Updated May 8, 2023
Anything perceived as good is just as bad because everything comes in pairs of opposites in a world of duality. That is why you do not get the duality flow if you try to hold onto being hurt, for example, to prove you are a victim of somebody. But you get it if you go with the interplay of hurt and healthy, thus not seeing distinct but airy feelings in the duality flow. Photo © Alexius Jørgensen.
In most cases, you do not have to read Alexius’ Enlightened Non-Teachings in a particular order. But in the case of this article, you may want to read Duality Hack #7 Physical & non-physical issues do not mix.
NO FEELINGS ARE SINGULAR:
The duality flow is not about the opposing elements in the duality pairs but their constant interaction. However, to join that, you start by acknowledging a distinct approach to an experience so you can perceive it as ‘it is what it is,’ thus revealing your specific response contains its opposite.
For example, there is hate inside love because they need each other to be defined, which they do by constantly interacting. Any minute though, hatred may show that it can also be defined by kindness. Then that twofoldness replaces the former until kindness reveals it can also complement selfishness. And so it goes until you want to be free, thus not being in the duality flow.
Believing you are free, although not knowing who you are, continues until you are fed up with the hectic stream of thoughts required to hide that you are nothing but a puppet of the brain made to enjoy its experiences of duality. Then, accepting that, you are back in the duality flow.
If you suffer because somebody has died, you stand by the discomfort so it can be perceived as ‘it is what it is.’ Since that reveals your feeling is not singular but twofold, it goes not make you feel alone but together
This is a picture of Alexius’ beloved cat Uma, who died only eight months old and left Alexius crying for ages. Fortunately, weeping is coupled with happiness, so weeping made him remember all the happy times they had together and still have in the airy psychological sphere where they still meet. But, of course, that does not mean he does not miss her physical presence. But then again, that feeling of loss is in the psychological sphere, where she is, so he meets her again there. Photo © Alexius Jørgensen.
ALL FEELINGS ARE TWOFOLD
The first time Alexius experienced the duality flow was during a gentle but very physical massage years ago. Without thinking, he did not try to escape a particularly unpleasant feeling triggered by the massage but kept looking at it emotionally. Then, relatively quickly, it quietly opened up, and joy came out of it. However, it was not until much later that Alexius recognised the same happens if you perceive a specific feeling or opinion as ‘it is what it is’ because that reveals it contains its opposite.
Much later, that happened when Alexius’ cat, Uma, died. He immediately sensed something was off because a dead cat could not create the feeling of loss he felt in his body. Therefore, as the pain of loss could only be something he unconsciously had projected onto his body, he consciously brought it back into the psychological sphere, where the loss was revealed to be coupled with birth.
So although he had lost his cat physically, the loss was revealed to interact with birth in the psychological zone. Thus Uma kept coming and going mentally. Therefore, since Alexius got into the interaction of life and death in the psychological area, he felt happy/sad about his cat.
In other words, since the death of his beloved cat made it impossible for Alexius to project psychological issues on her physical being, his relationship with Uma returned to the psychological sphere, where it had always been and will remain until the experience of duality ends. That is not to say you should neglect the body. On the contrary, bringing back the mental issues projected onto physical entities into the psychological sphere frees the body from the idea of integrating it with love or other non-physical issues. Thus the body blossoms physically. Read more about Uma and Alexius here.
So if you want to feel good in a world of duality, do not use the body as a means to feel that. Happiness is in the psychological sphere, in an ongoing interaction with sadness. When you join their interplay, the duality flow vitalises you and your relationships in the psychological sphere.
Even though Alexius’ cat Uma (in the front of the pic) is dead, Alexius connects with her in the airy psychological sphere. Of course, he cannot physically see Uma there but feel what he experienced they had together. It is like listening to the ocean’s waves without seeing them. However, Alexius initially did not get in touch with what he remembered they had together but the sorrow of missing her. Fortunately, that was only until he realised his mourning for Uma contained her. The moment she died in his arms and any other moment with her remained in the psychological zone. Thus Uma is as close as she always was and will be. Photo © Alexius Jørgensen.
