I think it was Cynthia Bourgeault that said Non-Duality is a mode of perception. I ponder this sometimes. I'm reminded of someone who described to me how left and right brain people look at a painting, or someone who has studied art vs someone who hasn't. Both look at the picture, one will look at the geometry, the genre, the brush stroke style etc. Another will look at it and say "Beautiful Sunset" and that's it. I wonder if it's more how we perceive.
So in this way both duality and non-duality are true.
Hidden away in Christianity is, I believe one of the highest expressions of this Duality/Non-Duality paradox in Jesus Christ, the God Man, who held duality of being man, and the non-duality of being God in divine "tension" during His incarnation. It's like hidden away in Christianity and wrestled with since it's inception is how both duality and non-duality can exist at the same time in the person of Jesus Christ. Amos Smith wrote a good book about this.
Carl, this is such a timely post for me, so first of all, thank you for publishing it.
My question is, can the tension between duality and non-duality be resolved (somewhat) by panentheism and the Christian doctrine of incarnation? God is embodied in all things, yet is transcendent to all things.
I was recently turned on to Advaita by studying Schopenhauer. The difficulty for me with either of those is the notion of idealism. As if God is dreaming all of reality and therefore it’s all an illusion, good or bad. Or, in the latter case, it’s all a blind Will.
I think Christianity answers all that with creation/incarnation, but the insight of unity has been greatly missed by many believers. For me, Christianity gives a better response to the problem of evil than Advaita or Schopenhauer are capable of by simply acknowledging suffering not an illusion.
Certainly, Jesus dispels the illusion of separateness, and much more. My point is, Christianity seems to give more gravity to both goodness and its absence.
Lastly, it may be monism is the case, but more-so neutral monism with the third aspect being Spirit.
Apologies for the lengthy reply. As I said, I’ve been engaging these ideas a lot lately, so your post came at a perfect time. I’m very much a non-specialist and a novice to all these things, so if I’ve said something that needs correcting, please do so. Otherwise, I appreciate your thoughts, if any.
I also posted this on Bluesky, but wasn’t sure if you interact over there, so I posted here too.
I think it was Cynthia Bourgeault that said Non-Duality is a mode of perception. I ponder this sometimes. I'm reminded of someone who described to me how left and right brain people look at a painting, or someone who has studied art vs someone who hasn't. Both look at the picture, one will look at the geometry, the genre, the brush stroke style etc. Another will look at it and say "Beautiful Sunset" and that's it. I wonder if it's more how we perceive.
So in this way both duality and non-duality are true.
Hidden away in Christianity is, I believe one of the highest expressions of this Duality/Non-Duality paradox in Jesus Christ, the God Man, who held duality of being man, and the non-duality of being God in divine "tension" during His incarnation. It's like hidden away in Christianity and wrestled with since it's inception is how both duality and non-duality can exist at the same time in the person of Jesus Christ. Amos Smith wrote a good book about this.
Carl, this is such a timely post for me, so first of all, thank you for publishing it.
My question is, can the tension between duality and non-duality be resolved (somewhat) by panentheism and the Christian doctrine of incarnation? God is embodied in all things, yet is transcendent to all things.
I was recently turned on to Advaita by studying Schopenhauer. The difficulty for me with either of those is the notion of idealism. As if God is dreaming all of reality and therefore it’s all an illusion, good or bad. Or, in the latter case, it’s all a blind Will.
I think Christianity answers all that with creation/incarnation, but the insight of unity has been greatly missed by many believers. For me, Christianity gives a better response to the problem of evil than Advaita or Schopenhauer are capable of by simply acknowledging suffering not an illusion.
Certainly, Jesus dispels the illusion of separateness, and much more. My point is, Christianity seems to give more gravity to both goodness and its absence.
Lastly, it may be monism is the case, but more-so neutral monism with the third aspect being Spirit.
Apologies for the lengthy reply. As I said, I’ve been engaging these ideas a lot lately, so your post came at a perfect time. I’m very much a non-specialist and a novice to all these things, so if I’ve said something that needs correcting, please do so. Otherwise, I appreciate your thoughts, if any.
I also posted this on Bluesky, but wasn’t sure if you interact over there, so I posted here too.