A journey through spiritual insight and physics revealing how duality shapes us, polarity connects us, and consciousness unites it all, reminding us we are one within a divided world.
“We are not outside the universe, observing it. We are the universe, aware of itself.”
What does it mean to become?
In a culture that celebrates fixed identities, it’s easy to forget that life is about movement. We’re not statues. We’re stories in motion. Becoming means growing into what’s already true beneath the surface. It’s not about turning into someone else. It’s about waking up to who we already are.
That’s the paradox. We’re whole, yet we spend our lives learning what that means. We start out seeing the world in pieces: light and dark, good and bad, self and other. We navigate through contrast, which shapes us. This is where duality shows up.
Duality: The Starting Point
Duality is how most of us first experience the world. Everything seems split into opposites. Right and wrong. Male and female. Body and spirit. It gives us categories, but it also creates false walls. We start to believe we’re separate from each other and the world around us.
Spiritual traditions often describe this as an illusion. New Thought, Buddhism, and nondual teachings all suggest that separation is not the final truth. They say we’ve forgotten our unity with the whole.
Still, duality isn’t just a mistake. It’s also how the physical universe works. We’re not imagining the contrast. It’s built into the system. Without it, there’d be no change, no growth, no form at all.
Polarity: Seeing the Connection
Polarity helps us move beyond the trap of duality. Instead of opposites locked in battle, we begin to see extremes on a single spectrum. Hot and cold, love and hate, confidence and doubt, they’re not separate things. They’re different expressions of the same underlying force.
This perspective shifts everything. Where duality creates conflict, polarity opens up understanding. It reminds us that contrast doesn’t mean contradiction. It means depth. We start to recognize patterns and relationships where we once saw division.
Energy and Matter: Einstein’s Insight
Einstein’s famous equation, E=mc², tells us that energy and mass are interchangeable. Matter is just concentrated energy. This isn’t a metaphor. It’s a foundational principle of modern physics.
What does that mean for us? It means that the visible world and the invisible forces behind it are not separate. They’re different forms of the same thing. In spiritual terms, it supports the idea that reality is unified beneath appearances.
If energy and matter are one, then the line between thought and form gets thinner. Thought has energy. Intention has direction. Our inner life and the outer world are more connected than we usually admit.
Quantum physics pushes this even further. It shows us that particles can become entangled. That means they influence each other instantly, no matter how far apart they are. It suggests that space isn’t a true separator. There’s a deeper connection underneath.
Then there’s the uncertainty principle. We can’t know both the position and momentum of a particle at the same time. It’s not a problem with our tools. It’s a built-in quality of the quantum world. Reality, at its core, is relational and unpredictable.
And we can’t ignore the observer effect. The act of observing something at the quantum level changes what it does. Consciousness doesn’t just witness the universe. It plays a role in shaping it.
Source: Scientific American - Quantum Entanglement and Nonlocality
Consciousness: The Common Thread
New Thought teaches that mind is creative. What we think and believe affects what shows up in our lives. That idea might sound mystical, but it fits with what we’re learning from physics. If everything is energy, and consciousness affects energy, then consciousness matters.
We are not outside the universe, observing it. We are the universe, aware of itself. That’s what becoming is: waking up to our participation in the whole. We aren’t just reacting to life. We’re helping create it.
Navigating the Human Experience
This isn’t just theory. In daily life, we feel duality all the time. We struggle between fear and courage, hope and despair, judgment and love. These contrasts aren’t obstacles to spiritual growth. They are the material of growth.
When we hold both sides without collapsing into either one, we expand. We become capable of compassion, resilience, and insight. We stop needing to choose between light and shadow and start seeing both as part of the same sky.
Every challenge we face is an invitation to greater awareness. The world isn’t broken. It’s complex. And we grow by learning to live with that complexity, not by denying it.
Duality Has a Role
While some spiritual paths suggest we escape duality, others ask us to understand it. Without tension, nothing moves. Without contrast, there’s no story. Duality may be an illusion in the ultimate sense, but it’s also how this physical life works.
Atoms exist because of electrical polarity. Stars burn because of gravitational balance. The visible universe depends on opposite forces in motion. The same is true in our emotional and spiritual lives.
So instead of trying to erase duality, we can see it as the fabric of form. It’s what lets spirit express itself. It’s the canvas for becoming.
To become is to move through the illusion of separation, not to bypass it. It’s a practice of attention and intention. We wake up, piece by piece, to the truth that’s been there all along: we are whole, even when we feel split. We are part of one field, even when we feel isolated.
So when life brings tension, conflict, or contrast, don’t push it away. Don’t rush to fix or flee. Instead, pause. Observe. Ask what it’s showing you. That’s where the shift begins.
Becoming is not about achieving perfection. It’s about remembering connection. You are not here to escape the world. You are here to realize you’ve always been more than the sum of your parts.
You are energy and form. Stillness and change. Wave and particle. You are the question and the answer, the paradox and the resolution.
RECOMMENDED: "You Are the Universe" by Deepak Chopra and Menas Kafatos - This book argues, and I agree, that discovering your cosmic self, your unity with all that is, is essential for personal transformation and collective evolution.
Thank you. I appreciate your writing style and enjoyed reading your thoughts. It took decades to express what I've felt since I was three years old, and I did it in an unexpected way in the form of a quasi-poem. I find that your writings remind me of it in this moment, so I will share it here in exchange. Thank you, again. I will re-read your words and consider them in the quiet of the night. My best to all.
Because humans are like butterflies and snowflakes like moons.
Because the cries of children and oxen and oceans pierce.
Because only love as big as all existence can free the truth of me.
Thank you. I appreciate your writing style and enjoyed reading your thoughts. It took decades to express what I've felt since I was three years old, and I did it in an unexpected way in the form of a quasi-poem. I find that your writings remind me of it in this moment, so I will share it here in exchange. Thank you, again. I will re-read your words and consider them in the quiet of the night. My best to all.
Because humans are like butterflies and snowflakes like moons.
Because the cries of children and oxen and oceans pierce.
Because only love as big as all existence can free the truth of me.
Love owns me.