It often happens that people speak about bringing their lives in balance because, apparently, they are getting too much of A, and not getting enough of B, whatever it is.
When they say that they are getting too much of something, they usually mean that they are not doing enough in that area, or that their efforts are not producing the desired results. In this context, not getting enough is the same as not doing enough.
Taoists are particularly bent on avoiding excessive efforts or wasteful projects; the Taoist concepts of Yin and Yang can help us decisively in this area by prompting us to avoid endeavours where the Yin or the Yang are drastically diminished.
However, the application of the Taoist Yin and Yang ideas in everyday life is easier said than done. When we are facing a severe problem, we tend to operate expeditiously. Few people are able to keep a cool head when the pressure mounts.
Lessons of perennial value
Luckily, Lao-Tzu, Yang-Tzu and Chuang-Tzu offer us very good advice on how to bring our lives into balance. Their ideas and short stories illustrate the interplay of Yin and Yang. Their prescriptions possess perennial value because they concentrate on human behaviour, not on technology or external conditions.
Let us review those lessons, one by one, and see how to put them into practice in our daily lives. In each case, I’m referring to the corresponding chapter of the Tao Te Ching or any other ancient Taoist source underpinning the lesson.
In older translations, Chapter 9 of the Tao Te Ching speaks against overfilling one’s bowl. If we fill our bowl or cup to the brim, the liquid will spill. Overfilling results in waste, and then we will have to clean up the mess. It is a double loss which we should avoid incurring.
Yin and Yang, as philosophical concepts, are not concerned with filling bowls of soup, glasses of wine, or cups of water. In real life, excessive action will entail harsher penalties than the need to clean the floor.
Imbalances in the Yin and Yang can prove lethal, even if the consequences are not immediately visible. Overwork and lack of sleep can severely undermine our health. Doing excessive sports can prove counterproductive, and overspending can sink our credit rating.
Modern gurus seldom use the Yin and Yang concepts when they speak of those imbalances, but for the concerned persons, it would have been easier to prevent the problems than having to face the consequences.
Philosophical thermometers
I regard the Yin and Yang concepts as thermometers against overheating and over-cooling. We do not need to attain perfect equilibrium between Yin and Yang, but we should certainly say no to situations that obviate one or the other.
Similarly, the story of the monkey trap helps drive this point home. The origins of this story are Taoist or Zen Buddhist. I’m adapting the narrative slightly to today’s literary standards, but respecting the core message and the details. The story goes as follows:
Once upon a time, an old man wanted to capture a monkey to keep it as a pet, but he soon discovered that monkeys are extremely difficult to catch. They always stay alert and, if they detect any danger, they immediately climb a tree.
The old man had attempted every method under the sun, but did not succeed in capturing any monkey. When he was about to give up, his son said “Maybe we should just let the monkeys trap themselves.”
“What do you mean?” asked the old man, puzzled.
“In contrast to humans, monkeys are incapable of avoiding excesses. They cannot exercise measurement and moderation. I have an idea for exploiting their weakness.”
The young man went inside their house, picked up a glass bottle and ten hazelnuts. He removed the lid from the bottle, placed the hazelnuts inside, went into the garden, and tied the bottle with a chain.
Father and son retired for the night, and the next morning, a shrill noise coming from the garden woke them up. A monkey had been trapped because it had inserted its hand into the bottle to grab the hazelnuts, but after grabbing them, it was unable to remove its hand. As a result, the monkey was easily captured.
Predictable consequences
It never occurred to the monkey to let go of the hazelnuts. If the monkey had not insisted on grabbing them all in one go, its hand would have remained small enough for removing it from the bottle. The inability to let go led to the monkey’s demise.
The Russian author Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) wrote in 1886 a similar story, where the devil offered a peasant, as a payment for taking his soul, as much land as he could cover by running in one day. The peasant accepted the deal offered by the devil and started to run.
Hour after hour, the peasant kept running, hoping to cover as much land as possible; amused, the devil watched how he kept running for hours.
After running for twenty-three hours, the peasant was so exhausted that he couldn’t take one step further. For a moment, he stood still trying to catch his breath, but then he collapsed, totally exhausted, and passed away.
The devil had been waiting for this moment and, without waiting one second, he took the peasant’s soul and carried it with him, directly to hell.
Situations like these can be easily avoided by using the Yin and Yang concepts. Instead of trying to grab all hazelnuts at one, the monkey would have taken one or two, and escaped.
Similarly, the peasant would have run just for a few hours, accumulated a fair amount of land, and then stopped; he would have enjoyed his newly-acquired land for years, while looking for a way to trick the devil out of the soul he had promised.
By bringing things to the extreme, the monkey had forfeited its freedom, and the peasant, his life. The Yin and Yang should be respected and never pushed to the limit because catastrophe might ensue.
If you are interested in putting effective insights into daily practice, I recommend my book titled “Rational living, rational working.”