Saturday, 21 June 2025

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Kabbalah and dual-aspect monism both grapple with the nature of reality and consciousness, but from different traditions—Kabbalah being a mystical branch of Jewish thought, and dual-aspect monism a metaphysical position in modern philosophy of mind (especially Spinoza, Jung, and later neutral monists).


Let’s unpack how they relate:





🔹 What is Dual-Aspect Monism?



Dual-aspect monism proposes:


  • There is one underlying substance or reality.
  • Mind and matter (or consciousness and the physical world) are two aspects or perspectives of this single underlying reality.
  • It avoids both dualism (mind and matter are separate) and materialist monism (everything is physical).



Philosophers: Baruch Spinoza, Carl Jung, Bertrand Russell (neutral monism variant), Thomas Nagel.





🔹 Kabbalah: The Basics



Kabbalah teaches that:


  • There is one infinite, ineffable source of all existence: Ein Sof (“without end”).
  • From Ein Sof emanates a structured divine reality through the Sefirot—ten emanations or aspects of God, ranging from Keter (crown) to Malkhut (kingdom, the material world).
  • Human consciousness and physical reality are intertwined expressions of divine energy.
  • The physical and spiritual realms are not separate but interpenetrating dimensions of the same divine unfolding.






🔸 Parallels Between Kabbalah and Dual-Aspect Monism


Concept

Kabbalah

Dual-Aspect Monism

Ultimate Reality

Ein Sof

Single substance / reality

Two Aspects

Material (Malkhut) and spiritual (upper Sefirot)

Physical and mental / experiential

Unity

All is one with God

All is one substance

Manifestation

Divine light refracted into multiple aspects

Reality appears differently from mental and physical perspectives

Mystical Aim

Reunification with divine source (Tikkun)

Understanding unity behind dual appearances





🔹 Example Interpretation:



The Kabbalistic idea that God’s infinite light contracts (Tzimtzum) to allow the world to appear, mirrors dual-aspect monism in suggesting that:


  • Apparent duality is a veiled unity.
  • What we call “mind” and “matter” may be two lenses through which we observe one infinite ground—Ein Sof.






🧠 Bonus Insight:



Carl Jung, influenced by both alchemy and Kabbalah, leaned toward a dual-aspect view where psyche and world mirror each other. His idea of the unus mundus (“one world”) echoes both Kabbalah’s Tree of Life and dual-aspect monism’s non-dual ground.




Would you like a quote-based comparison, a graphic diagram, or how this plays into modern consciousness theories like panpsychism or Bernardo Kastrup’s idealism?


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