Duality is the principle which says that anything and everything in nature holds opposing truths. It is the balance of opposite and competing forces that create harmony in nature. They do not cancel out each other, they merely balance or compliment each other. For instance, life and death, night and day, emotions and logic, particle-wave duality (science nerds know this well!).
One such example of duality in nature is about void and infinity. The notions of nothingness and eternity have shook the foundations of science, of philosophy, of mathematics and of religion since time immemorial. But what’s interesting to me is that human behaviour too reflects these dual forces. This can be better put up as- You are everything and nothing!
You are everything, indicates that we are complete and don’t need something external. A human being possesses infinite ideas and energy to evolve and grow. It’s similar to what Steve Jobs said,
“Life has no limit. Go where you want to go. Reach the height you want to reach. It is all in your heart and in your hands.”
Nothingness comes from the fact that at any moment our presence and impact is an infinitesimally small part of the entire galaxy.
These compliments of nothingness and infinity could be symbolically represented as 0 and ∞. ‘Zero’ can be thought to represent ‘surrender’, ‘complacency’, ‘acceptance’ or ‘detachment’ nature of our being. The infinite aspect of our being manifests itself in ‘change’, ‘chase’, ‘evolve’, ‘achievement’, ‘attachments’, ‘more’.
Knowing the ‘nothingness’ aspect of ourselves instills a sense of humility. It indicates at reducing one’s ego and indeed we are just a speck of dust in this infinite cosmos! Acknowledging the ‘infinity’ within ourselves, helps recognise the power of our subconscious mind and to strive to manifest reality according to our will.
Just like a mathematician knows what operations to engage with zero and which are suitable for infinite. So, it is imperative to know what part of our human nature to bring to fore front in a given situation.
Well, you think you are nothing? Know, that everything emerged from nothing! Nothingness is all encompassing.
You proud about being ‘the one’? Ahem..Everything vanishes into nothing sooner or later! Note it through the words of Steve Jobs,
“..I realize that, all the recognition and wealth took so much pride in, have paled and become meaningless in the face of impending death.”
I do believe, nature is one of the greatest teachers. And nature’s solution to this duality is maintaining a balance. A correct balance of competing, rather complimentary, forces helps in acheiving stability. This does make us reflect the balance between our desire to control things and acceptance of things.