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How this story started
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Judicious thinking rests on nature resemblances all the way.
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THERE are many conundrums in life. Lately there was a dream:
"A little girl was sitting on my lap on a balcony. We were in church, I think. I
placed a copy of the ancient classic Tao Te Ching under that
little
and zestful darling. Then she became full of vigour and climbed onto it. Hastily I had to
ensure she would not fall down from the balcony. The little darling was made lively by
Tao Te Ching teachings, even though she didn't understand it."
THE NEW TESTAMENT indicates we should not make others fall. Our encouragement and other
measures shouldn't either. St. Paul goes into those matters in many ways. We have to see
to things like these, for little children are far from developed enough mentally and
otherwise to do so full well. That is in the art of living.
Now, Lao Tzu's old classic contains marvellous and deep phrases that doesn't seem
fit for young men and women that strive to build up a home, raise children and go to
church regularly.
On the other hand, many of those very same phrases can be interesting to look into
and tell your fiancé, your mate, and partners of other sorts. The phrases may not make
marriage better, note that. However, they can give laughs, and that could be good for you.
Further, a good story-teller can be hard to find.
And maybe best of all, Lao Zi's utterances may suit dealings with the "strong men
and women" of government. You cite the old man, and the looks your way get different, as
if they feel: "You screw it up, or what?"
 | Four phases of life
linked to
nature |
SOME SPEAK of poles apart, or polar opposites. We do too, at times.
However, if you consider those poles as belonging to diameters in a circle, which in
reality represents a ball or globe, if you like, many outlooks could get
different.
It happens that polar opposites can be resolved by "crablike" thinking and similar
outlets. You know the crab doesn't walk straight ahead, but roughly 90 degrees off that
direction. it is how the crab moves ahead. it is fully functioning (Carl Rogers'
term) as a crab all the way. There's nothing wrong with it.
Couples and partners form alliances of the "I-you" form, most people do. The many
underground tensions between them can often be resolved by introducing "crab manners and
crab living" together. Some people get crabby, but that is not the issue for now. We refer
to how families and handy groups are made from the initial "I-you" networking or
bonding.
The crab doesn't walk straight ahead into the trouble area. If he turns red, he is
getting boiled and can be eaten by others - a bad, bad sign.
The crab knows he needs to shield himself. A good group has to do it too one way
or another. A garden wall or house wall is like the crab shell. As for claws, most people
take to guns these days, but it may not be so wise after all.
So, resolve polar opposites by crab thinking and crab ways. Move indirectly
towards the target and use very solid laws for your benefit. You may clip, clip, clip
-
The little figure illustrates that way fairly easily. Insted of forging ahead into
the central area, move along the rim clockwise or mustily, and have your group or family
first. Keep it intact, and look to how to support and sustain it. it is human living. And
its human to allow for differences too at times, including different thinking and
outlets.
The crab is born into having the needed outfit. You have to make money to get it,
most likely. It should be handy, very solid and fit for regular use. These functional
assets tend to help one preserve one's property, home and perhaps family living too. It
can be hard or too hard for the lack of it. So first things first.
This means that if you find a dream Führer that is not a gentleman in the real
word after all, or a dream prince or hailed guru that sleekly undermines your home sphere
or never helps it much, you must be on the wrong track and need to break with these men -
or women. We should think so.
Without a home there is little to lose. Homes a had from "weness"# in free play
fairly often. However, if you sustain your "we-ness" [see the figure], the "they" or
strong men and womenfolks may gain weight in your life, but not all may be marring like
Paramahansa Yogananda who maintains the world doesn't exist (!). In other
words, the moment you form a family legally, you may feel offended from the official
"business" that is formed to tame you: Taxes and bureaucratic foolishness isn't all that's
bad here either.
Anyhow, do the best you can. For if you do, you have done your best, come what
may, and there may not be room or remorse and regrets.
Think of these things if you find your partner. If you cannot form "one flesh" as
the Bible specifies several times, much may get muddy, to say the least. We don't want to
specify it.
THE LITTLE circle with four main arenas (or fields or sectors) in it, is an
enlargement of Dr. Martin Buber's "I-you" dichotomy. [Cf. Jod] Just as there is room for
many personal pronouns in the main grammars of the world, there is room for more than "you
and I" concerns.
The figure gives four dominant "chords" in this matter, along this alley. We may
assert that when two "I"'s meet and lovely music is found in between them somehow, they
may want to unite and live the rest of their lives together, if only the large society and
their future pathways inside it allow. That is not so sure.
