Perhaps I may be incorrect with my thoughts on Yin and Yang. It dawned on me that duality may not exist they way I thought the Tao Te Ching 2 was explaining. My assumption was that there was no one side without the other. To have beauty there had to be ugly. That assertion may well be incorrect. Things are what they are. Our judgment defines our opinion and labels the object. Is the water hot or cold at 40F degrees? We say cold, but that is steamy hot if the water is compared to -200F degrees.
Weight is just weight, beauty is just the way we evaluate it. Some people think dandelions are ugly while others don’t. It is just a yellow flower. Wide or narrow is just a measurement of a factual number. On a scale of 1 to 10… it is all the same. Take away the opinion and truth is what exists.
We should (it isn’t required) have duality in our lives, though. How else do you tell a toddler the stove is hot and will hurt? “The stove is 350F degrees.” The 18 month old child doesn’t understand that a burning is evident. Hot describes the situation that it would be undesirable.
I think what I wrote above is unorganized and more thought should have gone into to better explaining what I meant. In the end I wrote about duality or lack there of.
Friday, September 10, 2010
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8 comments:
"It is what it is" says a great deal.
It is only how we define "it" that makes it something we can judge, measure, or have an opinion about.
Sometimes this is useful, other times it definitely is not.
Today I have an abscessed tooth.
This is bad.
Or is it?
It hurts like mad.
But it is screaming at me to notice something is wrong.
The taste of corruption for a week was not enough to get my attention, so now it is time for Plan B.
Now I notice it!
But the pain itself: a 9.5 on the Richter Scale, is interesting:
As long as I try to avoid it, I can hardly bear it.
But if I bite down hard and accept the agony, suddenly I can cope.
Pain itself is neither good nor bad: it is what it is: a reminder that something is required.
The tooth is loose, and prone to abscess. It is the last remaining upper molar on one side.
Its time is up, its day has come: I imagine it will need to be removed for good.
And then my mouth will be what it is: the mouth of one who is passing his prime and receding steadily further into the mists of time.
Good post, MM.
Always extra good to imagine you may have misunderstood something.
Like always knowing there is another chance to fail. What better insurance?
Better still if, in failing, you get another chance to succeed.
If life were easy to live, everyone would be living it:)
Is it really that incorrect?
To me, Yin and Yang really represents duality, but they are actually inseparable twins, they are Tao--represents Oneness.
Indeed the value is always relative as you put it up, but in duality, there always be comparison. When we see things as they are, without comparisons, we see it as is--just one.
It is a matter of perspective, after all.
IMO though :)
Perhaps, but the duality resides only in our mind, it doesn't really exist outside of us. Animals or nature don't think of duality at all. Everything is a response to the environment, humans label it creating the duality only within.
I begged to have my abscessed tooth pulled. 9.5 out of 10 at its best. The tooth cracked right through the nerve.
Duality illusion is useful to keep/show us balanced. If we get for too much time stuck in one of them, it's because we believe that illusion is real.
Just imaging the yin and yang spinning faster and faster. Can you say what is black and what is white?.
"Just imaging the yin and yang spinning faster and faster. Can you say what is black and what is white?"
I like that a lot!
That is a very, very accurate and thought provoking observation.
Nice one :)
This vid helped a lot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryqN6dyUmJg
:)
The comments have been great!
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