Duality is a consistent theme throughout the cosmos. All existing beings display duality or polarity: male and female, light and dark, heaven and earth, mind and body, subject and object, the self and the whole, being and non-being.
The dynamic interactions between these poles are a source of generative and creative power. This is seen in the regular cycles of nature, the alternation of day and night, and the changing seasons.
Duality is portrayed mythically by the cosmic union of god and goddess, and recognized by science in the electromagnetic interactions that construct atoms and molecules.
Some religions, notably Confucianism and Taoism, regard the polarity of yang (masculine) and yin (feminine) as a governing principle of nature, one that can instruct human beings on the proper way of life.
Father Moon devotes considerable attention to duality, which he develops into a systematic relational ontology. He observes the interactions in nature and sees in them the basis for the principle of altruism, as giving precedes receiving in all successful relationships.
Even the forces of repulsion in nature have the effect of reducing threesomes to twosomes, thus protecting the realm of creative and loving relationships that duality provides. On that basis, he also critiques the Marxist dialectic for teaching a flawed conception of reality, rooted in conflict.
1. The Duality of Masculine and Feminine
And all things We have created by pairs, that you may receive instruction.
Qur’an 51.49
All things are twofold, one opposite the other, and He has made nothing incomplete. One confirms the good things of the other, and who can have enough of beholding His glory? Ecclesiasticus 42.24-25 (Christianity)
The Originator of the heavens and the earth; He has appointed for you of yourselves spouses, and pairs also of the cattle, by means of which He multiplies you. Qur’an 42.11
The Great Primal Beginning generates the two primary forces [yang and yin]. The two primary forces generate the four images. The four images generate the eight trigrams. The eight trigrams determine good fortune and misfortune. Good fortune and misfortune create the great field of action.
I Ching, Great Commentary 1.11.5-6 (Confucianism)
The Creator, out of desire to procreate, devoted Himself to concentrated ardor (tapas). Whilst thus devoted to concentrated ardor, He produced a couple, Matter and Life (prana), saying to himself, “these two will produce all manner of creatures for me.” Now Life is the Sun; Matter is the Moon.
Prasna Upanishad 1.4-5 (Hinduism)
By the transformation of Yang and its union with Yin, the five agents arise: water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. When these five forces are distributed in harmonious order, the four seasons run their course. The five agents constitute the system of Yin and Yang, and Yin and Yang constitute one Great Ultimate.
Chou Tun-i, Explanation of the Diagram of the Great Ultimate (Confucianism)
Mujahid said, “God has created all things in pairs: He created man and woman, heaven and earth, sun and moon, night and day, light and dark, mankind and jinn, good and evil, morning and evening, also all different kinds of foods and winds and sounds. God has made all these as signs of His greatness.”
Al-Qurtubi, Al-Thuriat Surat 17 (Islam)
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1.27
“Male and female He created them.” From this we learn that every figure that does not comprise male and female elements is not a true and proper figure… Observe this: God does not place His abode in any place where male and female are not found together, nor are blessings found save in such a place. Zohar 1.55b (Judaism)
All life, all pulsation in creation, throbs with the mighty declaration of the truth of Shiva-Shakti, the eternal He and the eternal She at play in manifestation.11 Kularnava Tantra 3 (Hinduism)
When the upper world was filled and became pregnant, it brought forth two children together, a male and a female, these being heaven and earth after the supernal pattern. The earth is fed from the waters of heaven which are poured into it. These upper waters, however, are male, whereas the lower are female, and the lower are fed from the male and the lower waters call to the upper, like a female that receives the male, and pour out water to meet the water of the male to produce seed. Zohar 1.29b (Judaism)
The Innate is twofold, for Wisdom is the woman and Means is the man. Thereafter these both become twofold, distinguished as relative and absolute. In man there is this twofold nature: the thought of enlightenment [relative] and the bliss arising from it [absolute]; in woman too it is the same, the thought of enlightenment and the bliss arising from it. Hevajra Tantra 8.26-29 (Buddhism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
The entire world of being exists in a pair system. Human beings exist as men and women, and animals as male and female. Insects also exist as male and female. So do butterflies, birds, ants, and even minerals.
