# Dualism
- URL: https://www.petrikajander.com/dualism/
- Author: Petri Kajander
- Date: 2004-08-29
- Language: en
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmUUNvWxF6Q

We need [dualism](http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Dualism) to live and experience. The list of examples is basically infinite: day and night, good and bad, dark and light, male and female, healthy and sick, and so on. Without the opposite concept, we would not recognize the difference; all would be the same. And when there is nothing else, we cannot imagine or appreciate anything else—it would not exist for us. This would make learning difficult because there would be no way to compare things and occasions. How could we appreciate life if there was no death?

Still, we are blind. We do not want to see that one cannot get the other without expecting the other to occur as well. We're after happiness but we're afraid of sorrow. We're after wealth but cannot stand poorness. We get disappointed when the other event appears. Usually it's a great disaster or bad karma/luck. And when the positive occurrence meets us, we have deserved it—naturally. It's quite funny, I must say. Unfortunately, this is how we live and act. The consequences of our blindness are not nice to see. As much happiness as we create, we create at least the same amount of sorrow by not seeing the full picture. Our selfish behavior creates a mess that others have to solve.

Most of the dualisms are our own creation. They do not actually exist in our physical world. Think, for example, of good and bad or beauty and ugliness. Each person formulates his or her own perception of these concepts. Things are just what they are—we create the meaning, the dualism. If we would see the pure, true existence, there would be far fewer surprises and disappointments and far fewer ideological wars or "acts of rightness." But are we able to learn to live without the dualistic existence reminding us the lesson every day? For instance, humankind has not learned to live in peace since the first day of our existence—the concept seems so difficult to master. Yet if you hit someone with a hammer and the other person gets hurt, he or she might just hit back. Then you are hurt as well, and everybody is worse off. Get the full picture?