Duality

For so long, duality has been admonished as something to avoid in the spiritual realms...that the goal is oneness to avoid the pitfalls of polarity. What if, as in this plant, the polarity creates a balance, and that IS the oneness?  How can you know yourself without something to compare it to?  How can you know love in the absence of fear? Duality is the greatest gift, albeit our learning platform, always providing the opportunity to create a whole from the halves.

This plant has leaves that are opposing, or opposite of each other.  It creates a balancing structure, not its demise.  So much of the conversation for the past 30+ years has been around moving past duality, the curse of humanity.  This again goes back to perspective.  If your life has been challenging and you've felt taken advantage of, or victimized, you may genuinely believe that the duality is at the root.  You are correct, in that the duality is showing you the opportunity to heal a perspective and bring it into balance.  This is true of anything that brings you to anger or more correctly, fear.

This may seem insensitive or heartless, and perhaps it is when viewed from a single existence perspective.  If all lifetimes and experiences were laid out, you would notice a certain pattern of action creating reaction, of yin meeting yang, as we learn both sides of issues and flow from predator to prey, abuser to abused, so on and so on.  What we experience as duality is part of the natural unfolding of life.  It is not judgmental nor does it pick sides.  It simply operates along the axis of action and correlating reaction.  As we fully learn the lesson from both sides, it ceases to energetically engage us and we incorporate the lesson into our core, our integrity and therein lies the One.  How interesting that the place we are trying to get to is achieved through the path that we are running from!  This would explain why so many are having challenges with achieving oneness.

This also explains why one person will have a very energetic reaction to a situation while another, experiencing the same thing, will have no reaction at all.  Not out of apathy or being shut down, but from the standpoint of understanding all perspectives because they have been there...and so no judgment remains because they have played all sides. 

Mark J. Platten

Mark J. Platten has his soul rooted in nature, in the holy and sacred communion with the earth and Cosmos. His drive lies in helping people find their passion, purpose, and path by developing the integral human and connecting them with nature. He integrates brain science, indigenous wisdom, rites/rituals/ceremonies, connection with nature, and practical application in the physical realm to become the best version of ourselves.

He is the founder of Integral Human Initiative and Integral Man Institute and helps men and women align with their highest selves through Jungian archetypes, the four subtle bodies (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual), and working with the subconscious to support our highest possibilities.

Mark’s bestselling book, The Art of Connecting With Nature, is an anthology of 22 co-authors sharing how they connect with nature through various rites, rituals, ceremonies, and practices. You can find author interviews on his YouTube channel below and information about courses, rituals, and ceremonies on his website.

He is also a contributing author for three, number-one Amazon bestselling anthologies, and an international award-winning Haiku writer.

On the academic/professional side, Mark has an MBA in Organizational Management, served seven years as an Air Force officer, taught natural resources at the collegiate level, traveled internationally for 16 years as the lead environmental specialist for a company out of London, and since 2008, has been faculty at Colorado State University.

You can connect with him on the following sites:

Websites: www.markjplatten.com
Integral Human Initiative: www.integralhumaninitiative.com
Integral Man Institute www.integralmaninstitute.com
Facebook pages: https://www.facebook.com/TheArtofConnectingWithNature
https://www.facebook.com/whennaturespeaks
https://www.facebook.com/IntegralManInstitute
YouTube for The Art of Connecting With Nature author interviews:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVjtyoGFr25I8xrz2dGQ8A
YouTube for Integral Man Institute:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ-eLsxRb8wAQ2FqfRO7t4g
You can contact Mark via email at markjplatten@gmail.com

https://markjplatten.com
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