"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." Lao Tzu
No doubt you will be familiar with the yin-yang insignia. However, it is much more than just an intriguing design. It is as important to Taoism as the Crucifix is to the Christians, but the yin-yang goes far deeper. It is a representation of the balances in Nature and the inseparability of opposites.
Translated, yin is the shady side of a mountain and yang is the sunny side. This is important symbolism, since it is impossible to have a sunny side without a shady side. Nothing can exist without its corresponding opposite.
If you look at the yin-yang, you will notice that the yin contains the seed of yang and vice-versa. This is also prevalent in Nature's scheme. The good contains the seed of the bad; health contains the seed of illness and vice-versa in both cases. Nature is always a little fuzzy and has no absolutes.
It must also be noted that the yin-yang is not a stationary emblem. It must be imagined rotating, the same way Nature is constantly cycling from yin to yang. This cycle is necessary to keep the balance. The result is that conditions in Nature are constantly changing and nothing in life remains constant.
Not understanding the need for change is the cause of all our grief. It is our desire to have things stay the same that is the cause of all our suffering. We fail to understand that life and death; sickness and health; good and evil are simply the balance of yin-yang and are a necessity of life.
Western religions fail to see the need for balance and constantly strive to rid the world of death, sickness and evil. We all want a life where there is only ever winning without ever losing. We fail to see the necessity for balance.
This futile attempt to create a utopia only serves to cause anxiety and depression. When things do not go the way we want, we believe our god has abandoned us or is punishing us. We live our lives denying the inevitable and attempt to find happiness in material wealth or in some type of escapism. However, death, sickness and evil will eventually find us all and without the right understanding it will make us feel victims in life's trap.
Taoism is about understanding the need for Nature's balance and trusting Nature's wisdom to achieve this balance. Through the teachings of Taoism we can connect with Nature and find happiness being at one with it. We will then no longer see ourselves separate from Nature and a victim of it. Instead we learn to see ourselves as part of the endless cycle in the balance of yin-yang.
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