The illusion of separation

In chapter two of the Tao Teh Ching Lao Tzu states, "All can know good as good only because there is evil." I had a discussion of this type with a fundamentalist Christian friend once, who just could not understand how there could be no good without evil. Perhaps the problem would have been cleared up if I had stated, "I am talking about the concept of good and evil, not the actual doing." Then again, that may not have changed anything in his mind either. One must get a real mental pattern. If something is good then its opposite is evil. While Christians don't totally ignore verses in the Bible, they do tend to diminish some things without realizing they are doing it. I don't have time to look it up, I believe it is in Isaiah, where God says, "I alone create the good and the evil. You could make the case such as this, the Devil is only the dark side of God. In that sense, our own dark side would be the dark side of god also, as it would be the ego playing itself out and battling with its polar opposite, God. When we as individuals come to know ourselves, in essence that means getting to know our dark side. But I want to make a point, that does not mean simply the evil in us, it means that which is hidden within us. In other words, the unconscious As we cast a light on it, we get to know our own essence, and in actuality, we come to know God. The is the essence of Gnostic Christianity. Gnostic means direct, experiential knowledge. It is not the blind faith that is often followed by traditional Christianity. By knowing ourselves we come to know God.

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And in continuing, hexagram 50 of the I Ching mentions the idea of harmonization also. In the Wilhelm Baynes commentary it is stated. "...And if he succeeds in assigning the right place to life and to fate, (yin and yang) thus bringing the two into harmony, he puts his fate (he intregates the different aspects of his personality) on a firm footing.

About the time of Jesus the age of Pisces was beginning. Traditional Christianity has been a little puzzled about the association with Jesus and the sign of the fish because of the supposed prohibition of astrology. The sign of Pisces is two fish with an apparent connection, one attempting to swim down into the depths, the other up to the surface. We can see this in the taoist yin yang symbol also. The yin form and the yang form connected together in a circle and one preparing to move upward while the other moves downward.

And as the image in hexagram 50 says, "thus the superior man consolidates his fate by making his position correct." In other words combining yin and yang in their proper correlation. Then the last statement of commentary under the image is, These words contain hints about the fostering of life as handed on by oral tradition in the secret teachings of Chinese Yoga." Apparently there was an oral tradition in china as well as in the gnostic and Jesus system. We today for the most part are missing that. It behoves us, myself as well, to do everything in our power to rediscover that oral tradition. I think it can eventually be found in the myths and allegories of all the sacred scriptures.

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