A post inspried by a recent interview with Dr. Billie Hoard
Purity thinking is built on separation—the idea that things must be kept apart to remain good. Good vs. evil. Clean vs. unclean. Us vs. them. It assumes that contact with the “wrong” thing corrupts, that morality is about preserving a fragile state of being rather than navigating a dynamic, interconnected reality.
But what if the whole idea of separation itself is the problem?
Utter Nonseparateness: A Different Way of Knowing
Nonduality doesn’t just reject binaries—it reveals that the boundaries we cling to are illusions. There is no absolute separation between sacred and secular, between body and spirit, between self and other. Everything is interwoven, in constant relationship, inextricably linked. That means ethics cannot be about maintaining purity—they have to be about navigating connection in ways that bring harmony and wholeness.
This is why nonbinary epistemologies—ways of knowing that refuse either/or categories—are essential. If nothing is utterly separate, then morality can’t be about dividing the world into clean and unclean. It has to be about understanding how everything flows together, how every action, every relationship, every decision shapes the whole.
• Purity says: Stay away from what is “unclean.”
• Utter nonseparateness says: You are already entangled with everything. The question is, how will you engage?
Or, as Drs. Billie and Paul Hoard put it:
“Yet, interestingly, the more important the purity of an object, the more fragile that purity is. To return to brownies for a moment, it is not the smidge of dog poop that we perceive as impacted by being baked into the treat. It is the brownies. Despite being much more significant and taking up much more of the physical mass in the tray, the brownies are at the mercy of the dog poop. By their mere contact with the excrement, they have become inedible. What then has the power in this instance? What is more fragile, and what is in need of protecting?”
This is the trap of purity culture—it assumes goodness is fragile, easily ruined by contact with the “wrong” thing. But nonduality, nonbinary epistemologies, and the logic of eucontamination turn that assumption on its head.
Harmony by Any Means Necessary
If nothing is separate, then ethics must be relational. They can’t be about rigid laws or static categories—they must be about harmony. Not harmony as in “keeping the peace” (which is often just control in disguise), but harmony as in aligning with what fosters life, justice, and collective flourishing.
That means:
• Ethics are fluid, not fixed. There is no universal, context-free “right and wrong.” There is only what builds harmony and what disrupts it.
• Morality isn’t about who is pure and who is impure—it’s about how we navigate interconnection in ways that honor reality.
• Truth is not fragile. It doesn’t need protection from contamination. It transforms, expands, and adapts.
This is why purity-based thinking always fails: it is too fragile for reality. Purity assumes that goodness is something that must be preserved. But if utter nonseparateness is true, then goodness is something that must be practiced—actively, relationally, in every moment.
Eucontamination and the Power of Presence
The idea of eucontamination (where goodness spreads rather than being easily ruined) is another way of saying: we are not here to be protected from the world—we are here to transform it.
Jesus embodied this:
• He didn’t avoid the sick or “unclean”—he touched them, and healing spread outward rather than impurity spreading inward.
• He didn’t fear contamination—he carried presence so powerful that it shifted the people around him.
• He wasn’t concerned with preserving holiness—he was concerned with embodying wholeness.
That’s nonbinary ethics. That’s nonduality in action. It’s not about staying on the “right” side of a moral divide—it’s about bringing everything into alignment with love, truth, and justice.
The Future is Nonbinary, Because Reality Already Is
Nonbinary epistemologies aren’t just the way forward—they are what has always been true. The world was never separate. The idea that we can divide people, ideas, or actions into pure and impure is an illusion.
If purity thinking says “stay clean by staying separate,” nonduality says “you were never separate—so move with wisdom, with love, with courage.”
That’s why the future of ethics cannot be about policing boundaries. It has to be about learning to navigate the deep entanglement of everything in a way that generates harmony. That’s why it has to be nonbinary. Because we were never either/or. We were always both/and. We were always everything, all at once, interconnected and inescapably bound together.