The 107 elements do not come together randomly; when one element finds another that can be its reciprocal partner, nothing can stop them from uniting. But not even God can bring together two positives that repel each other.
If there is a reciprocal quality between two things, they will come together automatically, and nothing can stop them. (203:353, June 28, 1990)
When we study the universe, we see that all beings exist by forming reciprocal relationships between masculine (yang) and feminine (yin). This holds in all cases.
On the level of minerals, the bonding of positive and negative ions forms molecules. In plants, existence and propagation occur through the cooperation of the pistil and the stamen.
This duality is even more pronounced in animals. Birds, mammals, and all other types of animals exist as male and female. Finally, we human beings, who are God’s highest creation, are differentiated as men and women. The first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve, were the first ancestors of humankind.
For what purpose did God create the universe with duality? The Creator separated all things into masculine and feminine so that the two could join by giving and receiving love. All species increase their numbers and carry on life through acts of love. (201:204-05, April 9, 1990)
The universe emerged out of relationships— between up and down, right and left, and front and back. Therefore, from insects to animals and humans, heaven and earth exist in a pair system.
Even the five sensory organs exist in a pair system. So do the hands, feet, mind and body (however, our mind and body are not united as one, and this is a most critical problem). Our eyes blink together.
Our nostrils breathe together. Our lips move together when we speak. Sound resonates in both ears when we hear. We use both hands to make things. We cannot walk with one foot alone, but require two feet.
Everything in the universe needs a partner in order to function and act. Nothing can function alone. Hence, a being by itself cannot resemble God. (391:174, August 21, 2002)
When God created, He worked centering on human beings. With human beings as His model, He expanded the creation in all directions. Hence, He created all creatures—minerals, plants, and animals—in pairs.
The act of creation proceeded by weaving together in pairs the vertical paths and the horizontal paths. Some moved straight, some in a zigzag, others engaged in all manner of actions, but all were arranged in a pair system to create the natural world. It is teaching material for people to learn about ideal love. (173:211)
Inside the seed of a plant are two parts in a reciprocal relationship. The two are completely one inside a single shell. They engage in give-and-take action through the embryo in order to propagate life. In an egg, too, there is an embryo between yolk and white, and they form one body within the single shell.
The same is true for the human fetus. Whether human beings or plants, life forms through a harmonious union of subject and object partners by means of give-and-take action. These multiply in a way that resembles their causal being, thus connecting to the foundation of their existence.
Ultimately, we resemble the First Cause. Therefore, the First Cause must be the basic model, with subject and object partners forming a perfect harmonious union, and having the status of Subject Partner in relation to all beings. (89:226, November 27, 1976)
Even though a person may have many possessions, many children and great power, there is no joy if he or she lives alone. Likewise, although God is the Subject and the Absolute Being, without a partner He also is lonely. Why did God create heaven and earth?
God is the Absolute Subject, but He cannot experience joy as long as He remains alone. Joy cannot be experienced alone; it arises only in the context of a relationship. Peace, too, and happiness, only exist in the context of relationships. For this reason, God cannot function as God as long as He is alone. (58:210, June 11, 1972)
Throughout the universe, love is something that no being can possess by itself. Once a being meets its counterpart, however, and they relate with love, they can obtain all the things that love provides. For example, even though a couple may love children, until they have children of their own, they cannot experience parental love.
They cannot become the owners of the kind of love that parents have for their children. From this perspective, we can understand why God created human beings and the universe: He created them as His object partners in order to realize true love.
All types of love—including the love of children, love of siblings, love of husband and wife, and love of parents—come about through the unity of subject and object partners.
Once subject and object partners become one, nothing can separate them. If they could be divided, we could not say that true love is indestructible. Among married couples, there should not be even the thought of divorce. (True Family and World Peace, March 14, 1999)
God created everything in complementary pairs so that they could receive God’s true love. God wanted them to receive this one love as a partnership.
