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There is a passage in one of the Michael Newton's books where a person is describing entering a human physical body around the time of birth. Michael Newton is a hypnotherapist and he used techniques of hypnotic regression to access hidden memories we all have of the time between lives. So his books are people's memories of the astral world, entering and leaving the physical body and so on.
But anyway the person was describing the complexity of a soul preparing to enter a physical body and part of the process was "tracing the neural pathways of the brain" which to me means the merging or joining that takes place between the body and soul is no small thing. I think it is truly two becoming one for the incarnation.
So I think as far as "duality" we are two living as one. I think we have two natures, "animal" and "spirit." A brain based mind and identity and a soul or spirit based mind and identity. To me, "liberation" or "enlightenment" or "self realization" "non-duality" etc (there are tons of words and ideas and beliefs pointing to this subject) to me this is about the struggle of spirit having a human or animal identity and experience.
Animals are aggressive, self centered, territorial, fight over everything, mates, land, food, etc. My friend has two dogs and they constantly fight over bed areas and toys. Humans do all the same things. In my opinion, soul or spirit could care less about such things. So to me what all of these "spiritual" words are pointing to is to the attempts, and some are successful at it to varying degrees, to have spirit or soul be dominate as our identity and experience, let it dictate our actions and relationships and to subdue our animal natures and mind.
I think that's it in a nutshell. A human incarnation is a struggle or "battle" between two natures we all have. Some lose the battle and lash out at others like animals do, fight and so on, use violence to get what they want. Lose the battle with human desires and habits and so on, can't control what they eat or drink, become addicted to harmful things. Be angry a lot. Put themselves first and not others in all things. All that matters to them is what they get, their pleasure.
Then some struggle to be better people. To love others. To be kind to all. To understand. Have virtues of patience and acceptance and non-attachment, to be open minded. To rise above our self interest and self centeredness. To give up certain short term body pleasures for long term health. To even rise above our own minds, (which is the body mind) and be silent within. Which really means not torturing ourselves or others with our thoughts.
The body mind and it's thoughts and natures does not go away from our experience until we leave the human body so I think we will always have a dual nature. But through things like self reflection, contemplation, meditation, self awareness, spirituality, religion, paying attention in the now, mindfulness, letting go, surrender to a higher power, imagination, non-attachment, non-identification, living in the now, emptiness, etc we can rise above the body's nature and mind. Let spirit be in control. I think this is the whole point of a human incarnation. It's a test to see if we can overcome the body's nature and identity and dominate it in a sense. To have a spiritual experience and nature and not an animal one.
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