Duality and Complementarity
Opposites complete rather than contradict each other.
Light and dark, male and female, death and life are not opposites but complements. Each requires the other; neither exists alone. Creation arises from the meeting of complementary forces. Seeking one while rejecting the other creates imbalance.
The day needs the night; the mountain needs the valley.
Complementary duality structures Mayan understanding of reality.
Popol Vuh
Written about in
- What Maya wisdom says about balance
Light and dark, life and death, are treated as halves that need each other. Wanting one without the other is the description of an imbalance.