Wild-Eyes wrote:
Thus, knowing the patterns of energy that will come, they learn to not fight against them by pressing Yang against Yin, for instance, but by learning to follow the energy flow and control it. By knowing all possible outcomes and being intimately familiar with the energies of Yin and Yang, they can steer one path easily into another, knowing quite well what it will do.
The situation therefore, ends up dictating its own outcome. The sage does nothing but harness the potential of a situation and steer it.
Haha. This is pratically the essence of Tai-Chi fighting. Yes, I agree that the sage does
nothing but
harness the potential of a stituation and
steer it. Doing nothing is very important because, once the sage is put into motion, he cannot be One anymore, he will be either Yin or Yang. To me, the "doorway of survival and extinction" means the doorway before Yin and Yang, a state of oneness, or "tai-chi" -- the supreme pole as it is sometimes called, where as Yin-Yang forms a dipole.
2. Therefore the Way by which sages live in the world has always been one; while its transformations, which are endless, each has a specific purpose. Sometimes it is yin, sometimes yang; sometimes yielding, sometimes firm; sometimes open, sometimes closed; sometimes relaxed, sometimes tense. For this reason sages consistently keep watch at the doorway and carefully examine what should precede and what follow. They assess strategies, measure capabilities, and compare strengths and weaknesses of technical skills.
Here we have some more detailed explanation of what is Yin and what is Yang. Yielding is yin, standing firm, is yang, open is yang, and closed is yin, relaxed is yin, and tense is yang. Everything, according to the Taoists, are consisted of Yin and Yang, although in different proportions.
Here we see the problem with ancient texts and the prevalent lack of specific pronouns. In the last sentence, whose strategies are the sages assessing, whose capabilities are they measuring, and whose strengths and weaknesses of technical skills are they comparing? It may seem natural to say that MoDV is talking Ying and Yang, because it was directly mentioned above. But it may seem (or at least it seems to me) that the passage is somewhat redudant, of course the sage would know the capabilities of Yin and Yang to begin with. Even if he is to assess the properties of Yin and Yang, why must he stand at the doorway (what I consider Tai-chi or Oneness)?
I think that the sages' calculations are not about the inherent properties of Yin and Yang, but the flow of these two energies in people at large. Some people are firm while some are passive, some people are diligent while others are relaxed, some are greedy and some are not.
If that is the case, then the Way, the Oneness does not have any transformations, it only transforms from oneness to a dipole. That is my intepretation anyways.
About heaven and earth: heaven is yang and the earth is yin. Although I don't see it as having too much significance in this context. Heaven is the sky, earth is the earth. Between heaven and earth, that is on the ground, or the human world. It is often believed that the human world is constantly affected by the heaven and earth and therefore is a mixture of fluctuating yin and yang. The text said "between heaven and earth," not "outside of heaven and earth," so the sage still lives in the world, not somehow above or below it.
Moderation in pursuit of actual work is no vice.