In the Now with the Tao, Day Two/ Verse Two

This verse is especially interesting to me today. Because of it, I am allowing myself to feel the texture of "misunderstanding" without trying to explain or defend myself. I'm choosing instead, just to go inward and become truely intimate with these feelings without judging whether they are good or bad. Right or wrong. What does it feel like? It kinda feels like my heart is pounding in my throat. Like I've swallowed something that won't quite go down. Tears are streaming down my cheeks. I'm not falling apart. I'm simply experiencing this feeling of misunderstanding. Somewhere underneath it all there is the settling ease of peace and stillness. Doing this is neither the right or the wrong the to do. It's merely a state of being.

Tao Vs. 2: "Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty, only because there is ugliness. All can know good and good only because there is evil. Being and nonbeing produce each other. The difficult is born in the easy. Long is defined by short. the high by the low. Before and after go along with each other. So the sage lives openly with apparent duality and paradoxical unity. The sage can act without effort and teach without words. Nurturing things without possessing them, he works, but not for rewards; he competes, but not for results. When the work is done, it is forgottend. That is why it lasts forever."

Our perception of the world seemed to be based completely on opposites and contrasts. Duality. Although there is the yin and the yang, one is not better than the other. The reality is, there isn't a duality at all. Yin and yang are one.

Excerpt from "Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life," by Dr. Wayne Dyer; "...imagine yourself as an otter just living your "otterness." You're not good or bad, beautiful or ugly, a hard worker or a slacker...you're simply an otter, moving through the water or on land freely, peacefully, playfully, and without judgments. When it's time to leave your body, you do so, reclaiming your place in the pure mystery of oneness. This is what Lao-tzo means when he says, "When the work is done, it is forgotten. That is why it lasts forever."

When I am inclined to see two separate and seemingly conflicting sides of anything, I will remember that in reality they are one.