If a man and a woman perfect God’s love, embody God’s love, and share that love from the same ground of complementarity as God, then they will definitely become an ideal couple. (26:155-56, October 25, 1969)
For the sake of love, God created human beings as His partners. God created all things in the universe in pairs so that God’s love may be eternal, man’s love may be eternal, woman’s love may be eternal, and children’s love may be eternal. They are all God’s family; hence, they should be eternal. (201:193, April 1, 1990)
2. The Duality of Spirit and Matter
Know that prakriti (nature, energy) and Purusha (spirit) are both without beginning, and that from prakriti come the gunas (qualities of the phenomenal world) and all that changes. Prakriti is the agent, cause, and effect of every action, but it is Purusha that seems to experience pleasure and pain.
Purusha, resting in prakriti, witnesses the play of the gunas born of prakriti. But attachment to the gunas leads a person to be born for good or evil. Within the body, the supreme Purusha is called the witness, approver, supporter, enjoyer, the supreme Lord, the highest Self…
Whatever exists, Arjuna, animate or inanimate, is born through the union of the field and its Knower.12 Bhagavad-Gita 13.19-22, 26 (Hinduism)
By a marvelous mating, He brings a spiritual nature into union with one that is material and makes the soul and body active and passive principles, respectively, of a single human whole.
This operation of God, so marvelous and mysterious, He performs not only in the case of man, who is a rational animal and the highest and noblest of all animals on earth, but also in the case of the tiniest insects.
And no one can reflect on this marvel without a sense of astonishment and some expression of admiration for the Creator. Saint Augustine, City of God 22.24 (Christianity)
Our body is just a shell. Inside and outside, there is nothing but the energy of heaven and earth, and yin and yang. Chu Hsi (Confucianism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
The human body consists of 40 trillion cells. They are connected by the body’s circulatory system that is constantly in motion, with blood circulating through arteries and veins. At the same time, electrical energy circulates up and down through the nervous system. In sum, the body contains dual systems of circulation: one visible, the other invisible. (262:126, July 23, 1994)
There is another pair of dual characteristics in reciprocal relationship, which are even more fundamental to existence than the dual characteristics of yang and yin. Every entity possesses both an outer form and an inner quality. The visible outer form resembles the invisible inner quality.
The inner quality, though invisible, possesses a certain structure that manifests visibly in the particular outer form… Let us take human beings as an example. A human being is composed of an outer form, the body, and an inner quality, the mind.
The body is a visible reflection of the invisible mind. Because the mind possesses a certain structure, the body that reflects it also takes on a particular appearance. This is the idea behind a person’s character and destiny being perceived through examining his outward appearance by such methods as physiognomy or palm reading.
Here, mind is the internal nature (sungsang) and body is the external form (hyungsang). Mind and body are two correlative aspects of a human being; hence, the body may be understood as a second mind.
Together, they constitute the dual characteristics of a human being. Similarly, all beings exist through the reciprocal relationships between their dual characteristics of internal nature and external form… The body resembles the mind and moves according to its commands in such a way as to sustain life and pursue the mind’s purposes.
Mind and body thus have a mutual relationship of internal and external, cause and result, subject partner and object partner, vertical and horizontal. Similarly, all created beings, regardless of their level of complexity, possess an intangible internal nature, which corresponds to the human mind, and a tangible external form, which corresponds to the human body. Within each being, the internal nature, which is causal and subject, commands the external form.
This relationship allows the individual being to exist and function purposefully as a creation of God. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 1.1) This created world in which we live has two axes: a visible axis and an invisible axis. They form a dual structure.
The object partner revolves around its subject partner, but the subject partner also revolves. An example is the body and mind of a human being engaging in give-and-take action. All beings exist according to this principle. Fallen humans in the world must correct their axis in order to be restored.
The correct human structure has the mind at the center of the body and the spirit dwelling in the center of the mind. The body revolves around the mind and moves in accordance with the mind’s commands.
If his mind says, “Go to the east,” his body heads east, and if his mind says, “Go to the west,” his body heads west. His body cannot make a move by itself. (136:14, December 20, 1985)
3. Duality Operates by Giving and Receiving
Not a handful of rain descends from above without the earth sending up two handfuls of moisture to meet it. Genesis Rabbah 13.13 (Judaism) Love works in a circle, for the beloved moves the lover by stamping a likeness, and the lover then goes out to hold the beloved in reality.
