Summarize the 2 topics into 2 slides per each topic.Please have .docx
- 1. Summarize the 2 topics into 2 slides per each topic. Please have bullet points for each slides. First Topic YANG and YIN Yang and yin After about 1000 BCE the Chinese commonly thought that the universe expressed itself in opposite but complementary principles: light and dark, day and night, hot and cold, sky and earth, summer and winter. The list was virtually infinite: male and female, right and left, front and back, up and down, out and in, sound and silence, birth and death. It even came to include “strong foods,” such as meat and ginger, and “weak foods,” such as fish and rice. The names for the two complementary principles are yang and yin. Yang and yin, symbolized by a circle of light and dark, represent the complementary but opposing forces of the universe that generate all forms of reality. These principles are not the same as good and evil. Yang is not expected to win against the force of yin, or vice versa. Rather, the ideal is a dynamic balance between the forces. In fact, the emblem of balance is the yin- yang circle, divided into what look like two intertwined commas. One half is light, representing yang; the other is dark, representing yin. Inside each division is a small dot of the contrasting color that represents the seed of the opposite. The dot suggests that everything contains its opposite and will eventually become its opposite. Both forces are dynamic and in perfect balance as they change—just as day and night are in balance as they progress. We can think of yang and yin as pulsations or as waves of energy—like a heartbeat, or like breathing in and out. Second Topic Daodejing The Daodejing The Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) is generally seen as one of the world’s greatest books. It is also the primary classic of Daoism, accepted by most Daoists as a central
- 2. scripture. Its title can be translated as “the classical book about the Way and its power.” Sometimes the book is also called the Laozi (Lao Tzu), after its legendary author. Possibly because of its brevity and succinctness, it has had an enormous influence on Chinese culture. The book has been linguistically dated to about 350 BCE, but it seems to have circulated in several earlier forms. In 1972, at the tombs of Mawangdui, archeologists discovered two ancient copies of the text that differ from the arrangement commonly used. Another shorter ancient version was found in a tomb at Guodian in 1993. That version contains about one-third of the standard text.1 The version that is commonly known and used is from the third century CE. In the eighty-one chapters of the Daodejing, we recognize passages that seem to involve early shamanistic elements, such as reaching trance states and attaining invulnerability (see chapters 1, 16, 50, and 55). The book shows some repetition, has no clear order, and exhibits a deliberate lack of clarity. In form, each chapter is more poetry than prose. This combination of elements suggests that the book is not the work of a single author but is rather the assembled work of many people, gathered over time. It may be a collection of what were once oral proverbs and sayings. What was the original purpose of the book? One theory holds that its overall purpose was political, that it was meant as a handbook for rulers. Another view sees it primarily as a religious guidebook, meant to lead adherents to spiritual insight. A third sees it as a practical guide for living in harmony with the universe. It is possible Page 205that the Daodejing fulfilled all these purposes and that its passages can have several meanings at the same time. Part of the genius of the book is its brevity and use of paradox: its meaning depends on who is interpreting it. Page 206 Throughout the Daodejing are references to the Dao. The book speaks of its nature and operation; it describes the manner in which people will live if they are in harmony with the Dao; and it gives suggestions for experiencing the Dao. The book also provides images to help describe all of these things. What, though, is “the Dao”? The
