The Profoundest Contradiction: Embracing Unity in Duality

Life is filled with contradictions and uneasy events that challenge us at every stage. How should we navigate these complexities and behave in the world?

To live harmoniously amidst life’s contradictions, there are two guiding principles to follow:

1. Keep your mind calm like a mirror.
2. Conduct yourself like water (as expressed in Chapter 8 of the Tao Te Ching).

Cultivating Calmness and Flexibility

Can your emotions remain undisturbed by external events—whether happiness, sorrow, anger, or fear?

• A calm mind reflects the world like a mirror, without clinging to any image.
• By cleansing your greedy and clinging mind, you can disillusion your desires and dissolve your earthly ego.

Can you treat all beings with equality and love?

• “Heaven and earth are born together with me, and all things are united with me.”
• True harmony arises from treating everyone equally, without bias, and embracing all life forms without causing harm. Love should extend unconditionally to those around you, your nation, and even the world—without expectation of reward.

The Contradictions Within Us

Every individual, regardless of gender or mental or physical characteristics, possesses both male and female elements within themselves. This internal duality creates conflicting thoughts, which often lead to inconsistency, frivolousness, and irritability in the mind.

These contradictions are not ideal, yet they are an intrinsic part of us. Astonishingly, they also hold the potential to transform into something profound and wonderful.

The Metaphor of the Spear and the Shield

To illustrate the profoundest contradiction, consider the timeless metaphor of a spear and a shield:

• The Shield: The sturdiest in the world, said to be impenetrable.
• The Spear: The sharpest in the world, said to pierce through anything.

What happens when this spear strikes the shield?

This scenario appears contradictory:

• If the shield is broken, then it is not the sturdiest.
• If the shield remains intact, then the spear is not the sharpest.

However, when these two forces reach their deepest and purest nature, something astonishing occurs—they combine into a single entity.

The Deepest Contradiction: Unity and Wholeness

This metaphor reveals a profound truth about life and existence:

• At its deepest level, contradiction transforms into unity.
• When opposing forces—sharpness and sturdiness, yin and yang, soul and body—reach their purest state, they no longer oppose each other but merge into wholeness.

For us, the profoundest contradiction is found in the journey of returning to our free and eternal home—a state of natural unity. This is where duality dissolves, and we experience oneness with the universe.

The Path to Unity

To reach this state of unity, we must cultivate harmony within ourselves:

1. Calm and Centered Mind

• Begin by quieting the mind and centering it, like a mirror that reflects without attachment.

1. Purity and Wholeness of the Soul

• Gradually purify the soul until it becomes whole and free from contradiction.

This process requires awakening to the truth, embracing the void, and living in the WuWei way—effortless action aligned with natural flow.

Subtlety and Ultimacy

When contradictions are resolved and unity is achieved at the deepest level, the result is subtle and ultimate. This is the profoundest state of being, where all dualities dissolve into harmony and the eternal nature of existence is realized.

Conclusion: Be Flexible

Life’s contradictions and challenges are inevitable, but they also offer the potential for transformation. By keeping your mind calm, conducting yourself like water, and embracing unity in duality, you can transcend the superficial conflicts of life and reach a state of profound harmony.

In this state, the spear and shield no longer oppose each other but merge into one. Similarly, the soul and body, the self and the universe, become one—revealing the ultimate truth of existence.