We have ascertained that the Dao De Jing, a classic from ancient China, could
serve many purposes in sector C and D, first and foremost - for example for entertainment
and for further pondering - whereas it could be dangerous teachings for little children
(sector A) and families and groups (found inside sector B) that seek to live well
together. However, our "Gold Eggs" Essentialism is designed for them.
If you study the figure you could see many other interesting things. After all,
Martin Buber wrote a good book on only one set of polar opposites found here.
YOU MAY wonder what this is all about. First we have basic notions about how we humans
conceive of the world in rough outline. We have illustrated it by a figure that can be
divided in four main parts, basically. Look on it as a much existential map, where east is
to the right, north is upwards, and so on.
That many-sided sort of map (chart) allows us to line up with nature inside and
outside if we like. At least here is food for thought. We have many tables of alignments
to show it. Hopefully we will include some of them later at this particular point. This is
major phenomenology of a structured nature:
- Beginners's concerns, "tender I-ness" as had. Head and arms, Spring, Morning.
Beginning of life till youth.
- Group and family concerns. A 'noonday we-ness' in us all. Linking up, getting
a platform, having references and such standing.
- The 'other(s)', including nature. The autumn or evening linking: You have to
make plans as to "you-persons" to direct open attention to somehow. The partner in
business or life may be indicated - maybe you won't find any suitable one.
- The "they", wintery and harsh and strong to look at, maybe gnarled and in
front of the public on TV in the night. They are mighty ones above one's head. It could be
the government, or hateful old men and women. It may be hard to say.
These were
tentative mentions to set your own trains of thinking running. Nature correspondences are
of many kinds:
- Basic life has a tender childhood phase that can be linked up to morning and
spring occurrences for comparisons even outside the camp of poets. Here is the first
'fourth' of the body's realm, starting with the nose if you look up towards the sky.
- The youth or puberty phase is more or less 'the waist' - it needs to be
surrounded by dangling hands, or weapons, or fences or shields - a the good home helps
that a lot. The little children need it more, and grown-ups have the control. so puberty
is "in the middle" of it here. This is the noonday of activity, the summer fare that is
often jolly and good-natured, and there may be too little rest as well.
- The adult phase is tied in with getting a partner and organs fit for that.
they are below the waist. Here is the autumn and evening 'song' of life as we know it -
the nightingale sings -
- The old man and woman's phase is much wintry, nighly and lonesome in harsh
climates, even socially speaking. Those that live on in it, may get more gruff that we
like to think of.
Deep thinking can be had from this alignment, as you will see. Major civilisations
testify that. The polar opposites and their confrontations that we went into a bit first,
can be seen as stations of the human fare: As we grow up, our roles may change and differ,
but a certain ground fabric is there anyway. it is good to be aware of it ahead of time to
make each new major phase of living pay; that should be possible.
Nothing of this stuff means that we should let ourselves be offended by offensive
people of many sorts. There is a time for this and a time for that, says the Bible. There
is a time for everything, it insists. If so, it cannot be wholly bad to learn ju jitsu or
karate. These martial arts were learnt and developed by monks of the Far East. With due
supervision by adults, children could learn softly how to defend themselves from they are
four, for example. Good instructions matter.
Kabbalah thinking too
 | I-we-you-they teachings
found in a
circle |
IF WE DIVIDE the four sectors (four phases of human life, the day and night, the
year and the body) in two each, we get the ancient Chinese cosmogram of eight parts, which
is one good "wheel of life" [not shown].
If we divide each sector in three instead, we get another good "wheel of life" -
one with twelve stations: the twelve first stations of the Kabbalah. The so-called houses
of the horoscope can be identical with these fields of life and their attached forms. Each
of the twelve sectors of living can be subdivided further, but we leave that out here and
for now.
The figure divides the four sectors of life and outfits further, as you can
see.- Instead of saying "you have a first fourth of the body" we have a right
to say, "you have head, throat and shoulders". Thereby the first part is divided in three,
just as God intended it. And so on with the rest of the body.
- The trunk can be divided in three broad sectors too, such as "sides and
breasts; chest; and abdomen below". That will be the "summer part of ourselves - frivolous
and fond of entertainments fairly easily.
- The "autumn or evening part" of ourselves is divided into "loins, groins, and
thighs". That is the third part. The "autumn" is in for a hard time. Every partner should
know that.
- "Knees, legs, and feet with footsoles (and the hair on top of the head)" form
the fourth part. The night can be dark, but you have a good chance to get educated through
dreams and sleeping off things. The winter can be severe if you live in harsh surroundings
and have shirked in preparing for it in advance.