- 3. Daodejing begins famously by saying that the Dao is beyond any description. It states that the Dao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Dao. In other words, we cannot really put into words exactly what the Dao is—a fact that is ironic, since the book itself uses words. Yet the book goes on to tell us that the Dao is “nameless”; that is, it is not any individual thing that has a name, such as a door, a tree, a bird, a person. The Dao cannot be named because it has no form. Yet the Dao can be experienced, and it can be followed by every individual thing that has a name. The Daodejing says the Dao is the origin of everything and that all individual things are “manifestations” of the Dao. Although the Dao is the origin of nature, it is not “God,” because it does not have personality. It neither cares about human beings nor dislikes them—it only produces them, along with the rest of nature. Because the Dao makes nature move the way it does, it can be called the way or the rhythm of nature. To experience the Dao, we must leave behind our desires for individual things. This recommendation runs counter to everyday concerns—how much something costs, what time it is now, whether something is big or small. In fact, the Daoist way of seeing things is so odd to some people that at first it seems like trying to see in the dark. The end of the first chapter of the Daodejing describes it this way: Darkness within darkness. The gate to all mystery. Laozi, the “father of Daoism,” is here portrayed riding on an ox as he prepares to leave his homeland. ©Heritage Images/Hulton Archive/Getty Images The Daoist sees things differently. To illustrate this fact, there is an intriguing example in the twentieth chapter of the Daodejing. A Daoist is observing a group of people who are in a park, celebrating a holiday. They all seem happy, as they climb up to the top of a terrace where a ceremony will occur. They appear to know what they are doing and where they are going. Not the Daoist, though, who feels “formless” and “like the ocean”—adrift.2 The Daoist is troubled by the contrast. The others seem happy and sure of themselves, but the Daoist can only watch, and feels strangely like an outsider. Then the chapter ends with a sudden,
- 4. extraordinary affirmation. The Daoist recognizes something intensely personal and difficult, yet Page 207willingly accepts the sense of separateness from the others and from their conventional way of seeing things. The Daoist accepts, and concludes, I am different. I am nourished by the great mother. Deeper Insights THE SEASONS OF LIFE Afamous story illustrates what it means to live in harmony with nature: Upon hearing of the death of Zhuangzi’s wife, a friend, Huizi (Hui Tzu), goes to offer sympathy. Although he expects to find Zhuangzi crying and in ritual mourning, Huizi finds Zhuangzi instead singing and drumming on a bowl. Huizi is shocked—and says so. Responding in a thoughtful way, Zhuangzi says that at first his wife’s death saddened him terribly, but then he reflected on the whole cycle of her existence. Before his wife was a human being, she was without shape or life, and her original self was a part of the formless substance of the universe. Then she became a human being. “Now there’s been another change, and she’s dead. It’s just like the progression of the four seasons, spring, summer, fall, winter.”5 When winter comes, we do not mourn. That would be ungrateful. Similarly, a human being goes through seasons. Zhuangzi describes his wife as now being like someone asleep in a vast room. “If I were to follow after her bawling and sobbing, it would show that I don’t know anything about fate. So I stopped.”6 In this story, note that Zhuangzi is singing and playing on a bowl. Rather than mourn passively, he does something to counteract his sorrow. His singing is a profound human response, quite believable. And Zhuangzi does not say that as a result of his insight he no longer feels sad. Rather, he says that as far as mourning is concerned, “I stopped.” In other words, despite his feelings, he deliberately behaves in a way that seems more grateful to the universe and therefore more appropriate than mourning. This tale suggests that to live in harmony with nature means to accept all its transformations. The great Dao produces both yang and yin, which alternate perpetually. The story says that yin and yang are our parents and we must obey them. If we
- 5. cannot embrace the changes, we should at least observe them with an accepting heart. Thus, the Dao cannot be “known” in the same way that we see a car or hear a sound, for example. It cannot be perceived directly, but only by intuition. Perhaps it is like the difference between simply hearing musical sounds and recognizing a song. The Daodejing presents several powerful images wherein the Dao seems most active and visible. Contemplating them can help us experience the Dao, and by taking on some of the qualities of these images, we begin to live in harmony with the Dao that inhabits them. Several common images follow: Water Water is gentle, ordinary, and lowly, but is also strong and necessary. It flows around every obstacle. Chapter eight of the Daodejing praises it: “The highest good is like water.”3 It assists all things “and does not compete with them.”4 Woman The female is sensitive and receptive, yet is also effective and powerful. Child The child is full of energy, wonder, and naturalness. Valley The valley is yin, and it is mystery. Darkness Darkness can be safe, full of silence and possibility.