Hold your male side with your female side. Hold your bright side with your dull side. Hold your high side with your low side. Then you will be able to hold the whole world.
- If you can acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses, then you can acknowledge the world
- If you can bring together the microcosm, then you can do the same for the macrocosm
Application: This calls for self-reflection. I must acknowledge my masculinity and my femininity, my intelligence and my stupidity, and my virtue and my disgraces. Once I embrace both sides then I can feel better in the world I live in. I can accept others as easy as I accept myself.
When the opposing forces unite within there comes a power abundant in its giving and unerring in its effort. Flowing through everything, it returns one to the First Breath. Guiding everything, it returns to No Limits. Embracing everything, it returns to the Uncarved Block.
- More power comes through unity than division
- Acknowledge and embrace your imperfections to grow stronger
- The path to perfection divides oneself and is inhuman
Application: Here is another difference I see between Christianity and Taoism. In Christianity, I have been told to seek perfection. As I was raised, I had to admonish all of my sins. The more I sinned, the more I hated myself. This does nothing but belittle the human spirit and bring about miserable humility. But we should embrace our sins and realize that the whole world struggles in the same way. We should strive for the balance and not for the extreme of goodness and virtue because that is inhuman, only godly.
When the Block is divided, it becomes something useful and leaders rule with a few pieces of it. But the Sage holds the Block complete. Holding all things within himself, he preserves the Great Unity which cannot be ruled or divided.
- Individuals can only use or hold power over other individuals
- When one is with Unity, then he is useless to the greedy individual
- This is why Taoists may feel useless in a materialistic world
Application: Individuals have tried to overpower me by causing an imbalance within myself. They have tried to make me strive for extreme goodness and neglecting anything bad. They have tried to make me strive for extreme masculinity and neglecting anything feminine. I should hold on to everything that I am, and not let others unbalance me, causing them to overpower me. I have witness an imbalance cause vulnerability to the powers of another.
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