Substance Dualism vs. Dual-Aspect Monism
Do you consider yourself a substance dualist or a dual-aspect monist?* The age-old question of how our conscious experience relates to the physical world has given rise to many philosophical attempts at explanation.
Substance dualism proposes the existence of two distinct, fundamental kinds of “substances”: physical and mental. These two substances are thought to be independent with different properties. The body, in this view, is purely physical and extended in space, while the mind is typically seen as non-physical and immaterial.
The challenge for substance dualism lies in explaining how these two fundamentally different substances interact. If mind is non-physical and body is physical, how does a thought in the mind cause a physical action, or how does a physical sensation in the body lead to a mental experience? This interaction problem has plagued dualists for centuries.
According to the nondual perspective, substance dualism affirms and solidifies the very illusion of separation that the nondual understanding is able to overcome. In other words, the belief in dualism imagines separation where, fundamentally, there is none. It creates the problem then attempts to solve it.
In contrast, dual-aspect monism asserts that there is only one fundamental substance or reality, but this single reality can be apprehended in two distinct ways, as two inseparable expressions: the mental and the physical. The key here is that these are not separate kinds of stuff, but different ways of experiencing or describing the same underlying reality.
Here is the important part: From the nondual perspective, this fundamental, unified substance of reality is consciousness. What we call the “mental aspect” is consciousness experiencing itself subjectively (thoughts, feelings, qualia), while the “physical aspect” is consciousness appearing objectively to itself as matter, energy, and the external world.
Dual-aspect monism resolves the interaction problem inherent in dualism. The mind doesn't interact with the body because they are not separate entities; they are both expressions, or aspects, of the same underlying consciousness. A thought in your mind and the correlated neural activity in your brain are not the cause and effect of two different things, but rather two different ways of looking at the same fundamental process within one conscious reality.
From a nondual perspective, dual-aspect monism represents a significant leap towards a unified understanding of existence. It acknowledges the appearance of mental and physical realities, yet points to a deeper, unified source. It sees that there is no fundamental separation in consciousness between the observer and the observed, the subject and the object. Both are manifestations within and of one infinite, timeless knowing.
(It is also important to note that, here, we go further and say that the modes or aspects of consciousness are ultimately illusory appearances within consciousness, like how mind and matter appear in a dream, rather than fundamental attributes of consciousness.)
Dual-aspect monism, then, with consciousness as its fundamental essence, provides a solid philosophical framework for conceptualizing the seamless whole of reality. ⬚