Duality is something that truly interests me in many facets of life but for example in spirituality, to express being a non-dualist means to recognise duality as definable. But I was struck by your statement “freedom is only freeing when the (perceived) threat of containment forebodingly lurks.” Freedom...another favourite of mine that I particularly explore as ‘sovereignty’ - I’m not sure I agree that to feel ‘freeing’, containment must lurk...? I don’t disagree exactly - it’s something I wish to consider further. If I think on sovereignty, I see it as a state of being that is ‘natural’ in terms of at the point of realisation - to ‘feel’ it does not necessarily have to match the material reality.
Fascinating area for me to think further on this. Personally I totally accept dualism as a concept but feel out of step with this belief amongst many other people.
Just realised it took me 2 weeks to notice this! My apologies!
I absolutely agree with you! I must admit that I took a few liberties with this piece in terms of emphasising certain polarities to make the point. I guess it comes down to how we define being 'free'. Is freedom innate? Perhaps it is, in which case it does not take containment but a certain self-realisation of that inner liberation. Introspection then becomes the key to freedom.
Interestingly, I've noticed that when freedom becomes part of socio-cultural or philosophical discourse, 'containment' (or a degree of it) becomes an almost unacknowledged counterpart to what it means to be free. Hmmm, perhaps I'm overthinking this! I too will have to ponder on this more! :)
"every role is defined by an antithetical otherness." I never really thought about it all this way. Beautiful post today. The writing itself is an example of what you're talking about, the gently lifted gossamer.
Duality is something that truly interests me in many facets of life but for example in spirituality, to express being a non-dualist means to recognise duality as definable. But I was struck by your statement “freedom is only freeing when the (perceived) threat of containment forebodingly lurks.” Freedom...another favourite of mine that I particularly explore as ‘sovereignty’ - I’m not sure I agree that to feel ‘freeing’, containment must lurk...? I don’t disagree exactly - it’s something I wish to consider further. If I think on sovereignty, I see it as a state of being that is ‘natural’ in terms of at the point of realisation - to ‘feel’ it does not necessarily have to match the material reality.
Fascinating area for me to think further on this. Personally I totally accept dualism as a concept but feel out of step with this belief amongst many other people.
Just realised it took me 2 weeks to notice this! My apologies!
I absolutely agree with you! I must admit that I took a few liberties with this piece in terms of emphasising certain polarities to make the point. I guess it comes down to how we define being 'free'. Is freedom innate? Perhaps it is, in which case it does not take containment but a certain self-realisation of that inner liberation. Introspection then becomes the key to freedom.
Interestingly, I've noticed that when freedom becomes part of socio-cultural or philosophical discourse, 'containment' (or a degree of it) becomes an almost unacknowledged counterpart to what it means to be free. Hmmm, perhaps I'm overthinking this! I too will have to ponder on this more! :)
"every role is defined by an antithetical otherness." I never really thought about it all this way. Beautiful post today. The writing itself is an example of what you're talking about, the gently lifted gossamer.
Cheers Antonia, thanks so much for the support as always!
Dueling with imaginary ‘Duality’! A erroneous way of thinking.
Words fail. They INVITE such primitive thinking