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Consider the following: A rich man can never be rich, unless he is poor in the first place. For how else will he know what it means to be rich, if he was never poor in the first place? His richness is relevant to his poorness. Before he can be rich, he needs to be poor -- and vice versa. But they both need to exist at some point in time in order to bring both -- richness and poorness -- into existence. Likewise, we cannot acknowledge light, unless we have darkness to compare it to -- and vice versa. The same can be said to all aspects of life. Both ends of the spectrum need to exist, before the "whole" can be realized. If you think about this, you will begin to realize the depth of it´s meaning. It is often said in various ancient philosophies and religions, to be content with what you have -- and that this is a great state of being. I like to take it a step further, and say that you should be content with your current situation -- be it good or bad -- for it's purpose lies within the concept of yin & yang. We have often wondered at some point or another, "Why is there so much evil in the world?" or "Why is this happenning to me?" My answer is that it stemms from the beginning of creation -- there existed both good and evil -- and both were necessary to complement each other -- |
and this gave us the ability to comprehend sadness and happiness, sorry and joy, hunger and fullness, poorness and richness, hatred and love, incompetence and competence, etc. Without this duality, the aspects that we embrace (happiness, joy, fullness, wealth, love, etc.) would never have come into existence. Now if you think about this, you will begin to see (if you haven´t seen it before) deep meaning to your own life. For an explanation by Bruce Lee of how yin & yang applies to the study of martial arts, see the excerpt The Basic Theory of Yin & Yang in the Art of Gung Fu from Bruce Lee´s book Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self Defence, located in the Articles and Excerpts section. Zen In The Martial Arts Here are some quotes that should give you some understanding of how the mental aspect -- the mind -- is just as important, if not more important, than the physical aspect of martial arts: - A man who has attained mastery of an art reveals it his every action. - SAMURAI MAXIM |
