To hold things and to be proud of them is not as good as not to have them,
Because if one insists on an extreme, that extreme will not dwell long.
When a room is full of precious things, one will never be able to preserve them.
When one is wealthy, high ranking, and proud of himself, he invites misfortune.
When one’s task is completed and his mission is fulfilled, he removes himself from his position. This is indeed the way of Nature.
Commentary
The dialectical approach is basic to Lao Tzu’s thought. The dialectical world is a world of endless movement between conflicting forces. When one extreme is reached, the dialectical process immediately reverses itself and extends to the opposite extreme. According to the Taoist teaching, when one reaches one extreme and yet is free from it, one enters the realm of the unity of opposites, in which both extremes are immediately and spontaneously identified. As Nishida Kitaro says:
That which exists in the actual world must be both subjective and objective, both universal and individual. Be including both these contradictory moments within itself, the world becomes a dialectical process (Nishida, Fundamental problems, 108).
One enters the realm of the unity of opposites when one transforms one’s limited ego-form self into one’s unlimited non-ego-form self. In Nishida’s words:
The activity of the self means the subjectification of objectivity and the objectification of the self. But at the same time, it means that the object subjectifies itself and the universal individualizes itself. Therein the self is lost, but the true self is found (Ibid., 77).
When one achieves the true self, one is no longer limited to one extreme or another; one is free from all extremes. This is the way of nature.
Dialogue [SAScherling]
I have read and listened to Erich Fromm for years and his book and in this interview To Have or To Be, he addresses the challenge the World is facing: we can continue consuming things, keeping up with our neighbors, or we can choose to understand who we are, how to be in our world, learning to be part of it – respecting and caring for what is ourselves. This is a BBC interview shortly after the publication of Erich’s book To Have or to Be in 1976. We can also read the following texts by Erich Fromm: 1) “Man Is Not a Thing”: http://www.theosophyonline.com/ler.ph… 2) “Psychology and Ethics Are Inseparable”: http://www.theosophyonline.com/ler.ph… 3) “Freud, Jung, And Ethics”: http://www.theosophyonline.com/ler.ph…
Resources:
Text:
Tao: a new way of thinking, with a Commentary by Chang Chung-yuan.
Shepherd. Harvey L. (2013, October 27) A Review of “Dialectics and Analytical Psychology: The El Capitan Canyon Seminar” The Jung Page. http://www.cgjungpage.org/learn/articles/book-reviews/764-a-review-of-dialectics-and-analytical-psychology-the-el-capitan-canyon-seminarq
Dialectical Analytical Man Posts:
Ethics of Individuation & Individuation of Ethics Posted on April 29, 2013
A New Depth Ethic Posted on September 18, 2013
Dialogue:
Shr Ling-yuan, SAScherling.