Who first was the beginning now becomes the end of motion. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica13 (Christianity) Verily in the creation of heaven and earth and the alternation of night and the day are signs for people of understanding.
Qur’an 3.190
Observe how all God’s creations borrow from each other: day borrows from night and night from day, but they do not go to law one with another as mortals do… The moon borrows from the stars and the stars from the moon… the sky borrows from the earth and the earth from the sky… All God’s creatures borrow from the other, yet make peace with one another without lawsuits; but if man borrows from his friend, he seeks to swallow him up with usury and robbery. Exodus Rabbah 31.15 (Judaism)
When the sun goes, the moon comes; when the moon goes, the sun comes. Sun and moon alternate; thus light comes into existence. When cold goes, heat comes; when heat goes, cold comes. Cold and heat alternate, and thus the year completes itself. The past contracts. The future expands.
Contraction and expansion act upon each other; hereby arises that which furthers. The measuring worm draws itself together when it wants to stretch out. Dragons and snakes hibernate in order to preserve life. Thus the penetration of germinal thought into the mind promotes the workings of the mind. When this working furthers and brings peace to life, it elevates a man’s nature.14 I Ching, Great Commentary 2.5.2-3 (Confucianism)
Difficult and easy complete one another. Long and short test one another; High and low determine one another. Pitch and mode give harmony to one another, Front and back give sequence to one another. Tao Te Ching 2 (Taoism)
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3.1-8
Heaven and earth come together, and all things take shape and find form. Male and female mix their seed, and all creatures take shape and are born.” In the Changes it is said, “When three people journey together, their number decreases by one. When one man journeys alone, he finds a companion. I Ching, Great Commentary 2.4.13 (Confucianism)
Heaven is high, the earth is low; thus the Creative and the Receptive are determined. In correspondence with this difference between low and high, inferior and superior places are established. Movement and rest have their definite laws; according to these, firm and yielding lines [of the hexagrams] are differentiated.15 Events follow definite trends, each according to its nature.
Things are distinguished from one another in definite classes. In this way good fortune and misfortune come about. In the heavens, phenomena take form; on earth shapes take form. In this way change and transformation become manifest.
Therefore the eight trigrams succeed one another by turns, as the firm and the yielding displace each other. Things are aroused by thunder and lightning; they are fertilized by wind and rain.
Sun and moon follow their courses and it is now hot, now cold. The way of the Creative brings about the male; the way of the Receptive brings about the female.
The Creative knows the great beginnings; the Receptive completes the finished things. I Ching, Great Commentary 1.1.1-5 (Confucianism)
Thirty spokes share one hub to make a wheel. Through its not-being (wu), There being (yu) the use of the carriage. Mold clay into a vessel. Through its not-being, There being the use of the vessel.
Cut out doors and windows to make a house. Through its not-being There being the use of the house. Therefore in the being of a thing, There lies the benefit; In the not-being of a thing, There lies its use.16 Tao Te Ching 11 (Taoism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
What is the heavenly law of the universe? What is the law of existence? It is giving and receiving. (157:266, April 10, 1967)
For an action to be structured, there must be a subject-object relationship. For the action to continue, the subject and object partners must share a common purpose that is beneficial to both.
Under conditions that are less than this, the action will not happen. This is an ironclad rule and a law of the universe’s existence.
(56:134-35, May 14, 1972)
Personally, would you rather receive or give? This is a serious question. In the Divine Principle’s concept of give-and-take action, does “give” come first, or “take?” Giving comes first.
Do parents give for the sake of their children, or children for their parents? Parents give first. Then it is logical that the act of giving began with the Origin of all existence, and through the links of the chain of existence, it has been passed down to us. (239:59, November 23, 1992)
Everything is in motion. How does the motion start, by giving or taking? You all want to receive, don’t you? You desire to pull in some money. To see whether this is right or wrong, we have to analyze the principle of the universe.
If it is the Principle, not even God can deny it. When God created, did He begin with a pulling force that sought to receive, or a force that sought to give? It was a giving force. He invested energy. Ladies, when you knead dough, what happens? You press it down again and again, in order that it may expand. (239:223, November 25, 1992)
What happens when there is no difference between what is given and what is received? The action goes on and on… But if there are impurities, then complete give and take is impossible, and the action cannot last long.
