Embracing the Way of Nature: Polarity and the Tao

Taoism offers a unique way of viewing the world. Though it is often taught as the “Way of Nature,” Tao, translated means simply, “the Way.”  As its greatest teacher, Lao-Tzu explained, nature contains polarities. Tao creates and nourishes everything in the Cosmos, and yet It appears to “do nothing” (wu wei in Chinese), which means that Tao, being spontaneous, has no intent or impulse to strive, to act and to react as we humans do. The Tao simply allows things to take their own course. The acceptance of this dual nature of the world can help put us at ease, but only when we truly understand how polarity works to manifest our “seeming” reality.

Psychologist Swami Ajaya once said, “In Taoism it is believed that when one is unaware that the two sides of a polarity support one another to form a whole, he identifies with only one side of the polarity. This in turn leads to suffering and self-destruction. But understanding how the two poles support one another leads to a peaceful and integrated life.”

In the Tao-te Ching,  the Tao is also described as the allness of the universe, as the true reality of existence beyond the “shadows” of false appearance, as nothingness, as a synonym for God, as a state of mind or being, as a paradox of opposites, as wisdom through emptiness. It is at once all these things and none of them.

For example, the world is currently in a state of chaos as the very beginning revelations of corruption and evil (darkness) that permeates so many levels of our government and society. Many among us are in denial that such evil could even exist.  Many are unaware that the evil traits exemplified by so many are mirrors of our own faults, albeit exaggerated in such a gross form, that we might hopefully be compelled to overcome our own moral and ethical shortcomings, and move toward the “light.” We must be careful, though, not to move to another false matrix.

The forces of true Divine Light that exist outside of the corrupt world matrix are not bound by the left-brain right-brain dynamics and dark-light polarities that define the demiurgic sub-universe.

In the ultimate book of Taoist teachings, the Tao Te Ching, a text which embodies Lao-tzu’s teachings, it is explained that “when the world knows beauty as beauty, without knowing that it depends upon its opposite, i.e., ugliness, then beauty turns out to be ugly. Similarly, when people know goodness as goodness, without knowing that it co-exists with evil, goodness tends to become evil.”

If we look at a less extreme example than ritualistic,  satanic spirit cooking dinners, or any other evil practice coming to light — which might be more relatable — this concept becomes more clear.

There is an incident which happened recently in China, where a girl committed suicide because she could not beautify herself to meet society’s standards. In another case, three girls committed suicide because they hadn’t been able to finish their homework. While psychotherapists preach “unconditional acceptance,” none of these suicide cases could accept their own faults, resulting in a non-discriminative personality abjectly unable to embrace their own God-given worth.

Lao-tzu teaches that it is only when we can accept the unity of beauty-ugliness, or discipline-laziness, etc. that we can avoid deep mental illness.

The teacher of the “Way” is not asking us to accept the actions of the evil, but to realize that their efforts are only one side of the false, duplicitous Universe, set up to fool us. Without cold, there can be no warm. Without sun, there is no rain. Without “evil”, there is no “good.” No “Yin,” no “Yang.”

More specifically, the Way of Nature is to strive toward good by overcoming evil. We cannot simply act as if it doesn’t exist. Ultimately, though, we free ourselves from false Gods, false flags, and the illusion that we were ever separate from the One to begin with. This is the Tao.

The Campbellian journey, and its long list of archetypal heroes and villains is just a template for what we are experiencing now, and what Lao-Tzu taught ages ago.

If we don’t go on this adventure, face a crisis and succeed, and transform, then we have missed the entire point of existence. Christ, Buddha, Krishna – they all faced similar challenges – but theirs was a lesson in transcending duality.

Joseph Campbell taught that it was only once a hero or heroine transitions through an apotheosis, do they achieve the prize. He said, “Those who know, not only that the Everlasting lies in them, but that what they, and all things, really are is the Everlasting, dwell in the groves of the wish fulfilling trees, drink the brew of immortality, and listen everywhere to the unheard music of eternal concord.”

Even George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, wrote his characters based on this underlying paradox, and the Campbellian journey. You can see this in Star Wars’ plot. Human beings were once very aware of their connection to Infinite Source and all of life, and that awareness has been maintained by spiritual individuals throughout the entire reign of darkness on this planet. Because this awareness could not be “beaten out of us” by the dark forces, a plan was formed to co-opt the spiritual nature of human beings.

Similarly, Toaist master Chuang Tzo taught, “The Taoist secret of power is to follow the nature of things, a sensitivity and skill obtained by minute concentration on the Tao running through natural objects of all kinds. This knowledge and skill cannot be handed down but is that all the men of old took with them when they died.” The knowledge can’t be handed down because it is already inherent within us.

Truly, we are a spirit dwelling within a body. These experiences here are only part of the Way. This hologram or matrix we are captive within has been called Maya by the Hindus, and the Gnostics referred to it as the Corrupt Demiurge. The world is an entropic system of artificially-induced separation consciousness that is slowly dying, and it depends on harvesting the energy from the souls incarnated within its system in order to preserve its existence. This is what we must not lose sight of. This false world does not represent the Cosmos as a whole.

These challenging times are here to help us purge fear, sickness, and warped passions from our minds and hearts. Only then do we become illuminated beings, no longer subject to the laws of matter, space and time. To transcend duality, we must first understand it.