A FEELING ALWAYS HAS ITS OPPOSITE INSIDE
Having a singular feeling revealed as twofold is not an intellectual process. First, you perceive the specific feeling as ‘it is what it is.’ Second, in a state of expectation, calling for nothing specific, you patiently wait, maybe a minute. Third, your singular feeling opens up, and its opposite fills its space.
The transition is so gentle that you forget the first feeling. But unlike that, the opposite feeling does not seem singular because it is defined by the first one, which the new, completely different feeling then defines. And as both feelings are experienced via their opposite, they are not distinctive but dual. Their interplay is as automatic as breathing in and out. One automatically leads to the other. That is why you may forget the elements in a duality pair. However, you do not forget how well-grounded and beloved you feel in the interplay of opposites.
When you start perceiving your reaction to something as ‘it is what it is’, the revelation of its opposite side probably makes you speechless. But after a while, the collaboration of opposites, resulting in the duality flow, makes you feel dynamic. Photo © Alexius Jørgensen.
BEING VITALISED BY THE DUALITY FLOW
At first, you may get to the duality flow from the perception, ‘it is what it is,’ but after a while, you can recall it by memory. After all, it is one’s natural state of being in a world of duality. So, of course, you choose not to divide the duality pairs into distinct components seen at odds but instead enjoy the interaction of the opposing element in a duality pair to feel the abundance of twofoldness, not the scarcity of singularity. Occasionally it may take some time to see a duality pair work, for example, night and day.
Having said that, initially, Alexius mainly engaged in the revealed component of a duality pair instead of joining the interaction of opposing elements supporting each, like breathing in and out. But he could not help going with the duality flow after a while. He experiences it like being emptied by an ocean of waves gracefully going nowhere. But sometimes, it feels like a pendulum moving in different directions in the psychological sphere. Since feelings are personal, your experience of the duality flow may differ from Alexius.’ Nevertheless, you know you are in the duality flow when you keep smiling for no reason.
First, you imagine to dump your unwanted feelings in the body. Second, you perceive the body as tight so it seems to hide the feelings you imagined to stored there. Third, you interpret the tightened body as proof of having concealed your unwanted feelings in its darkness. Fourth, you forget all about it.
Listening to the ocean’s waves is like being in the duality flow. You feel vitalised. However, if you insist on doing things your way, you soon feel restless because many things must be adjusted to make it look like things are going your way. Photo © Alexius Jørgensen.
GOING WITH DUALITY
None of the opposing elements in the duality flow remains for long. You can compare it to a seesaw on a playground, where one person goes up as the other goes down. If you try holding onto the top by avoiding going down, the feeling you get is fake because you need to go back and forth to define what is up and down – just like there is nothing to describe breathing in if you do not breathe out.
Twofoldness is always the way in a world of duality. For example, walking requires two legs. And taking a step forward includes the past because it is the building stone for your future step. So if you exclude one of the legs, you cannot walk.
Likewise, if you exclude hate from love, you do not hit the road of duality, thus not getting the togetherness of twofoldness but the loneliness of singleness. The latter may feel like a non-concrete pain in the body, even though it does not come from there but from the psychological sphere. Inside it, you hold yourself spellbound by the idea that twofoldness can be separated into independent items and hate, therefore, can be separated from love.
Many people achieve this separation by projecting their hatred onto a vulnerable body part. Then they lure themselves into believing they have gotten rid of their psychological issue by feeling it as a physical problem in the weak part of the body. Finally, they render themselves unconscious of what they have done to see themselves as full of love. However, emotions are abstract, and bodies are substantial, so assuming you can dump hate in flesh and bones is absurd.
