Yin and Yang

I’ve been interested in Eastern philosophy for a long time—because the Western World too often traps us in the logical fallacy of the false dilemma, reducing the whole world of our experience into only two choices: either/or, right or wrong, all or nothing, us or them.

Such thinking violates us at a deep level, turning conflict into combat, leading us into war.

Taoism originated 26 centuries ago during the warring states period in ancient China, inspiring two philosophers with very different visions of order.
Confucius developed an elaborate series of li, rules, social etiquette, reverence for ancestors & tradition.
Lao Tzu, the Henry David Thoreau of ancient China, found a dynamic order in the cycles of nature, sunlight and shadow, mountain and valley, action and repose--yin and yang.

Yang is the active element, yin the contemplative. Both are essential--yin and yang: valley and mountain, night and day, listening and speaking, self and other.
To be healthy, we each need both in dynamic balance--and we all need such a balance now more than ever to move from our conflict-ridden, chaotic world into new patterns of peace.

Insights for today from ancient China

Taoism was developed over 25 centuries ago, around 530 BCE, during the warring states period in ancient China, a time of challenge and change much like our own. Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching, a book of 81 poems translated more than any book in the world except the Bible, offering principles especially relevant to us today. Lao Tzu and Confucius were contemporaries. Each came up with his own response to challenging times. Confucius emphasized ritual, obedience, and observation of social rules, while Lao Tzu studied nature, basing his philosophy upon the interrelatedness of all things, the patterns of energy within and around us.

Taoism has always appealed to creative thinkers, artists and innovators, such as Hegel, Dag Hammarskjold, Abraham Maslow, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Carl Rogers, who carried in his wallet this quote from the Tao:

With the best of leaders,
When the work is done,
The project completed,
The people all say
"We did it ourselves."
(Tao, 17)

In the spirit of Tao leadership, I'm delighted to link to a new blog that Rebecca has begun, meditating on Tao principles from my book, The Tao of Inner Peace.