Depending on one’s religious and/or spiritual beliefs, the end-all-be-all of spiritual realization is either “God” or “Emptiness.” These goals of spiritual living seem quite different, so how can both be the absolute destination of one’s divine journey? If we look closer at the topic of duality versus nonduality, we begin the see that all paths are touching on the brink between the dual experience of human existence and the transcendent, nondual experience of spiritual union most often described as “Oneness.”

It is common knowledge that in judeo-christian doctrine, God is comprised of three primary attributes: omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. If we look into these three descriptions of the Divine, we are but a breath away from comprehending how God and Emptiness are signposts pointing to the same human experience.

1. Omniscience (All-knowing)

The first attribute of God is that He is all-knowing, meaning there is not anything within the Universe secret to Him. He knows all, understands all, and has calculated all of Nature. There is nothing outside of God’s grasp, nothing hidden. Neither the conscious nor unconscious can hide from His knowledge. Nothing is mysterious and so He is the ultimate mystery. To experience this aspect of God, one would gain insight into the nature of everything. Sound like Enlightenment? You bet.

2. Omnipotence (All-powerful)

The second attribute of God is that He is all-powerful, pointing to the causal nature of God, that He is the initial and perpetual creative force in everything. For God to have all the power and ability in existence, then God also has the power of all choice. Yet life and death still occur, affirming that the natural cycles are a choice of the Almighty. Even our own ability to choose is a choice of God. Similar to the Tao, God is seen this way as the ultimate reality of Nature itself. because he is all-powerful, Nature must be His will. This is a perfect relation to the natural, elemental forces described by wisdom traditions of the East.

3. Omnipresence (All-present)

The third attribute of God is that He is all-present, of course hitting home the idea that there is no place God does not dwell. He is in all things, because there is ultimately no separation between God and creation. God both is and is not creation. This is where duality and nonduality come into play. Duality is this or that, black or white, good or bad; the function of cognition and rationality. Nonduality is creative and flowing, a confluence of all Reality; it is Oneness. So nondual realization is to be able to rest in the absolute Truth that God Is All and All Is God. Though we are subject to the duality of a separate body and mind, we can still realize our nature as One with God in moments of transcendent experience (click Here for meditation instruction).

So how does this all bridge God and Emptiness? Because the fullness of God is the same as the Emptiness of nothing. One points to everything and the other points to nothing, but each is singularly total. God and Emptiness are both without separation, without contrast. The goal of spiritual practice is to see clearly this nondual reality while also existing in the dual experience of our humanity. Once the nondual is realized, once God and Emptiness are One, the dual reality of life opens into endless Space. This is Oneness.

We are this Thing and this Thing is Us. We are One.

Love.