I heard a well-meaning person say the other day that if only they could eliminate this and that in their lives they would finally defeat the evil of duality in their thought and reach their goal. It sounds really good, but it’s a bit off target. In fact, duality – the idea that in most if not all of life there are only two ways of looking at things, they are either on or off, hot or cold, dry or wet, and so on – is a perfectly legitimate way of looking at the world. We have to admit that for the majority of recent history (at least) most of the world has perceived that world through a binary lens and the planet has not spun out of orbit and drifted off into the icy cold depths of space. Duality as a way of understanding the world works, I just don’t believe it works very well, especially in terms of our happiness. I do have to admit that if it weren’t for dual, binary thought I couldn’t be typing this message on a computer, so I don’t want to be too hasty in throwing all binary systems away.

The real goal, in my opinion, isn’t a goal at all but rather is achieved in the journey toward the goal. Our path should reaching our full potential as human beings. Along the way we will find ourselves becoming more kind, more compassionate, more caring, more loving, more peaceful, and happier – and so will those around us. To do that, we mustn’t adopt this attitude that we are killing off “bad” behaviors or attitudes, as if we were some sort of spiritual hit man. Rather we must build in ourselves the qualities needed to achieve our potential. It’s addition, not subtraction, and it certainly isn’t a hunting expedition for the things we don’t want. This is good news, because it means we can relax and focus on growth rather than looking to cut pieces of ourselves off!