A meaningful life takes in the totality of past, present, and future circumstances. On the other hand, a happy life is usually predicated on the present moment.

Meaningful Life Verses a Happy Life

The Yin and Yang symbol indicates that each opposing side at its core has an element of the other, indicated by the small dots in the symbol. Neither side is considered inferior or superior to the other. Coexistence is at the heart of all harmony and the free flow between opposing entities is a natural phenomenon.

The Yin Yang Symbol

“Life is about change, sometimes it's painful, sometimes it's beautiful, but most of the time it's both.”-Lana Lang

Duality of Change

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise."-F. Scott Fitzgerald

Opposing Ideas

The principle of Yin and Yang shows that there is a balance that must be maintained. If one side (Yin) is stronger than the other side (Yang) must have a correlating weakening, they can also be interchangeable. This balance is evident in all things.

Yin and Yang = Balance

The Balanced Universe

Can There Be Good Without Evil?

Carl Jung was a psychologist he is quoted as saying:“There's no coming to consciousness without pain.”

Consciousness And Pain

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”-Confucius“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”-Japanese Proverb

Productive Endurance

“Endurance is more important than truth because without endurance there can't be any truth. And truth means going to the end like you mean it. That way, death itself comes up short when it grabs.”-Charles Bukowski, On Writing.

Perseverance

That's the thing about opposites. You have to have both, if you want to be able to distinguish between them. Otherwise, if there is only one, there would be no concept of the other. Good would be meaningless if everything was "good". If everything was "good"... then everything would just be. It wouldn't be good. (Shane Tennent)

There Must Be Opposition

Buddha pointed out the path to the life of reduced suffering can be attained by removing anything that has meaning in one’s life.If anyone truly loves someone then peaks and valleys of shared happiness and suffering are to be expected through shared experiences.Therefore avoiding the very things that ensure a meaningful and happy life reduce the very things that make life worth living.

Suffering and Love are Symbiotic

Yin and Yang is a concept that a cosmic duality governs the universe. This duality presents itself in two opposing and complementing observable engeries.Examples·        Light and Dark·        Hot and Cold·        Good and Evil·        Life and Death·        Cold and Heat·        Passive and Active·        Difficult and Easy·        Attractive and Unattractive·        Long and Short·        High and Low

The Chinese Philosophy of Yin and Yang

“To perceive is to suffer.”-Aristotle

Perception is a Form of Measurement

"When I hear somebody say, life is hard, I am always tempted to ask, Compared to what?"-Sydney J. Harris

Perception is a Form of Measurement

Similar ideas to Perception is a Form of Measurement

Time perception is everything

The Perception Game Of Organizations

Our personality and perception of the world