Question abut the world of duality

allkosong SG

Hi there. In the world of duality, ying does not exist without yang, good does not exisit without bad, right without left, and so on. So why are we always taught to do good and eliminate bad? If there are kind/compassionate people, there will be an equal number of unkind/uncompassionate people and vice versa. Why do we need to try to change anything then?

Is that line of reasoning sound? If not, please let me know what I am missing here. Thank you.

Aik TC SG

When goodness is spread around, what we get is peace, harmony, joy and happiness. Whereas what we associate with badness would be due to individual greed and selfishness. When such undesirable values get out of control, chaos and suffering follows, not just to oneself but to others as well.

Religions teach us to love, to be kind and compassionate to others so that we can inculcate a sense of selflessness in us. These are all good not just for society but also for the individual involved as well.

Would we than not want more kind/compassionate people than just an equal amount of both?

allkosong SG

Thanks, Aik TC. I understand the benefits of having more kind/compassionate people. My question was: if yin cannot exist without yang, that means there will always be equal amounts of yin and yang in the world of phenomenon (duality). Logically, this would extend to imply that when there is a person who becomes more kind, there will simultaneously be someone else who becomes less kind ie. the amount of kindness will always equal amount of unkindness in the world of duality. Is this line of reasoning incorrect?

Aik TC SG

I see you are referring to the interdependent Yin and Yang principle where when there is imbalance in the dynamic flow in either Yin or Yang energies, both will automatically and continuously balance and rebalanced themselves.

But I do not think that the principle of balance and rebalance applies to such values of kindness and unkindness. Anyway, how does one quantified it? My belief is that, most, if not all humans tends towards goodness, and that is why the majority of the human race believes in a religion.

Buddhist thought on the subject of duality is not about such automatic balance in the phenomenon world. We are living and surviving in a dualistic world. We need contrast and comparison to make sense on what is going around us. The moment our thoughts arise it fastens itself upon one point of a manifold of undetermined intuition dividing it into two usually unequal parts. On one side we have the similar things and on the other side the more illimited dissimilar things. Our thoughts or cognition thus represents a dichotomy right from the beginning when thoughts arise. Duality is a fact of our life. There is good there is bad, there are beautiful things, there are also things that we consider ugly. It is a relative world, it is dependent originated. That’s the reality and there is nothing wrong with it. That to a Buddhist is conventional reality. But it is very important that we must realize that all things are Dependent Originated, there is nothing that is permanent and stays the same forever.

The Buddhists are more interest in the subject of non-duality of subject and object. This is than looking at transcendental reality. Realizing this reality creates a different mindset altogether in an individual. One can characterized it by a person who have developed the ability in fullness to look at all things and situation in a equanimous way, beyond what is good and bad, what is right and wrong. Such state can be reached when the ‘Self’ drops away. The Bahiya Sutta - Ud 1.10 gives a very good description how one can reach such state of mind.

An Eternal Now SG

"Logically, this would extend to imply that when there is a person who becomes more kind, there will simultaneously be someone else who becomes less kind ie. the amount of kindness will always equal amount of unkindness in the world of duality. Is this line of reasoning incorrect?"

This reasoning is not correct. It is possible to have increase in compassion and reduction in unkindness.