notes on dualism

"Perhaps the most concise summary of enlightenment would be: transcending dualism."
-Douglas Hofstadter, Godel Escher Bach

Hofstadter brings this up in reference to the problem of logic preventing enlightenment. He then defines dualism as the conceptuel division of the world into categories. What is dualism? What does it mean to divide the world into categories and what are the implications?

Dualism seems to be related to one of the most fundamental systems of the human condition. So fundamental that youd be hard pressed to find any phenomena that does not distill down to either / or. Computers are entirely built upon this concept. Binary, 0/1, simply either the presence of electrons or not. Boolian logic underlies all functions that modern computers can do. Is this phenomena some how intrinsic to our reality? Somehow constrained by our dimentionality…

I recently watched a piece by Jordan Peterson where he made the point that our behavior is essentially built from copying each other. All the way back through the millenia, organisms have copied those that have come before them. This stategey makes sense because as long as you copy the organisms that survive, chances are good that you too will survive. Now, trace this back to what might be the bahavior of the most fundamental organism. Bacteria? DNA? RNA? Doesnt matter, whats more important is their bahavior. What did they do? I imagine a world where an agent either moves left or right. Up or down. Replicates or does not. This behavior essentially became the building blocks of life as we know it and is by default written into our code. This behavior is dualism.

Why then does this aspect of our nature prevent us from enlightenment? I would assume the answer cannot be achieved through thiking but through not thinking, not mind. Some sort of supression of thought is necessary. Then perhaps the ability to come back to such dualistic state of mind with the perspective of what its like to have been enlightened. This seems like an interesting set of tasks to achieve. In the case of enlightenment, is it even possible to “come back”?

If dualism according to Hoftstadher is the conceptual division of the world into categories, then how might one transcend this tendency? Everything we do or say is categorized and referenced sub conciously then stored in memory as categories. It would seem considering this example, if you have experienced any aspect of the human condition then you would be unable to think outside the constraints of dualism. One way you might go about it is through the use of words. If one can begin to think without using words this would be a good approach to seeng the world without dualism as a lens.

In Zen, Koans are used for this very reason: to abstract the mind from words by using paradoxes and double negatives. This in a way makes fun of of words and points out how absurd they can be as a means of communication.

“Is there a teaching no master ever taught before?” “Yes, It is not mind, not Buddah, not things.”