CHRISTIANITY, TAO and DUALISM

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CHRISTIANITY, TAO and DUALISM

I am the one, there is none beside me.
I form the light and the darkness
I make the peace, and create evil
Have you ever heard this before ?
Do you have any idea who said this ?
If you have ever read the Bible, you might know that this is from the Book of Isaiah.
I paraphrased it. The actual scripture follows...
Isaiah 45:6 So that from the rising of the sun
to the place of it's setting
men may know there is none beside me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
Isaiah 45:7 I form the light and create the darkness,
I make the peace and create evil;
I the LORD do all these things.
Does this confuse you ? How can God create evil ?
Can this possibly be true ?
The answer will probably surprise you. That is because you think in a dualistic way. What does that mean ? It means your brain processes information through Dualism.
Don't feel bad about it, the overwhelming majority of people think exactly the same way.
Let's examine Dualism, shall we ?
I will try to help you understand as well as I can.

To grossly simplify it, Dualism is
an either / or way of thinking.
Even computers "think" in duality,
unless programmed not to do so.
Computers use binary programs, IE: 1 or 0
As humans we do too. Here are some examples...
Black or White Good or Evil Hot or Cold
Difficult or Easy Right or Wrong Old or New
This is a very easy trap to fall into. It is the way the human mind has developed over the course of evolution, and it has sufficed.
Stop and think about it though,
is this smartest way to examine our world?
Everything is not black or white - is there not gray ?
The same thing can be said of good and evil. Who is without at least a little bit of evil in them ?
Hot and cold...ever heard of lukewarm ?
I think I have made my point. What I am saying in a nutshell is that there are no absolutes.
( I can hear the know-it-all in the back row saying,
"You just made an absolute statement !"
To that person I say that I did
NOT say that there are ABSOLUTELY no absolutes, but you ARE an ABSOLUTE MORON !)
Forgive me dear reader, I digress.

To deal with this problem of Duality, I suggest that we look at things in a zen-like way.
There is a little white in the black -
There is a little black in the white...
Zen masters see the Duality, they also see the ONE.
The One can be seen as divided -
but even so - it does not cease to be One.
The yin/yang symbol is a good illustration of this,
for although half is black
and half is white, they wrap around each other to form a whole. They are in perfect balance, and each depends on the other to exist.
To draw another analogy,
let us think of Duality as two sides of the same coin...
If one side is painted white
and the other side is painted black..
if you toss it in the air
50% of the time it will land black side up.
The other 50% of the time it will land white side up.
If you spin the coin fast enough it will appear gray.
This is a basic tenant of Tao, (pronounced dow)
an ancient oriental philosophy.
I'm sure you have heard of the Buddhist's desire
to "Be one with everything."
In Taoist thinking we should "see" things as a whole.
We should not "see" the tree, but rather the forest.
We should not "see" ourselves as individuals
but as all of humanity if not the entire planet.
That is why Taoists have such a high regard for ALL life.
We should strive to not dwell on the past,
or worry about the future, but live in the NOW.
We should not be judgmental, but accepting.
The Bible tells us many of the same things...
I can't quote the exact scripture,
but I seem to remember The Bible as saying
we should trust in the Lord,
because the Lord will provide.
We should not judge our fellow man -
that is a job for the Lord.
"Judge not your fellow man
lest ye be judged in the same manner."
Then there is the maddening quote from Isaiah...
I am the one
and there is no other
I am the LORD.
I form the light
and create the darkness,
I make the peace and create evil;
I the LORD do all these things.
CAN I GET A GLORY HALLELUJAH ?!

One other point I neglected to mention,
another basic idea of zen is that life is like a river.
It flows to the sea. You can not stop the river, the river
make it's way regardless of how you try to obstruct it.
It will simply go around the obstacle.
That is why we should not try to fight the river,
but behave as leaves floating on the surface.
This is what it means to "go with the flow."
I hope you can see the wisdom of this axiom.

Namaste', love, light, and peace to you and yours...

...........Mitch Fuqua