May 11, 2023
Principle 5. Acceptance. Second Week.
If day and night, summer and winter are well with you, you have surpassed the contradictions.
Last time: The Emerald Path
This time: The Union of Opposites, East Meets West and lots of illustrations.
This Week:
Last week we considered the principle in general terms, we also looked at a traditional story related to the idea of acceptance. This week we try to see how the principle can be related to past situations. For example, can I recall how this principle applied or could have applied to situations in my life?
We might also try to see this another dimension of this principle. For example, how do I see it in relation specifically to my internal world— that is in my relations with myself, if I can put it that way. Perhaps there are things that are in a way independent of others, or the world in general? For example, perhaps I was ill. How do I apply this principle? Or how did I, or should I have applied it to this vegetative situation? Perhaps I am (or might be) overwhelmed by powerful climates. Did this principle apply? How might it help me?
General Considerations and Personal Reflections:
Here are some personal reflections. I offer them in the spirit of dialogue and exchange, and look forward to hearing your thoughts about, and experiences with, this principle.
As soon as I begin considering this stuff I think something like: how can I accept both summer and winter as things that are both well? How can I possibly see day and night as the same? At first it didn’t strike me as reasonable, possible, or even desirable. What could it mean to see these opposites as the same — not in the sense of identical but somehow as complementary rather than contradictory?
These ideas and questions seem to be present in very different cultures and different times.
For example, in chapter 13 of the Dao de Jing of Laozi — or the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu as we used to write it — the old master tells us:
Accept disgrace willingly.
Accept misfortune as the human condition.
What do you mean by "Accept disgrace willingly"?
Accept being unimportant.
Do not be concerned with loss and gain.
This is called "accepting disgrace willingly."
What do you mean by "Accept misfortune as the human condition"?
Misfortune comes from having a body.
Without a body, how could there be misfortune?
Surrender yourself humbly; then you can be trusted to care for all things.
Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.
Taoism, the school that considers Laozi to be its founder uses the famous Yin Yang as its symbol. This design is also called the symbol of the Tai Chi or Taiji, which means something like symbol of the “great ultimate”. To me it seems to show opposites as included as part of a whole, but also somehow including each other, all held together in some kind of dynamic tension.
Living around the same time as Laozi, but half a world away, (Greece as opposed to China) was Heraclitus of Ephesia. He’s often remembered for his saying about how you cannot step into the same river twice. I suppose because each moment the river flows on and its different water you step in. He’s also called Heraclitus the Dark, Heraclitus the Obscure, and even the Weeping Philosopher — but don’t let any of that scare you off!
He may have been the silent type, but from the fragments of his thoughts that have come down to us we can see that like his Chinese contemporaries he thought about this subject a lot. Even our form of expressing the principle seems to signal a nod in his direction. Here’s some of what he said:
“God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, surfeit and hunger; but he takes various shapes, just as fire, when it is mingled with spices, is named according to the savour of each.
Cold things become warm, and what is warm cools; what is wet dries, and the parched is moistened.”
But really the statement of his that I was considering most these last few days is this one.
“They do not understand how that which differs with itself is in agreement: harmony consists of opposing tension, like that of the bow and the lyre.”
Somehow, I’ve found that these, perhaps somewhat enigmatic, phrases illuminate my considerations of this month’s principle. I hope you will also find them useful, or at least of interest.
Coming up:
Next week we’ll look to continue with principle 5, also known as the principle of acceptance. We will be focusing on the present and what the impact of applying it might mean.
Remember:
Every moment can reveal that union of opposites.
Note:
PS. Two friends were visiting Punta de Vacas Park of Study and Reflection. They somehow found themselves on opposite sides of the Mendoza River. The first yelled across the rushing waters: “How do you get to the other side of the river?”. To which her friend shouted back: “You are on the other side.”
There’s more coming up…