The greater the difference between give and take, the sooner the action will break apart. (157:266-67, April 10, 1967)
All things originate from one Source, divide into many entities, and then finally rejoin into one great whole. This is how things make progress. From one they divide into many, and then come together as one.
From there they divide again and then become a larger being. This means that all will enter a world of oneness that is greater than before. (26:189, October 25, 1969)
There is force of attraction and force of repulsion in this universe. Things are attracted to things that relate with them and repel those things that contravene them. God’s power of creation18 acts to protect the universe from anything that tries to harm it. A reciprocal realm can only form in keeping with this basic logic.
When some other being approaches that might harm the reciprocal realm, it is repelled. The force of repulsion is not a bad thing; it is a secondary protective force… to facilitate and perfect God’s power of creation.
If there were not a reaction to every action, it would be impossible even to walk. (227:37, February 10, 1992)
When a wife dies, or a husband dies, why does the surviving spouse feel sorrow? When a woman’s husband dies, why does she make a big scene by crying “Wah!” at the top of her lungs?
She doesn’t just cry; she completely loses her mind. Why does this happen? She and her husband formed a reciprocal realm and, centering on love, entered into the universe’s realm of eternal principle.
But the death of the husband caused that reciprocal realm to break apart, and the wife feels a force pushing against her with such force that it makes her skin turn red. That force makes her feel sorrow and pain…
Unmarried girls will go around playing, and sometimes you see a group of girls hanging on to each other, embracing each other and such. The same is true with boys. Wrestling with each other, rolling around on the ground like calves, they make all sorts of noise in the village.
But on the day one of those young men marries and takes a wife, will he want one of his handsome friends to come and stand next to him in front of his wife? Would any man want that? No, he will kick his friend away, saying, “Don’t ever come here again! Get out of here! Now!”
It’s not a bad thing for him to tell his friend to go. He is actually telling him, “You should do as I do, and stand in a position where you can welcome the universal principle.” By kicking his friend away, he guides him to the path to perfection. (218:335, August 22, 1991)
Knowing this is the principle, the theory of evolution cannot be sustained. The supposed evolutionary link from amoebas to monkeys to human beings ignores the fact that each of the countless relationships between male and female had to pass through the gate of love and establish a realm of reciprocity.
Take sparrows, for example. During the winter, they know nothing about having relationships, so they play around and all become their own positives. But in the spring, when they start making nests and forming reciprocal realms, they become absolute.
Both the male and the female of an established pair will repel a third sparrow that approaches. If a female approaches them, the male will repel it; if a male approaches, the female will repel it. Why is that?
They repel the third sparrow because it threatens to break up their reciprocal realm and is an aggressor on the realm of the law of the universe.
(218:338, August 22, 1991)
Hegel and especially Engels, philosophers who came up with the law of the dialectic, saw universal law as decreeing conflict and opposition. Unless we successfully resolve the question of the dialectic within the universe, we cannot find the true formula for the ideal world, nor can we establish peace and harmony with hierarchical order in organizations structured with up and down relationships.
We must demonstrate the falsity of such principles as “survival of the fittest,” “the strong eat the weak,” and “power causes progress.” Otherwise, people would think that mistreating others is not a sin. (132:142, May 31, 1984)
Some people say the universe is made of energy. It is true that all beings are formed of energy, but what is needed for that energy to exist? No being is energy itself. There is always a reciprocal standard or common base. Before we acknowledge energy, we must acknowledge the common base.
If we acknowledge the common base, we must acknowledge subject and object partners… “Relative relationship” does not refer to a thesis-antithesis-synthesis relationship, where a standard called “thesis” and something called “antithesis” oppose each other and become unified as one.
Instead, it refers to a relationship where the object partner responds to the subject partner. That is, it means that a subject and object partner respond to each other and engage in action centering on a common purpose.
When they engage in perfect give-and-take action and achieve a reciprocal realm, energy comes into being, and only then is the center determined. Even if there is a great deal of action, if the action is going in opposite directions, it will eventually destroy the world. (15:53, February 7, 1965)