You fall, you stand. You break, you repair. A battery is positively charged & negatively charged, the fusion gives out energy. Not clear? It’s simple. Life is a balance, just like a sword on a thin string. Falling either ways disturbs the harmony that the human mind has developed over thousands of years. A life with constant happiness is not real happiness & a life with constant pain, is a life in vain.
To understand this concept better, let’s fade back to 14th century BC, where on the bones of animals, the Chinese had first inscribed the symbol of harmony, the symbol of peace, an important moment in history where the ultimate foundation of world balance was created & it was all in just one symbol.
The Zhuangzi, an ancient Chinese collection of anecdotes & fables stated, “Yin in its highest form is freezing while yang in its highest form is boiling. The chilliness comes from heaven while the warmness comes from the earth. The interaction of these two establishes he (harmony), so it gives birth to things. Perhaps this is the law of everything yet there is no form being seen – Zhuangzi Chapter 21.
These underlying words were inscribed by one of China’s most influential philosopher, Zhuang Zhou in the 4th Century BC. According to him life is limited & knowledge to be gained is unlimited, the key reason for him to compile his world famous text, the Zhuangzi. A collection of 33 chapters, divided into 3 noteworthy parts. The 7 ‘Inner chapters’ written by himself, 15 ‘Outer chapters’ written by his disciples & the remaining 11 chapters known as ‘Mixed chapters’, written by other experienced philosophers of his time. This is not just a book, but is one of the foundational, sacred texts of the Taoist belief with Ying & Yang being a fundamental aspect.
Taoism, as a few know, is different from other religions. To begin with, it is not a religion. It starts by teaching a truth, that the ’The Tao (Path) is undefinable’. It teaches us that each person can discover their own Tao in their very own terms. It is a journey of simply accepting yourself, your life & truly discovering who you are. In simple words, it is a system of beliefs, attitudes & actions set towards living to your own nature.
“TAOISM IS ACCEPTING THE TRUE NATURE OF YOUR LIFE. TAOISM IS FOLLOWING YOUR BREATH TO FIND PEACE. TAOISM IS OPENING UP A SMILE TO ENABLE POSSIBILITY”.
But today our ‘Tao’ (path) is not about merely the need of a home & food, but is about the need of excess luxury, power & greed beyond human recognition. The true nature of life has been hidden behind a lens of our own virtual reality & we are simply slaves to the likes of religious mafias & democratic dictators. Before a new born can set foot upon this lucid dream that we call life, they are categorised & directed, as if brought upon this earth for a mission to achieve. Even though these statements radiate a negative energy, the shocking part is that the facts do not change & your eyes cannot lie. The more we try to resist something, the harder it strikes back the next time. A simple law of life which makes us do things that we choose to, but maybe not want to. An apt moment to quote Mahatma Gandhi, “The world is for everyone’s needs, but not for anyone’s greed”
The one thing which we need in our modern lifestyle today is the art of balance, in everything, whether it’s work, relationships, eating, drinking, talking, it all requires a fitting balance so as to maintain a composing harmony with yourself, your inner-self (soul) & with those around you & most importantly with nature. But how?
Going to back to 3rd century BC, a few people in China were already familiar with the concept of Yin & Yang. A beautiful, fundamental principle rather than a mere philosophy, which became popular at the Chinese school of Yinyang, that taught cosmology & philosophy. The phenomena symbolises that everything we see & feel around exists as an inseparable & contradictory opposite for example:
Night (Yin) Day (Yang)
Female (Yin) Male (Yang)
Moon (Yin) Sun (Yang)
Cold (Yin) Warm (Yang)
Each of the above two opposites attract and complement each other and, as their symbol illustrates, each side has at its core an element of the other (represented by the small dots). Neither side is superior to the other and, as an increase in one brings a corresponding decrease in the other, a correct balance between the two sides must be reached in order to achieve harmony.
“THE ANCIENTS ENVISIONED THEIR WORLD IN TWO HALVES – MASCULINE AND FEMININE. THEIR GODS AND GODDESSES WORKED TO KEEP A BALANCE OF POWER. YIN AND YANG. WHEN MALE AND FEMALE WERE BALANCED, THERE WAS HARMONY IN THE WORLD. WHEN THEY WERE UNBALANCED THERE WAS CHAOS”.
Everything in our heavenly consciousness is just like a 2 piece puzzle, which when joined creates a state of wholeness, which is unchanging & complete. But when you take apart 1 piece from the puzzle, it upsets the entire equilibrium of wholeness. This is the start of change, the moment where both halves chase each other as they seek a new balance.
“WHEN PEOPLE SEE THINGS AS BEAUTIFUL, UGLINESS IS CREATED. WHEN PEOPLE SEE THINGS AS GOOD, EVIL IS CREATED. BEING AND NON-BEING PRODUCE EACH OTHER. DIFFICULT AND EASY COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER. LONG AND SHORT DEFINE EACH OTHER. HIGH AND LOW OPPOSE EACH OTHER. FORE AND AFT FOLLOW EACH OTHER”.
Today we live in a country filled with millions of motivated, self-driven individuals like you & me who want to leave a mark on this planet & want to bring a change, impacting not only our own lives, but also of the future generations. But in an exponentially growing country like India, when people, politicians & religious conmen create drifts between communities for their own greed & power, using religious know-how & blind beliefs, it just creates fear among people, limits them of their capabilities, withdraws them to a state where they feel democratic, but in actuality are just slaves in the hands of such corrupt humans. It adversely impacts the entire nations efforts to bring our own motherland to such an equilibrium where each of our lives are maybe spent not in luxury, but in peace! It is our very own sub-conscious mind that works towards building this equilibrium that our universe needs & for some a truthful conscious effort, but in every society there exists an evil, a negative force which imbalances the nature of life & which needs to be reversed.
People get killed over eating beef, teenagers are exposed to chronic stress & heart ailments due to performance anxiety (Studies) & stress put on them by their very own parents. We are at war with our own-self, trying to achieve something which has very little value in the true sense of life, not the one which we have created, not the virtual reality that we live in today, but the life which we can touch & feel, a person who we can hug, a flower which we can smell, a fruit which can eat & even the rain which drenches us in it’s moisture of hope & love!
But as the Taoism principle states, nothing in life is absolute nor static & to simply live life and discover who you are. The nature is ever changing and is always the same. Don’t try to resolve the various contradictions in life, instead learn acceptance of your nature.
And if anyone asks you what about the existence of God….simply remember one thing “God could or could not exist, and either state doesn’t change the way we lead our lives. Our lives are expressions of action between ourselves and the universe. To respect our surrounding environment is a furthering of respect to ourselves. This manner of living doesn’t change regardless of the nature of God or the Tao.”