"To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction." ~ Sir Issac Newton
The Toaist belief in China is well known for it's belief in Yin Yang.
The concept that there is an inheritent duality to everything. Life cannot exist without death. East without West. Hot without cold. Masculine without feminine. Light without dark. Growth without decay. Etc.
Toaist do not believe one is good or bad, that is a common western misconception, they simply are, one cannot exist without the other, nor is either pure as there is always a little yin in the yang and vice versa. As such, you need both to accomplish anything.
And that, my dear readers, is one of the biggest fundimental problems we have in accomplishing our goals. The lack of the total acceptance of:
Price
Whatever you want in this world, there is a price to be paid for it, and if you have to ask, 'How much?' you cannot afford it.The price, is the yin to your desired yang. You cannot call yang (or yin) into being without creating it's polar opposite. One simply can not exist without the other. To make it even more interesting, you can expect, to experience the opposite of what you want (yin) - first.
If you want to become wealthy, without depending on extreme luck to win the lottery or misfortune to gain an inheritance, the only way to do so is to invest. That is the irony. Why do people want money? Primarily for a sense of security. A sense that they'll be able to obtain whatever they need to be happy or at least, comfortable. Yet, in order to become financially secure somehow it's going to require an investment of money without an absolute guarantee of return. An inheritant lack of security.
That could take many shapes from investing in a business, your own or someone elses, stocks, funds, reality or even investing in an education. When it comes to investing, the highest rate of return comes from the that which is most risky. Nor do wealthy people idly sit on their fortunes, they are virtually always being invested into something, to create even greater returns. But what happens when the market crashes? A lot of wealth is lost. Such is yin yang at work. In order to enjoy financial security, you have to tolerate financial risk. And you have to start from where you're at now.
Same goes for love. You cannot have love without risk of heartache. You cannot expect to be promoted without investing hard work, unsolicited, first. You cannot expect spiritual growth without having to endure life's hard lessons. Anything you want, is going to have some consequence, some price that must be paid, in order to obtain it.
Okay, fine. You realize this of course. Yet, when the challenges come, we balk. Worse, we become fixated on them. Whatever you focus on in life, you'll attract more of. So in trying to gain yang, we must first bare yin. But yin is so distasteful to us, we push against it - which creates more of it. Then we wonder why is life being so unfair to us. But life is giving us exactly what we are concentrating on.
When my marriage was falling apart, I lost all sight of the greater sense of what I wanted, a happy relationship, and focused on fixing the broken one. In hindsight, I can see that once I had started down the path I was on, I was elevating myself to a place my partner was not prepared to go. As much as I like to romanticize it and remember the good parts, it was a trouble partnership from the get go. We were every different people, with different values and wholy opposite ways to deal with life's situations. We argued a lot. As we grew, we continued down our own paths, growing further apart. If I was to be in a truly happy relationship, that one had to end, if only because my wife(at the time) was not interested in self improvement and therefore could not grow with me.
Looking back, I can see that clearly. At the time, I saw only the loss and I pushed against that with everything I had. Which only denied me any potential happiness I could have found elsewhere and kept me in a state of loss. I'm not into astrology, but I'll give it this. I'm a Taurus and true to my sunsign, I'm stubborn and don't like to move from where I'm at. I stubbornly pushed against loss and stayed where I was for years before I finally understood that I was creating my own misfortune in love. Once I did, and accepted the loss, focusing only on finding new love, accepting the risk gladly, then love came.
So are you ready to tolerate the risk or pain or sorrows that must come with the glory you seek? Then you are doomed to failure. It is not about tolerating.
Price is not the same as Pain
There's a reason this prinicipal is Price and not Pain. If you are seeing it as a pain then you have an inheritent problem with your Perspective. Yin and yang are not exclusive, you cannot have one without the other, there is no dichotomy here. They are intertwined and inseperable. You must love them as one and the same.
My friend Cathy Morenzie really got my head in the right place for working out. I've learned to associate stressing my body and the aches and pains that come with it as good things. I like to feel the burn in my muscles now, because it means they are growing. If I go a few days without hitting the gym, and now longer have any aches, it now psychically pains me, because I know I'm lossing muscle mass that I've worked so hard to gain. I want the burn, the aches, the stress. I GLADLY pay that price because it is a part and parcel of staying in top shape.
Investors GLADLY make risky (not stupid) investments, because they know that's where the real money is at. People who want to experience love at the deepest levels gladly (but intelligently) accept the risk that comes with it.
"The whole process of mental adjustment and attunement can be summed up in one word: GRATITUDE " ~ Wallace D. Wattles
"He who loves his job, never works a day in his life." ~ Confucious
Most people complain about all the little annoyances in life but those things exist because of all the blessings in your life. Those annoyances are the yin to your yang. Instead of complaining be grateful to have them in the first place.
Instead of complaining about being stuck in traffic, give thanks that you have a car which provides you with freedom of travel.
Instead of complaining about your partner's habits be grateful you have found someone that wants to spend their life with you.
Instead of complaining about your children's behaviour (correct it and) rejoice in the blessings God/life has bestowed on you.
Instead of feeling sorry for yourself that you have no one in your life, rejoice at the unlimited opportunities to meet someone that are now before you.
Always be grateful for what you have. Always be grateful for the challenges life presents to you. Live in an attitude of gratitude. Because you are either experiencing a yin for a yang that you are already enjoying and want to continue to enjoy, or the yin is a harbinger of the yang to follow. As such it should be embraced, accepted, learned from and used to prepare you for the yang you are about to recieve.
"...the cycles of life are endless -- and always serve you, because life is a process that serves Life Itself.
When things seeem to be shifting away from you, moving in the other direction, closing doors, shutting down opportunities, remember that all things are cyclical -- including Life Itself.
What you are experiencing is temporary -- whether it's "good" OR "bad." So stop calling it one thing or the other, and simply embrace it as What's Happening Now.
You'll move through it all much more peacefully. And one day you'll call it ALL "good.""
~ Neale Donald Walsch
When you come from the right Perspective, you realize that everything in life serves you in one way or the other. Because nothing can be purely 'bad' or wholy 'good' but we can find the 'good', that which currently serves us, in every situation. When you are grateful for the blessings or the challenges that make you grow, to become the person you need to be to accept greater blessings, then you are staying focused on that which you want. You are walking in faith. Holding onto your Promise, assured that todays troubles are working for you, somehow (and we often can't see how in our linerary experience of this life until afterwards), to deliver tomorrows triumphs. Accept the yin to your desired yang for without the yin your yang can not exist.
When you are in a place where both yin and yang are 'good' things, then you have no problems. Life becomes easy because there is no pain to be borne. You begin to love that which you once sought to avoid, knowing it is a part of that which brings you joy so it too, brings you joy. You go from joy to joy to joy. Following your bliss.