In other words, since you cannot remove your hatred from your awareness by hiding it in a vulnerable part of the body, the disturbance experienced in that part does not come from there but in the psychological sphere where you imagine to have buried it in the body. And since the psychological area is abstract, you do not solve the problem in something material, nor by changing your pattern.
Nothing needs to be changed. Instead, you need to see that every psychological feeling is twofold, and both are yours. You see that when perceiving the present feeling of disgust as ‘it is what it is’ because it reveals the disturbance interacting with peace to define each other as something you have in the psychological zone. Read more about that in Duality Hack #7 Physical & non-physical issues do not mix.
Realising that the world does not cause psychological feelings, you see they are yours, and you have them so they can interact, thus making you feel complete in the duality flow. Therefore, you do not need to suppress feelings to hold onto a self-made version of the world where the elements in the duality pairs fight each other instead of interacting.
Read more about the psychological sphere in The psychological zone is anywhere but in material things.
If you have made a story about the perfect romance, you adjust to your fantasy and expect the world to do the same. Thus creating a prison for yourself and others. But since a world of duality consists of nothing but fantasies, you are bound to make another story if you stop your romantic tale. And although the new one is judged better or more spiritual, it is just a change of conditioning. However, the problem is not your fantasies but that your response to them is definitive. When your response is dualistic, as supposed in a world of duality, you do not expect your stories to play out in a specific way. Therefore, since they do not imprison you, it is fun living your fantasies as they unfold themselves. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.
EVERY STORY HAS AN END
If you consider food eaten at noon as lunch, you do not have food but a lunch story. That is one example of how our days consist of stories telling us how to behave. Besides, we adapt to the division of days as if time is real, not an agreed-upon construction to imprison us.
Fortunately, you do not have to stop or change your stories to find reality. Instead, perceive your reaction to any internal or external story as ‘it is what it is.’ Since it reveals your response is twofold, you join the duality flow, the interaction of opposites (see, You must play the game of duality to hack it). That does not stop the story but makes you indifferent, thus not conditioned by your fantasy, wherefore being in a world of duality becomes entertaining. However, duality is also a story. But like all stories, it has an end, so the experience of it naturally stops when you live by it.
Doing that does not mean your home, spouse, and work, for example, must be twofold, but your response to your experience is twofold. You may have thought finding non-duality was a matter of singularity. But non-duality is neither singular nor anything else since that requires more than one. For the same reason, non-duality is not something you can find or realise.
Non-duality is oneness, and since it takes more than one to have a shape, it is formless, thus endless. Hence duality is make-believe.
However, when believing there is more than non-duality, thus experiencing a world of duality, you can realise this belief has a beginning and, therefore, an end. Hence, it is only a matter of time before the belief in duality does not seem to cover there is no more non-duality. The belief’s end comes faster when living per duality because you feel so complete in the duality flow that you soon forget to believe there is more than non-duality.
APPENDIX
Alexius’ Enlightened Non-Teachings are written within the concept of duality. They do not claim to be non-dual or to know what it is since that requires more than one. But they claim to know what is not non-dual, namely, everything experienced, because it takes more than one to be conscious of something.
NOTE: This article is part of Duality Hack #8 The duality flow goes to non-duality.
Alexius´ Enlightened Non-Teachings are written within the concept of duality. They do not claim to be non-dual or to know what it is since that requires more than one. But they claim to know what is not non-dual, namely, everything experienced, because it takes more than one to be conscious of something. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.
EVERY STORY HAS AN END
If you are conditioned to call the food you bring with you to eat at lunch a lunch box, you do not eat food at lunch but a story containing a lunchbox. This is just an example to illustrate our days are made up of stories. And days are an agreed upon construct to manifest time, that we live by as it is real.
No worries. You do not have to stop your stories to find reality. If you keep telling them and perceive your reaction to them as ‘it is what it is’ it is revealed as twofold. Since that is the essence of duality, you have arrived at the beginning of its story. And since every story has an end, duality automatically fades out, thus all the storytelling while you enjoy feeling them twofold.
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