I have often said that duality is the very basis of creation. I say this because the concept of Duality simply means that a thing must have something else to compare it to, otherwise there would only be one thing (“everything”). This may seem obvious enough, but the true depth of this perception is vital to understanding yourself and reality.
Duality plays in everything …
Physically: light / dark, soft / hard, visible / invisible, real / unreal, awake / asleep, alive / dead, silent / noisy, past / future, etc.
Mentally: anger / love, fear / faith, greed / generosity, wisdom / foolishness, sadness / joy, understanding / confusion, etc.
The most important thing to remember is not “why does duality exist”, but rather that it exists. You could question this, even think about each of the things I have listed. You could delve into memory or even read a book to validate this. Keep in mind, however, that no matter how much you want to doubt that this is true … it will still be true.
Duality, however, is not the only reason I am writing this. I write this as an attempt to understand the origin of what we call “Heaven” and “Hell”. Modern religion would say that heaven and hell are destinations after death. The pearly white doors in the clouds and the eternity of pain in the Lake of Fire (pretty pictures, huh?)
Ignoring the assumptions of others, what then is heaven and hell? Where are these places? The answer is in duality.
Heaven and Hell are just two sides of the same thing. The very concept of “God” is that God is everything … and therefore one thing. Putting all this together, heaven and hell are just a perception of God. To explain this a little better, let’s see what we think of heaven and hell as.
Hell: pain, torture, pain, guilt, punishment for “sins”
Heaven: peace, love, joy and security
Basically, hell is a reality without the presence of “God”, where heaven is simply a reality in complete connection with “God”.
Remembering who you are (see “A question worth asking …”), doesn’t this mean that heaven and hell depend entirely on how you see reality? Everything that exists, exists in your mind … you have infinite freedom to see reality however you want. This only gives you the keys to heaven or hell. Here duality comes into play again. As I mentioned in another post, in Duality you can move away from something or towards something … It could be argued that you can go “sideways”, but that would mean moving “towards” one direction or “away” from another. .
Knowing that you are “God”, this means that Heaven and Hell are perceptions of yourself. This also means that heaven and hell are not destinations after death … they are, in fact, right here and readily available to us (like everything else).
Being yourself is heaven, trying to be something else is hell.