Bonjour my fellow truth seekers,

As I was looking over the previous verses before writing about Verse 5 I began to wonder how my thoughts and ideas will grow, expand and inevitably change as I work through the Tao Te Ching. We are all unfolding stories and I know that each day I see, experience or even just read something that adds to my thoughts. I am so glad that we, as infinite beings, have the ability to expand. If I had the same ideas and opinions that I had at 18 I would probably just give up now – but each day we receive input from the world around us and, hopefully, we take it on board and allow ourselves to learn and move forward. As much as I like to think that I am always right I can make myself squirm with discomfort as I remember what some of my views once were. So, in short, this blog is a fluid learning curve for me and I write down the ideas as they come – I hope that they will not be too discordant but I will not impose any boundaries on what wants to be expressed.

Verse 5 – Yin and Yang
Yin and Yang aren’t sentimental.
They exist without moralizing.
They act regardless of our wishes
within the ebb and flow
of every pregnant moment.

The space between yin and yang
is like a bellows -
empty – yet infinitely full.
The more it yields,
the more it fills.

Countless words
count less
than the silent balance
between yin and yang. (Translation Ralph Alan Dale)

Here we see again the importance of doing by not doing. The more we allow ourselves to be in the flow of life rather than pushing for things that society tells us we want and need – even when our hearts tell us the opposite – the more we feel fulfilled and enriched. Life is never all good and never all bad – for us to appreciate one we must understand the concept of the other. Therefore yin and yang are what we are to expect from life. As the verse says they ‘aren’t sentimental’. Yin and yang have no judgement. We seem to think as a culture that bad things just can’t happen to us. The supreme arrogance of that statement! Who are we, first of all, to judge what is good and what is bad? This is totally subjective. As the famous adage says ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’. Who is in the right there and who in the wrong – it depends what side of the fence you are looking from and I would posit that there is no universal right and wrong and the only reliable authority we have is our own gut and conscience. We know when we are doing something that will hurt others, but we have got into a state where it doesn’t matter if we hurt others as long as we aren’t breaking the law of the particular country we live in. Who are the lawmakers to tell you what is right and what is wrong? It is legal in certain countries to rape and beat your wife – does that mean that it is ok to do it? It is legal to buy goods that have reached our shelves by way of exploitation and greed – does that mean it is ok to buy them, because everyone else is? We all have an infallible inbuilt system that tells us when we are behaving in a shameful way but we often choose to ignore it.

It is also a truth that so often in life that the things we love or enjoy the most proceed from those that have been the hardest. That is never an easy thing to appreciate when you are in the middle of extreme pain – whether mental or physical – and therefore it is often only realised in hindsight. There is nothing worse than being told to be positive when you are at a low point in your life! It is only ever ourselves who can reach out for the positive and the strength needed at a time like that, but support from others is always a bonus. I do feel though, that without Yin and Yang, without the extremes in life, we are only surviving and not living. That does not mean, however, that we should strive against them. We need to embrace the events of our lives and constantly be open – ‘like a bellows’ – to be filled with the inspiration to go forward. To not use 'countless’ words to bemoan our situation but to give ourselves over to the experience of living, knowing that, although we can always act for the best and create beautiful worlds for ourselves, sometimes ‘shit happens’ whether we want it to or not and we have to ride that event out by doing and not moaning.

So until next time my amazing chums. Huge love to all of you and to all those you love in turn.

Catherine xxx