The circle of life has been hinted at here. Just as the cat has a good front and
rear, so the human life has it naturally. There are many nature alignments around. To be
well informed about many of them can make a difference in a life - because soundness is
helped by nature alignments fairly often, and skipping natural phases and their
alignments, may give a bad future.
This way of thinking is not the same as that of Dr. Erik Erikson (bless him), but
there are links. He too refers to phases or stages of growth and living. One had better
try to resolve them to one's ability, as the alternatives are not good to live
through.
[Check 1, Dr.
Erikson]
[Check 2, Dr.
Erikson]
 | |
Erik H. Erikson
|
Further, solid, basic divisions can be very useful for all-round surveys and help
preserve harmony if you recall that polar opposites may be resolved by good skills in
"circuit crisscrossing or even circular thinking". Every medical doctor knows facets of
that, some way or other.
Here philosophy takes over: As human on a planet we live on the rim of this and
that and need to balance along quite near the "rim", but maybe not on an iceberg. If may
not pay to get too high and too deep by much artificial means or otherwise, as we humans
were designed to cope near the surface of the planet. And if we bear in mind the dominant
correspondences from last section, maybe this in the end can help some of us to get wiser.
Wisdom is had from linking up in good, proficient ways - isn't that fair to say?
Hard thinking
 | | A yin-yang
figure |
THE TOTALITY is represented as a circle. It can be sub-divided. here is the
ancient Biblical way of dividing homogenity into Night and Day. You find hints from
Genesis, first two chapters, and words by Jesus, the Way and mediator.
Night is portrayed as black, Day as white. That is well in line with the customary
way of thinking in the matter. We also have room for a sagging middling band between them;
it is called the Way.
Night, Day and Way correspond exactly to Yin, Yang and Dao in this
study. Dao means way, ways. It has that twofold meaning fairly often.
Now, from this initial divisioning, further ramifications ensue. And besides, it's
possible to 'map' or sort out things like these in a variety of ways. The rotating or
gyrating ball is found inside the deep cognitive 'map' that structures the wholeness we're
inside or form parts of. You may have noted it represents inside cleavages, so it could be
put in the centre of the 'map' with twelve divisions. In fact, we have done that too, but
it is not shown for now.
Did you know that old and new acupuncture rests on much identical
correspondences? The little differences is that the cognitive 'map' of the world that the
inner, gyrating circle operates inside, is divided in eight main parts, and that the
ancient Chinese found the place for a fifth season of the year in late summer, roughtly
said. We make use of "the spinning ball" of contrastive elements to solve things. That's
the foremost use of it. You'll see later.
Learning to think "well, well" in advance can pay
The curved line that intersects the spinning circle of the Dao emblem can be made
straight, for the sake of easy illustration, and the circle turned into a square. This
makes rational thinking easier, as you may see if you go further.
The black side is night, the white part is day, and the diagonal is the way, also called
dao. In this systemic thinking there is not one dao but many daos, that is, more than one
handling way, more than one way of deals. And also, there is the hyperonym dao -
way.
So the totality of life itself, at least as seen through human eyes, can be
thought of as a ball, a circle or square. They are symbols of it.
If we have a need to think further, we cleave the wholeness in two first, and get
the two halves and their dividing area - it may get blurred too. And if we keep sensible,
this way of thinking can help us thoroughly. By the way, there is a small round of white
in the centre of the black side, and a small round or black in the middle of the white.
These are symbolic expressions of deep, philosophical concepts in ancient China. Exactly
what the spots represent, are left out for now - suffice to say they have to do with
conversions.
You may ask:
"Why not divide the totality in three and not two at first, and come up with
alternate thoughts from it?"
The answer may be: "It is not as simple." And that may do, at least for many
beginners. We're now going to modify the figure a little, to make it fairly handy for our
further use of it.
Helpers to smart thinking
 | | Yin-yang figure |
MODERN quantum physics recons with deep mind spins like "up", "down", "left turn",
"right turn" and so on. [Cf. Thd] We might add "seek centre". it is good for a shotsman,
within bounds.
Now, where is the centre of the globe? Does it matter to get into it? We hardly
think so. Where is the centre of the ancient, round Dao figure? There is no centre in it,
but there are two major polar opposites that glide into each other, or even turn into each
other. Night turns into day, in other words. There may be no perfect, thought-up centre to
be found in a cycle.
What is more, the new centre that we impose on the old symbol, is a theoretical
construct. There is good reason to guess it is a sort of navel. The next figure goes into
it - both the navel (origo) and the wider, extended map [see next section] that we find so
useful, are recent developments in Dao thought.
