The Balance of Tao

The Tao is a symbol of balance and harmony, as we all know. The curved line which separates the two equal parts of the symbol indicates the continually moving nature of energy in its two aspects–light and dark. We thus come to recognize and understand these aspects within ourselves and to act according to that understanding.

We see the necessity of acknowledging the darkness within ourselves as well as the light. Our wholeness comes about by realizing that active and passive are two parts of one unity. Sometimes our feminine side is more prominent than our masculine; vice-versa at other times. Nature takes its own course in flowing from one extreme to the other–but never staying at an extreme so that balance and harmony can be achieved. It is only our own ego-ridden willfulness that makes us want to stay with those extremes.

Further balance can be noted in the opposite yet complementary and, indeed, interdependent spots of black and white within the yang and the yin. The natural order of the universe requires a rise and fall–one side containing within it the seed of its opposite–for true balance to take place. The “trick” in allowing ourselves to “go with the flow” and accept the outer changes that continually keep occurring is to not become attached to the positive over the negative, the contractive as superior to the expansive, the warm above the cold. Those seemingly separate “parts” are really only one–simple complementary aspects of the unified whole.

To remain in the unchanging NOW and to fully sense our stable center where no outer changes can affect that focus is true awareness of Reality. Only then can we incorporate those changes as they happen–simply watching, letting them be, letting them go from one extreme to the other, letting them harmonize of their own accord.

– Jean Katus
Fort Yates, ND