Alan Watts has put together a great book on how what seems like explicit dualism, is really implicit polarity/unity. He explores a range of historical and mythological information to find out how we have come to this modern Protestant idea of separating good and evil so exclusively. He shows through examples in myths and religious evolution, how the idea that bad can ever fall away with only good remaining is a very recent construct. In progression through the chapters, he begins with Chinese Taoist ideals, where good and bad are simply the ebb and flow of Life, to Indian religions where good and bad get different faces, but they are both the face of God/Life. He then moves through the Middle East, exploring Zorastorianism, Jainism, and others, where good and bad actually became separate entities, but with a more unification underlying. After that, he explains how the Abrahamic faiths have totally schism-ed the two forces. Leaving the idea, now running rampant, that somehow the foreground could exist without the background, namely that pleasure could exist without suffering. The last chapter, "Dismemberment Remembered" strikes more on finding a way to integrate these back together. Excellent read filled with lots of history and writings.
