
As people grow up and engage in active life, oneness is lost. The dualism of yin and yang then dominates human consciousness and the world. As a result, everything people see happening around them is perceived as depending on the interaction of opposites... As yin and yang change into each other at their peak, so all opposites in the world alternate. Whatever is yin can only maintain its yin-nature until it reaches its pinnacle. Then it reverts back to yang, and vice versa. For people's activities, this means that the straight forward pursuit of a goal does not always lead there.
...True people for [Zhuangzi] are those who have merged their thoughts and actions with the ever-changing transformations of the universe. Once at one with the Tao, such people act from their innermost being; they no longer deliberate or think about their actions. Free from all choice, they reflect the situation with perfect clarity and duly respond in the only possible and perfectly appropriate way.
-- Livia Kohn, Early Chinese Mysticism
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