The Dao 'map' shown
If you think of the old Dao (Tao) model as a spinning globe or ball, and next of
how maps are made by 'stretching' the grids out when we get nearer the corners and edges
of the sheet somehow.
There are many adaptations that are quite helpful even if they are somewhat
relative, and their value gets less towards the extreme ends of it. This form of
conversion from a curved surface to a flat one, brings us a convenient "flat map" (rooted
in cognitive grids) that helps us in marriages and further. Yes, we have taken the
age-old, spinning yin-yang figure - the one that is often portrayed as a circle, and
designed a map on top of it. This alignment is a novelty. It allows us to think better.
This extended map has xy-coordinates, origo and lots of other handy details for us
to fill in. By the way, it allows for a "way on" structuralism very much akin to that of
Algirdas Greimas, French minister of education. Classical Chinese Taoism doesn't go into
these parallelisms - in our school of thought they are full-fledged.
Cybernetics brought into our understanding too
 | | Realism allows for
stratifications |
ANOTHER interesting facet of correspondences is had from cybernetics and ancient
Taoism. Cybernetics was first formed by Dr. Norbert Wiener. He discerned between three
facets or levels of reality: a) physical levels of matter; b) energy levels; and c)
information levels. We are now going to impose these layers onto the Dao square.
Often it is adviced that scientific illustrations have less height then length,
and we have complied to that. Thus, the "Dao fourth" of black and white in the extended
Dao "world map" is turned into a rectangle: The y axis can be slightly shortened.
Conserve your assets - how?
 | | Conserve best assets along the x
axis. |
From the works of Algirdas Greimas - structuralist solutions had
 | | Handy structuralism is into
it |
[Not yet]
In for handsome deals?
 | | Some nice figures |
THE NEXT
figure is a major help if you mean business as to these teachings. It was designed to give
a major image to beginners as to how to conceive of good upbringing, among other
things.
Now for the next figure - it is designed to give individuals or families or groups
a streamlined way of thinking and sorting out items, to ensure a basically fruitful fare.
At least you can hope for it after considering these things well.
We also think out how most humans can make many tasks fair and sound enough along
main lines. This figure is for that. It highlights the useful fare quite well. Our
building model is designed to make young ones better able to compete and build for good
living along general lines fairly often.
We just teach how to get handy. You could even succeed in it, or succeed much
better. You have to take care all the same.
There are many 'pearls' arrayed inside the figure. You could liken them to beads
on a string.
- The first two of them are dark blue here. They represent the start of the
handy fare. The 'stretch' they cover, is called the 'tick' span.
- The next couple of beads are deep red. They signal the 'tack' stage in the
fare for better living or better handling ways, or a better fare.
- The third group of 'beads' are green. They represent handiness within reach or
attained to.
That is the basic layout that is basically fit for everyman and his handy children
of both sexes.
No concluding words, after all
It has all been assembled. And mainly it was built from scratch, thanks to God
-
However, very many of our practically applicable tenets are seen in handed-over
ancient Taoism too, maybe in a more crude or undeveloped form. The ancient primer Dao
De Jing launches many good tenets in various verses that may be hard to understand.
All the same, we have made a rendition of that source book of ours. You find it here. [To be continued, hopefully.]
| Apt handling skills
of dealing can be gained. |
Bhb: Buzan, Tony: Bruk
hodet bedre. Hjemmet-Fagpresse. Oslo, 1977.
Dp: Fergusson, Rosalind: The Penguin Dictionary of Proverbs. Penguin. Harmondsworth,
1983.
Hu: Read, Donald and Simon, Sidney eds: Humanistic Education Sourcebook. Prentice-Hall. Englewood
Cliffs, 1975.
Mum: Buzan, Tony: Make the
Most of Your Mind. Rev ed. Pan. London, 1988.
Olk: Jacobi, Jolande: Jungs psykologi. Gyldendal. Oslo, 1968.
Pseb: Cronbach, Lee: Educational Psychology. 2nd ed. Hart-Davis. London,
1963.
Thd: Zukav, Gary: The
Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics. Rider. London,
1979.
Tor: Buzan, Tony: Speed
Reading. Rev ed. David and Charles. London, 1988.
Wic: Yutang, Lin: The
Wisdom of China. New English Library. London, 1963.
CLICK on 'Literature' for the references of about 2000 works.
ANNOTATIONS: Acronym letters in square brackets in the text refer to works. Click on
'Literature' above for examples. Page references are put right after reference letters.
The abbreviation cf. means "compare". [MORE].
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Supporting "well medleys" are presupposed
throughout:
