Buddhism encourages us to be wary of antithetical concepts, not only good
and evil, but success and failure, rich and poor, even the duality between
enlightenment and delusion. We distinguish between the opposing terms
because we want one rather than the other, yet the meaning of each depends
upon the other. That may sound abstract, but such dualities are actually
quite troublesome for us. If, for example, it is important to live a pure
life (however I understand purity), then I need to be preoccupied with
avoiding impurity. If wealth is important for me, then I am also worried
about avoiding poverty. We cannot take one lens without the other, and such
pairs of spectacles filter our experience of the world.
David Loy, “The Nonduality of Good Evil” (Spring 2002)