Awakening to Wholeness is a series of prompts, reflections, and teachings about how holding the tension of opposites can help us to heal division and experience wholeness. If you feel moved to share your own reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
In recent years, teachers such as Thomas Keating, Richard Rohr, Cynthia Bourgeault, and Ilia Delio have helped the public to face division, fragmentation, and separation by honing the negative consequences of getting stuck in dualistic ways of thinking and behaving. Teaching on non-duality reminds us of wholeness and invites us to get unstuck from our deeply ingrained preferences, biases, assumptions, and demands.
The work of undoing dualism is long and tedious. There are so many sets of opposites and related paradoxes in this world to sort through! Unfortunately, certain sets of opposites pester and persist in each of our lives more than others.
At some point, we must face one of the “ultimate” pairs of opposites. Christian monk Wayne Teasdale suggests that this particular opposition is the key to reconciling spiritual tensions between the Eastern and Western traditions. In the East, the perspective on this tension is that all of reality is One—there is no “real” opposition, division, or boundary. All that is, is One. This perspective is particularly helpful when facing injustices in the world.
In the West, the perspective on this tension is, that all that is, was created by “the One.” Therefore, “two-ness” marks the reality between Creator and created. Christians who hold this perspective add a dimension of “three” by describing “the One” as three persons, a Trinity. This perspective is particularly helpful when a sense of being loved and cared for is necessary in the world.
Yet, even from within the “two” and “three” traditions, we hear mystical accounts of union with the One. Further, from within the Eastern traditions of Oneness, we hear accounts of suffering and desire, and recognition that all is not well in the world of Oneness. Perhaps the non-answer to the riddle of whether reality as non-dual is real, or a perception, is to not get stuck on one, and live into both.
Contemplative Questions
We offer the following questions as prompts to help you reflect on the presence of opposites in your spiritual practice and your life.
- Think about the phrase “All that is, is One.” What thoughts, feelings, questions arise for you? How does this idea of Oneness resonate with your spiritual practice?
- Think about the phrase “All that is, was created by the One.” What thoughts, feelings, questions arise for you? How does this idea of two-ness resonate with your spiritual practice?
- What tensions arise when you consider Oneness and two-ness? How might you live into both?
Join the conversation! If you feel moved to share your reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
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