Merit

The Buddhist tradition is very intellectual, and the written material is much bigger than any individual can read during a life. So, from a position of having read just a fraction, trying to boil down the ideas into just two words, these words would be emptiness and merit.

Emptiness is the Buddhist description of reality. The full understanding of this is very sophisticated.

One very important aspect of emptiness is absence of self nature. Everything is created by causes and conditions.

This means that if we want a good life we have to get the right causes and conditions.

And good causes and conditions are made by merit.

We get merit by having a positive attitude towards others in everything we do.

Doing typically good things as help to heal and to be of service for those who need service gives merit if we mean what we do. We can also get merit by having a positive attitude in situations which are not typically good.

Dualism

All destruction is self destruction on mind level. We can never attack another person without hurting ourselves.
Dualism is a trap. In dualism we see others as others - as distant from us. As they seem distant, we can try to exploit them. For a time it seems to work. But eventually we are hurt.
Non dualism is having a positive attitude to others. Just this attitude is valuable, much more valuable than a lot of practical activities in dualism.
But the others, are they not others? Is there no difference between me and others?
If we have a clear mind we see the connections between all individuals, and also with nature.
These connections are non dualistic. Non dualism is solidarity.