09/12/2025
Understanding Duality & Non-Duality in Yoga
In yoga philosophy, duality (dvaita) is the world we experience every day — a world of opposites:
effort ↔ ease
light ↔ dark
expansion ↔ contraction
self ↔ other
body ↔ mind
Duality is the realm where we strive, compare, achieve, resist, and navigate contrast. It’s not “bad” — it’s simply how the human experience expresses itself.
Non-duality (advaita) is the deeper truth beneath all of this. It’s the understanding that:
Effort contains ease.
Light emerges from darkness.
You are not separate from the world around you.
The opposites are two expressions of one unified energy.
In non-duality, we realise we can hold both. We move, breathe, rest and grow from a place of inner wholeness rather than striving.
Yoga is the bridge between these two states — it honours the contrast while guiding us back to the oneness underneath it all.
ber
