Welcome and I hope that each one of you will come to find peace within yourself.
Today I'm going to talk a little bit about duality.
This is based on a recent live session and it was a topic that was brought up in our group.
Duality to me is one of those ideas that look simple on the surface.
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.
But it becomes more interesting the longer you sit with it.
The short version is that duality is the mind's way of carving the world into two.
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.
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So it can understand what is actually what.
The essence of duality is a habit of splitting reality into pairs.
Like self and other.
Good and bad,
Calm and anxious.
Reacting and responding.
And it's not wrong.
It's how the nervous system organizes experience.
But if you really think about it,
It's also incomplete.
Because the world isn't actually made up of tooths.
The world is made up of continuums and gradients and relationships.
It's like the phrase from the book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse,
Which is my favorite.
That I use as a mantra where he says,
The river flowed on and on,
Always different,
Yet always the same.
There's just one river.
And it's our perception of it that changes.
So duality is a map,
It's not the terrain.
And duality feels real because it shows up most strongly when something matters.
When you're hurt,
The world becomes safe versus unsafe.
When you're inspired,
It becomes possible versus impossible.
It sharpens the edges so you can see the shape of the moment.
Think of a metaphor.
Imagine a river at dusk.
The current and the stillness.
The surface and the depth.
The movement and the reflection.
They look like opposites.
But they're just different expressions of the same water.
Duality works like that.
It's not two things.
It's one thing seen from two angles.
You can feel the shift in real time.
When you soften around a reaction.
When you sense the space between impulse and action.
When you realize that two truths can coexist.
That's when you stop choosing sides and start choosing presence.
Then duality becomes less like a cage and more like a doorway.
Close your eyes now and let's get in touch with our breath.
And it doesn't matter if you're sitting,
Standing,
Or lying down,
Or kicked back in your favorite recliner.
The only thing that truly matters when you meditate is that you're comfortable and alert.
There is no right way to meditate.
The way you meditate is the right way.
So do what makes you happy.
So,
Close your eyes,
Or leave them open,
Or soften your gaze.
It's your meditation.
You decide.
And as we start to settle in,
Let's scan our body.
Remember,
We're just breathing.
We're breathing in and breathing out,
One breath at a time.
And that is the present moment.
One breath,
One inhale and exhale,
And then the next.
Let's scan our bodies as we start to settle in.
Relax your face.
Your face is too tense.
Unfurl your brow.
And unclench your jaw.
Relax your neck.
Relax your shoulders.
These are places of tension in today's world because we're always hunched over phones and tablets and laptops.
Relax your.
.
.
Arms and your hands.
And look for any tension in your chest and belly.
We're just scanning down our body,
Looking for where there might be a problem or a little tension.
Relax your legs and your feet.
And as you begin to settle in,
Let's focus even more on our breath.
Our breath is our anchor.
It's there for us in all moments.
When we're happy,
When we're sad,
When we're focused,
And when we're not.
And our breath is one of the few things in your entire life that you can exert some control over and make your life better.
And if you have thoughts,
Just acknowledge them and let them go.
They're like waves on a lake or leaves going downstream on a river.
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.
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And if you hear sounds in the room,
Just let them go as well.
Just take this moment to settle.
Let your hands rest where they fall.
And let your breath arrive just as it is.
There's no need to shape it.
No need to improve it.
You're not trying to breathe like me.
You're trying to breathe like you.
Just feel the simple fact of being here in this moment.
This is your time.
Your meditation.
So settle in.
And just breathe.
Just breathe.
Now imagine you're sitting beside a wide,
Slow-moving river.
In its late afternoon.
The kind of light that softens everything it touches.
The light comes through the trees and it dapples everything.
And the air is gentle and soft.
And the water moves with quiet confidence.
Nothing here is rushed.
And as you breathe in,
Feel the coolness of the river.
And as you breathe out.
Feel the warmth of the sun on your skin.
Just let your body settle.
The way a stone settles into sand.
Naturally and without effort.
Now here,
I'm going to let you sit and breathe by the river,
And I'll be back in a minute.
Notice that the river has two banks.
And one side is bright.
It's sunlit,
It's open,
It's clear.
But the other side is shaded.
It's cool and quiet and mysterious.
Both sides belong to the same river.
And let this be your first glimpse of duality.
Two expressions,
One essence.
As you breathe,
Feel into the places in your own life.
Where you tend to split things in two.
Right and wrong,
Calm and anxious,
Strong and vulnerable.
Self and other.
Not to judge them.
But just to notice.
The mind's habit of dividing what's actually connected.
Now shift your attention to the water itself.
On the surface,
The river moves,
Ripples and reflections and currents and eddies.
This is the part of life that changes quickly.
Your thoughts.
Your moods.
Your impulses,
Your reactions.
But beneath the surface the river is steady.
It's slow,
And deep,
And unhurried.
This is the part of you that doesn't get swept away,
The part that watches,
The part that knows.
Let your breath follow this pattern.
Inhale,
The surface.
Exhale,
The depth.
Inhale the movement,
Exhale the stillness.
Both are true.
Both are you.
Now imagine placing one hand.
In the cool shade of one side.
And the other hand in the warm sunlight.
Now feel the contrast.
But also feel the coexistence.
You don't have to choose one.
You don't have to resolve anything.
You don't have to collapse the world.
To one side or the other.
Duality is not a problem to solve.
Rather,
It's a doorway into presence.
And let yourself rest in the space that holds both.
You can be tired and still capable.
You can be healing and still whole.
You can be uncertain and still moving forward.
Let the river teach you.
The river has taught me.
For many years.
Opposites are not enemies.
They are companions.
Now imagine the boundary between you and the river softening.
Your breath becomes the current.
Your awareness becomes the depth.
And your body becomes the riverbank,
Steady and supportive and grounded.
Feel yourself as something spacious enough to hold both sides.
The light and the shadow.
The movement and the stillness.
The clarity,
And the confusion.
The reacting and the responding.
All of it belongs.
All of it is part of the same flowing life.
I want you to take three slow breaths,
One for the surface.
One for the depth,
And one for the wholeness that includes both.
And when you're ready,
Come back into the room and wiggle your fingers and toes and stretch and feel how good it is to be alive.
How good it is to be here in this moment.
And carry this with you.
You are not the split.
You are the river that holds it.
And I hope this has been a beneficial and calming session for each and every one of you.
I'm honored that you've invested some of your precious time here with me.
And if you follow my meditations or sessions,
You know that I love quotes.
So I have a good one today.
And it's my favorite.
It's from philosopher Alan Watts that sums up duality perfectly,
Where he said,
Duality is always secretly unity.
Wise words.
Thank you again for being here.
I hope you'll come back again.
Till next time.
