Number of words: 258

From the notion that the movements of the Tao are a continuous interplay between opposites, the Taoists deduced two basic rules for human conduct. Whenever you want to achieve anything, they said, you should start with its opposite. Lao Tzu says ‘In order to contract a thing, one should surely expand it first.’ This is the way of life of the sage who has reached a higher point of view, a perspective from which the relativity and polar relationship of all opposites are clearly perceived. These opposites include, first and foremost, the concepts of good and bad which are interrelated in the same way as yin and yang. Recognizing the relativity of good and bad, and thus of aI! moral standards, the Taoist sage does not strive for the good but rather tries to maintain a dynamic balance between good and bad. Chuang Tzu is very clear on this point:

The sayings, ‘Shall we not follow and honour the right and have nothing to do with the wrong?’ and ‘Shall we not follow and honour those who secure good government and have nothing to do with those who produce disorder? show a want of acquaintance with the principles of Heaven and Earth and with the different qualities of things. It is like following and honouring Heaven and taking no account of Earth; it is like following and honouring the yin and taking no account of the.yang. It is clear that such a course cannot be pursued.

Excerpted from Page 115 of ‘The Tao of Physics’ by Fritjof Capra