Daodejing Chapter 2

What a being perceives as one thing may not be the same as someone else. Perception, lens, position, and above all: experience, all change and modify how we see the world around us (all under heaven, tianxia 天下). In as much as we may view something as one thing, and something else as another, we must be conscious that each can transform into the other. This is the nature of relative dualism (yinyang 陰陽) - what is one is the other and vice versa.

Daodejing chapter 2 embodies this relative dualism, embodies the understanding that what we see may or may not be. The existence of contracting experience embodies that of the very core of a processional path (dao 道) of a personalised experience of being. And so, with understand of this dualistic experiential phenomena we begin to gather our thoughts around the concept of effort in creation, of claim to experience, and of the coercive nature that beings place on their own wellbeing. We start to observe within the unobservable the importance of non-coercive effort, or effortless effort (wuwei 無為) and we start to see that all things (wanwu 萬物) fall into place without the need for us to be unnecessarily persistent about forcing them to do so.

Daodejing Chapter 2 - Translation

天下皆知美之為美, Tiānxià jiē zhī měi zhī wèi měi,

斯惡已. sī è yǐ.

皆知善之為善, . Jiē zhī shànzhī wéi shàn, 斯不善已 sī bùshàn yǐ.

故有無相生, Gù yǒu wū xiāngshēng,

難易相成, Nányì xiāng chéng,

長短相較, Chángduǎn xiāng jiào,

高下相傾, Gāo xià xiāng qīng,

音聲相和, Yīn shēng xiāng hé,

前後相隨. Qiánhòu xiāng suí.

是以聖人處無為之事, Shì yǐ shèngrén chù wúwéi zhī shì,

行不言之教; Xíng bù yán zhī jiào;

萬物作焉而不辭, 生而不有. Wànwù zuò yān ér bùcí, shēng ér bù yǒu.

為而不恃, 功成而弗居. Wéi ér bù shì, gōng chéng ér fú jū.

夫唯弗居, 是以不去. Fū wéi fú jū, shì yǐ bù qù.

"All under heaven know beauty as beauty,

in doing so they know ugliness.

All know good as good,

in doing so they know not-good.

Existence and non-existence mutually birth one another.

Difficulty and easy mutually complete one another.

Long and short mutually compare one another.

High and low mutually contract one another.

Notes and sounds mutually hamonise one another.

Before and after mutually sequence one another.

It is for this reason the sage conducts affairs through non-coercive action

And transmits teachings that extend beyond words.

All things,

flourish yet are not claimed.

They grow yet are not initiated.

Enacted yet are not presumed.

Achievement and completion are not stockpiled.

Work is done but not dwelled upon.

Things therefore, take no leave."

Daodejing Chapter 2: Knowing Beauty, Knowing Ugliness

Relativity of things, and the differences between them, are what naturally bring light to opposition. Division, although often frowned upon, actually gives birth to understanding, appreciation, and distinction of the unique yet similar. Processional path-walking, Dao, enables us to comprehend and take into consideration the unavoidable nature of change, with change comes perspective, with perspective comes understanding, and with understanding comes knowledge, appreciations, and ultimately letting go of these distinctions. This is a fluid mind and approach to all things. What is good or bad, up or down, ugly or beautiful, and so forth, are all determined relative differentiation based on the unique lens of the individual and their experience. This functional dualistic mentality creates the non-discriminatory mind, for favouring one over the other would be an act of an extreme thought and would immediately cast an unrealistic, false, hierarchal relationship on the subject. Once you view beauty as ugliness, or you see that up is down, etc, dualism becomes the non-dualistic mind as the two distinctions are now inseparable notions of the same process. As we walk this path of being, the step placed ahead quickly becomes the step trailing behind and vice versa - although each step is different they are, in turn, one in the same.