’t need to do anything to deserve it, to win it or to be worthy of the Grace of God.  We do however need to reach for it.  Reach for the Grace of God, as it is there for us at all times but we actually have to do something to take it.  Prayer and Meditation are fundamental in this journey to Enlightenment.  This is there for you.  Believe this! Take it! IT IS YOURS FOR THE TAKING! It is YOUR DEVINE RIGHT! Take it NOW!  Open you HEART and accept the gift from the Universe, it is yours for the taking, believe it!

Look for next week’s edition on “INSANITY”.  And be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive it directly you won’t miss a beat.

[i] ™Looney Tunes