We too often see the world in black/white terms. Everything is oppositional—good/bad, light/dark, young/old, male/female and so on. Any taint of one oppositional element in the other is seen as an impurity which must be eradicated. Also we couch everything in the superlative. The best, the fastest, the sexiest, the richest, the most popular. We go crazy over top 10 lists, and must be first or best at everything. There’s much that is destructive in this way of seeing things. There is no final an pure perfect form.
A more Eastern point of view looks at the world, not as a conflict of opposites, but as a search for balance and harmony. It accepts as a given that each oppositional element exists in its other. That resolves the impurity issue from the start. Then it becomes the task in each circumstance and in each person to find a life-affirming balance or harmony. The search for this balance is ongoing because life is an organic process
What would happen if we applied this philosophy to our current political and social problems which are so enmeshed in conflict?
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