What is interesting to me about all this is that how I came to Tibetan Buddhism. The first time I had to overcome my dualistic attitude that is inherent in being raised a Christian (at least in the U.S.). But, one day someone explained non-dualism in this way and it made sense.
If you look at everything being good and bad like the weather then: Is the sun good or bad?
Is the rain Good or bad? Is the wind Good or bad?
That's right it depends upon many things if you are an adult and can see all the many many variables.
Good and bad in relation to the weather can be very difficult in some situations to ascertain.
Because, for the many rain might be good but not if it floods. Rain might be good but if it is cold like around 33 to 40 degrees it can often give hypothermia to people and then they start hallucinating and then because they can't make sense of reality they might die if they are chilled to the bone from about 33 to 40 degrees with wind.
Snow is the same way. Snow might be good if you are in a car or in a mountain cabin if you want to go skiing. But, if it happens suddenly and you are out in it and it gets too deep and you don't have the right clothes or shoes or skis or snowshoes it can also be fatal.
So, is rain and snow and Sunlight good or bad?
It is all these things and more depending upon the situation.
This is how I came to non-dualism because what is good one day might be bad or even fatal another day.
So, the rain is good and bad, the sun is good and bad, the snow is good and bad, the wind is good and bad.
This is how I was introduced to non-dualism.
If a 2 1/2 year old child runs out into the middle of the street you might spank that child so you can save their lives from dying being hit by a car. But, if you do the same thing to a teenager or an adult they might punch you in the mouth because they no longer live in that world.
So, all rules are made to be broken at one point or another.
We are all taught "Thou Shalt not kill" and then we train our young men to kill in war worldwide.
So, once again the dualism of religions like Christianity and Islam and others isn't fully functional if one is a full adult in many different situations unless you are a 2 1/2 year old child being spanked so they won't be hit by a car when running out into the middle of a street that is busy with traffic.
I had to fully understand the "many shades of grey" that adults and teenagers deal with every single day before I could approach Tibetan Buddhism and non-dualism in a way that was useful to me. So, I was at least 32 years of age before I was personally ready to study Tibetan Buddhism successfully.
So, then I began to approach the world with compassion instead of trying to break down all situations all the time into good and bad like Christians often do simply because as an adult trying to break all things down into Good or bad isn't useful about 80% of the time.
However, as an adult saying: "How can I survive this situation by being compassionate to myself and others" I found was a much more important question than asking whether a person or a situation was good or bad. However, one must be very mature and experienced to make full use of thinking like this for a variety of reasons. So, you have to be grown up enough and experienced enough to actually think in non-dualistic terms so it is actually useful to you without becoming completely nihilistic.
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