The opposites are separated to be at two ends of the same principal quality. Each value in a pair of ‘opposites’, is fundamentally the same, not really qualitatively different from one another. There is only a difference in the degree, but no difference in essence between the two opposites.

There is a perceived duality among the opposites in each pair, although essentially they are on the same scale.

When we try improving our habits or behaviour to ‘become’ what we perceive ‘we are not, but we should be’, all we end up doing, is sliding from one end of the scale to another. But we remain on the same scale, there is no fundamental shift in our perspective. We remain just as we are, only slightly modified.

Labouring from a ‘perceived bad’ towards a ‘perceived good’, does not lead to any real improvement in how we are, it is like adding embellishments, covering ourselves with ornaments. We remain untransformed, only hiding, masking a perceived negative with a perceived positive.

We only alter the perception, by projecting a slightly altered version of the same quality- but underneath, we remain unchanged. This is not a real change, we could continue sliding back and forth on this limited known scale of opposites!

The pendulum goes from one extreme to another, and we oscillate psychologically between the perceived duality of ‘what we are now’ to ‘what we aspire to become’.  From the fact to a projected fantasy! The projection of what is desired, is in conflict with the reality of what is, this perceived opposition causes psychological suffering.

The perceived opposites are not really different in their inherent quality, they are just two values on the same scale. The real freedom from this conflict and suffering, is a freedom from the whole scale, from both opposites in this range! We need to be released from both the perceived-  bad and good.

We do not find freedom from conflict and suffering, at the apparently better end, nor in the balance at the perceived middle of the two. It is found in a dimension beyond opposites, fundamentally unrelated to anything in that range!

Jiddu Krishnamurti has called this, the ‘corridor of opposites’. He refers to the freedom from the opposites as the ‘freedom from the known.’ Because whatever falls anywhere on the plane of opposites, is already known by mind, either as a memory or a projection. This is the basis of his phrase ‘Observer is the Observed’.

The Observer and Observed are two perceived opposites, which are actually same. The mind is being watched by itself. One thought “me”, pretends to be above and beyond, pretending to watch other thoughts. This thought considers itself to be the Observer, and everything else Observed. It judges all other thoughts and perceptions.

But this judging thought is fundamentally just another thought, like any other which it observes! It identifies itself as “me, myself” and considers everything else as the “other”.

But in reality, this “me” thought is conditioned by the very same influences that have shaped every other thought, that it observes or judges. The ‘Observer’ fraction of the mind is fundamentally same as what it observes!

The real change can only come from beyond both, in a pair of opposites. The mind invariably asks, “How”? How does one jump out of this apparent duality, the cause of conflict and suffering, to be free from the scale of opposites?

The question “How?” comes from the known, it is a thought of the observer (who is the observed), hence this question or any answer it can possibly obtain, will be from the known- meaning, it will arise from the same conditioned mind, which is not really different from the questioner or the question!

Any answer to ‘how’, cannot come fresh from the unknown- which is needed for a fundamental change in the perspective, a real transformation. It is therefore, merely a distraction.

We need to see that ‘observer is the observed’. Really see, with fully alert awareness in the moment when they arise, as an apparent duality. In this seeing and clearly recognising in that moment, the mind becomes free, instantly jumping out of that whole scale, where observer and observed pretend to be opposites.

This seeing is the freedom from the known, the fundamental shift in perspective, a real transformation! In this one moment, we recognize our whole mechanism clearly. We see, that our concept of “me” which observed and judged everything else passing through the mind, is itself just another conditioned thought!

The moment we see our own “me” concept as merely a thought, we have a sudden insight, this is where we see the whole mind as nothing but a collection of thoughts and arising perceptions! This ‘seeing’ is an understanding, a seeing not by a limited “me”, but with no seer, no centre, an open awareness, a recognition of our true Reality by Itself.

It is seen beyond doubt, that very thought and perception arising in the field of mind, is qualitatively same, none fundamentally different from another. They are superior or inferior only relatively, only marginally, within the same bracket.

Such seeing in the moment, is our access to another dimension, where we are just the whole open awareness, not a limited “me” confined in its field. Then, we have a glimpse of our wholeness, our true nature, resulting in a fundamental shift in our perspective of Reality and Self.

This is when we have jumped out of both the ‘Observer and Observed’, the duality of the scale of opposites, into the reality of our true Oneness! This is freedom from suffering.