Dualities of things
Posted on 07. Mar, 2007 by dimaks in Life
At times I bury myself under my blanket and give the end of the day and my tired body the justice it deserves and retire to a deep slumber, I could not help but think about the dualities happening on me and the world as a whole where I live. Are we purposefully made to struggle between two opposing poles?
The same Imam Ali who brought us the four (4) things to learn in life, now brings us this vividly elucidated remarks about this world we dwell in. Here goes;
O’ people, you are, in this world, the target for the arrows of death. With every drinking there is choking and with every eating there is suffocation. You do not get any benefit in it except by foregoing another (benefit) and no one among you advances in age by a day except by the taking away of a day from his life. Nothing more is added to his eating unless it reduces what was there before. No mark appears for him unless a mark disappears. Nothing new comes into being unless the new becomes old. No new crop comes up unless a crop has been reaped. Those roots are gone whose off-shoots we are. How can an off-shoot live after the departure of its root?
Indeed, for every birth we witness, there is the counterpart death. And for every abundance there is famine. For every benefit there is detriment. New things speak of the others who have gotten old, forgotten and disregarded.
And my takes on this respect?
- Sometimes laughing to the point of having it in excess makes me think about crying later.
- There are times that I seem to walk with utmost pride and arrogance. Later, this make me think about getting sick and helpless later.
- At times I feel like I’m abundant with resources, triumphant and overly joyful, makes me think about getting depleted and begging later ..failure in the later times give me a pause.
- At times I receive praises, my heart and ego tends to grow with pride. But the fear of getting drowned in self centeredness haunts me.
But, would these keep you from striving hard? to be happy, wealthy, praise-worthy and successful? from living?
What are the keys to all of these?
Care to share your takes? your wisdom of living?
Good day!
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Part-time blogger dimaks is involved in transport planning and research and is into Internet technology, PC games, digital photography, motorcycling and martial arts.. 
verns
Mar 7th, 2007
uhhmmm…ying yang!
There must be a balance…I do believe in that.
Before, I worry too much about money (or the lack of it) but time taught me that hindi talaga nauubos ang pera. Tama na kung may nawawala, nare-replenish sha.
This is very good Dimaks. Hayyy I’m having blogger’s block.
dimaks
Mar 7th, 2007
verns,
..I agree on that replenishment thing. Sometimes you just worry too much in times your pockets are empty, but sooner or later relief will come. But I think, only to those who deserves and works for it.
Ahh circle of life
rhodora
Mar 7th, 2007
Balance.. that is the answer. Not too happy, not too sad. Not too full, not too empty. Not too brave, not too coward… Ganun lang siguro..
dimaks
Mar 7th, 2007
rhodora,
Wow, very nice way to put it. I agree on that.
cai
Mar 7th, 2007
aristotle also said that. even a lot of social scientists like morris, levi-strauss, and others (there are plenty of them).. and duality is not opposites but compliments.. one can never exist without the other..
sexy mom
Mar 8th, 2007
ako, blind faith lang talaga. imagine, raising 7 kids! hindi ko na iniisip pa ang dualities of things. and it has worked–the Lord is good!
dimaks
Mar 8th, 2007
cai,
I agree. The wisdom behind the yin yang clearly speaks about the complimentary existence of things in the context of duality. But considering man being the 3rd subject, putting together the dual things, say for example health and sickness – man will be facing them as opposing poles since, rationally who would want to be sick and healthy at the same time?
dimaks
Mar 8th, 2007
sexy mom,
I gladly take that from you with all the glory of your wisdom behind it. Truly God is good.
Alex
Mar 8th, 2007
wow, dualities. so jungian. it’s really amazing how nature juxtaposes two things. and it’s always two – yin/yang, life/death, bonnie/clyde… why not three? three stooges, tito/vic/joey…
maybe it’s nature’s way of telling us that you need not count way past 2 to know what to expect. the higher power’s way of telling us Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Hehe. Incoherent na ako. Peace out, dimaks!
dimaks
Mar 8th, 2007
Ang aga mo Alex! Welcome to Ctrl+Alt+Delete! I was just browsing over your blog site at around 6am here in Japan and when I came back to my site, I found that new comment from you.
I am bound or perhaps more inclined to adhere to simplicity. Mankind played a big blame on making things complicated
annamanila
Mar 8th, 2007
Ang bigla kong naisip na duality eh puto kutsinta, tapa at itlog, mangga at suman. Binary pairs. Siguro dahil alas 6 na di pa ako nagbreak. Gutom na.
Light and dark for example is just the ends of same spectrum. And the obvious about them is they complement each other. How can you enjoy light when you don’t know dark? How can u enjoy rest when you don’t know tiresome work. Ay, bloggers can be philosophers too, ha.
kathy
Mar 8th, 2007
This reminds me of something written in Eccelesiastes…”all is vanity and chasing after the wind…”
tina
Mar 8th, 2007
sometimes people need to to experience these things in order to appreciate soem things in life….
one should understand death in order to understand life..
there is enough good for everyone…. and everyone must realise that.. because life is meant to be abundant….
but sometimes we all have to experience the opposite to appreciate the good.
hehe
dimaks
Mar 9th, 2007
annamanila,
how about kape at pandesal? 
What I can dig from your remarks is that, those things in our lives that usually come in pairs, in compliments or in opposition are to bring us to the realization of things deeper and more meaningful than a shallow mind can realize. Am I right?
Wow, you had those culinary side of the interpretation
dimaks
Mar 9th, 2007
kathy,
I wonder if you happened to read Barbara Frischmuth’s “Chasing after the Wind”? In panorama, she talks about breaking out of the dead-end situations. Just in case you might want to consider
Mind sharing your ideas of how “vanity and chasing after the winds” connects with the duality of things? tia
dimaks
Mar 9th, 2007
tina,
..and just like the appreciation of the importance of health, getting sick makes it more meaningful. Though if we can only control the phenomena of occurrence of things, who would want to be sick anyway.
I agree, people needs some spanking along the way
angelblush
Mar 9th, 2007
we can.. we can control all of it. everything that happens are due to the choices we make..
if we keep making the choices that dont work… the “phenomena of occurence of things”… will always be against us…
pero we can control everything.. just by knowing who we are.. and stand for it..
hehe
dimaks
Mar 9th, 2007
angelblush,
I am bound to think that there is another side to that of “everything that happens are due to the choices we make” -that is, every set of causes has its own set of effects. So occurrences do not occur because we made that choice that points to it, but because its just the rational thing to occur. Of course we choose and intend to be healthy at all times but we still get sick. Sometimes we wish for a sunny day but rain poured instead.
hey tina’s sister
Yay, are we on the same lane? lol
Richmond
Mar 9th, 2007
ikinategorized ko yung blog sa paborito ko..
http://monmon.wordpress.com/linked-by-an-angel/
dimaks
Mar 9th, 2007
Richmond,
Naks! maraming salamat
annamanila
Mar 11th, 2007
Dimaks. Ganun na nga. What we see superficially as differences are really a unity. Like male-female. All of us have male-female principles … ultimately we’re all androgynous. Isama na din natin ang young-old., okay? Like you, you may be younger than me physically but you maybe an older soul. Di ba Tito Dimaks? Haha. (I think I also said this to Prab. Oooh, i am tending to repeat myself … bad sign!)
dimaks
Mar 11th, 2007
annamanila,
Older soul? hehe.. o sya, maybe lang naman e.