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SkorpivoMusterion
Livin in theTwilight Zone...
Registered: 01/30/03
Posts: 9,954
Loc: You can't spell fungus wi...
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Opposites
#3716181 - 02/01/05 09:43 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Before emptying, there must be fullness. Before shrinking, there must be expanding. Before falling, there must be ascent. To destroy something, lead it to its extreme. To preserve something, keep to the middle.
Although we speak of opposites, they are not truly antagonistic elements. All opposites are part of the same entity. Like a two-headed snake, opposites are part of the same whole. They define one another, as black defines white. They alternate with one another, as war alternates with peace.
Whenever any phenomenon reaches its extreme, it will change toward its opposite, just as the darkest night begins to change toward dawn, and the coldest winter is followed by glorious spring. Therefore, anything that one wishes to destroy need only be led to its extreme or crushed while it is just appearing. For example, the two easiest times to destroy a tree are when it is so tall that it is about to topple or so young that it can be easily uprooted.
The same principle holds if one wishes to nurture something. You can prevent its destruction by bringing it close to, but not over, its apex. You can take a branch from an old tree and graft it. This is the wisdom of the middle ground. Followers of Tao change a situation when it reaches its apex. By joining their efforts to a new situation that is just budding, they attain perpetuity.
Those who attain the middle Dominate the whole.
-------------------- Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
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Corporal Kielbasa
Registered: 05/29/04
Posts: 17,235
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its the circle of life so to speak, a cycle.
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soulmotion
Professor
Registered: 11/30/04
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Yeah, I think opposites are important-- they are complimentary.
However, Alot of times we have to choose between them (opposites), respecting the opposition like a good sport, nonetheless declaring your alliegence to one side or the other.
Edited by soulmotion (02/02/05 12:45 AM)
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Silversoul
Rhizome
Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Quote:
SkorpivoMusterion said: To destroy something, lead it to its extreme. To preserve something, keep to the middle.
So Bush is destroying the Republican Party?
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PhanTomCat
Teh Cat....
Registered: 09/07/04
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The only thing that might not fit is the annalogy(right word?) of the 2 headed snake.... Most of the other examples of opposites seem to be separated by a line or a point before actually crossing over or, changing directions from one opposite to the other.... In the case of the two-headed snake, two heads merge at a point to BECOME one....
Two equally opposing forces have to find peace thru an equally drawn "line" and exist within an emusion as a natural state of coexistance.... Without both, there is no one....
-------------------- I'll be your midnight French Fry.... "The most important things in life that are often ignored, are the things that one cannot see...." >^;;^<
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Jellric
altered statesman
Registered: 11/07/98
Posts: 2,261
Loc: non-local
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Personally, I think this is the best stuff you've posted since you ascended to "guru" status.
-------------------- I AM what Willis was talkin' bout.
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repemon
journeyman
Registered: 04/25/04
Posts: 158
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Re: Opposites [Re: Jellric]
#3718216 - 02/02/05 08:31 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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So, when the yankees push their materialistic worldview to its extreme, they will eventually change to hippies.
God I love that thought :o
-------------------- - When the time stops, evil ones will be pointed out for all to see.
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Gomp
¡(Bound to·(O))be free!
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Re: Opposites [Re: repemon]
#3718509 - 02/02/05 10:24 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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opposite of opposites, is like the same mirror, reflecting, beginning and end, in the very same, as One???
-------------------- -------------------- Disclaimer!?
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PhanTomCat
Teh Cat....
Registered: 09/07/04
Posts: 5,908
Loc: My Youniverse....
Last seen: 15 years, 1 month
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By the way Skorpivo, nice thread, and very well put.... Didn't mean to just nit-pick one little aspect of an otherwise wise assembly of thoughts....
I was thinking about the 2 headed snake thing today while driving home from work, and there are ways that it does relate as an opposite.... If one of the independent "heads" was to die, so would the other as an inevitable consequence of not having that balance in life.... But, maybe this chosen 2 headed snake would serve to show where black and white "opposites" merge together to form a common grey area of existance.... Perhaps a thicker line of "boundry" in this situation is actually where the emulsion takes place instead of actually seperating the two.... Maybe not exactly polar opposites, but two individuals forced to be one....
(I used the word emulsion in my previous post incorrectly, and it was not the right word....)
>^;;^<
-------------------- I'll be your midnight French Fry.... "The most important things in life that are often ignored, are the things that one cannot see...." >^;;^<
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