Duality Essay

Self, other, and (non-)duality The basis of real unity is neither the community, nor the individual, it is the mutual relation between them. The more the individual fulfills himself in the society, the more can the society achieve an ethical unity (Couteau, 2006, 283). This works on assumption that the betweenness is the very foundation of human relationships and that the structure of human (ningen 人間) is equally individual and social. It is expressed in the original meaning of compound ningen as “being individual“ (hito人) and “being between” (aida間) in conjunction. Thus, ningen refers to the social orientation of a human being and consequently to the individuality of human being. Hence, the above mentioned clearly shows that the “between”

A human renouncing social relationships, in this regard, is not considered as an individual, it is not even a human being. It is because since there is no space to relate to other humans and there is no way for him to engage in the dialectic of his own individual and social aspects which evolves and cultivates not only his sociality, but also his individuality. That person is not a complex being, he lacks the crucial aspects of humanity, so he is – in simple terms - inhumane. Any community (e.g. a family or a church) as a whole develops together with its elements, the individuals, whose relationships give rise to it. This way continual disintegration of community (as a whole) leads to its subsequent restoration. In other words, duality brings about non-duality and non-duality brings about duality. Hence, true ethics, according to Watsuji, is a return to an authentic unity through an initial contradiction within the self, and between the self and the other in the betweenness. The awareness of the mutual interconnection of everything blurs the borderlines of separation and former duality of self – other disappears in non-duality. Here becomes clear how significant the dialogue between the individual and the society is. An incessant movement of the dialectic between the individual and the society returns humans back to themselves (Mochizuki,

The resolute implementation here is not an imperative, it is but an equal manifestation of both individuality and sociality, a middle path between the liberal and the communitarian attitude, between the individualism and the totalitarianism. Such a middle path might be reached by means of newly established trust in purely human qualities such as benevolence, trustworthiness, truthfullness and sincerity. In other words, there ought to be kokoro in betweenness and this kokoro should display humanity and reflect humanity of others. There certainly is no room for the egoistic approach or pure altruism in betweenness between humans. The emptiness provides humans with empty selves that fills in mutual interaction and then empty again and again. Now, in a disagreement or argument, there are no selves to be offended. The striving for winning in a quarrel or humiliating our opponent in a fight is only a matter of ego. In the relationships, the individual ego should be suspended because it hinders the achievement of consensus or