Relating opposites...

I have been reading the book Eastern Wisdom, which is actually a collection of three books on Eastern thought- What is Zen?, What is Tao?, and What is Meditation? I completed the first book yesterday, and enjoyed it very much. It definitely opened my eyes to one of many different perspectives of life that exist around the world. But today, reading the section on the Tao, I was taken aback. I found myself marking almost every page I read as something I wanted to blog about. The Tao is very focused on man's interaction with nature, something that has always been of vital importance to me, and the way they explained everything was so clear and just rang with beauty.

It is also centered on the idea of yin and yang, or opposites. It discusses how opposites not only determine each other, but are each other. To illustrate the point the author, Alan Watts, relates the fact that is is difficult to see a figure without a contrasting background. Were there no background to the figure, the figure would vanish. Because of the inseparability of opposites, you realize that they all go together. Without the bad, we wouldn't know what good is. Without the good, we wouldn't know what bad is. I really liked this in relation to my recent post about being thankful for the difficult things that happen to us.

The introductory poem of this book relates this idea of yin and yang...

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

The thought that kept arising as I read was that many Americans would probably dismiss Eastern thought because it is different, not taking the time to listen and realize that there are important ideas within it that coexist with Western religious beliefs. It always shocks me that some choose to make such a black and white issue out of religion. Thoughts are either good or bad, right or wrong in their totality. So everything that is not familiar is shut out. Same with politics. Black or white. The Tao recognizes this way of thinking- the human mind's need for opposites- but works with both sides together instead of pitting them against each other as we tend to do on this side of the world.


Life and life after death. What is one without the other? They are the same, both connected by love. This is a sand painting used in many of the altars of the Day of the Dead.