**\#️⃣ Tags:** #Dictionary #Wisdom #LawsOfNature > **🌱 Planted:** Tue 8 July 2025 --- > [!quote] > “Being and non-being give rise to each other.” — Lao Tzu **Duality is the doorway to wholeness.** There's a Taoist principle which describes the interdependent and inseparable nature of all things. That principle is called Mutual Arising. When something arises or comes into existence, it doesn't do so by itself. It always comes with its opposite. What this speaks to is really the dynamic interplay of polarities. ![[Mutual Arising.png|300]][^1] **For example:** - There's no birth without death. - There's no silence without sound. - There can't be light without darkness. - Peace can't be known without conflict. - We can't have effort without the need for rest. Mutual Arising is also reflected in the **The Principle of Polarity** from the Kybalion: > [!quote] >   "Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled." — The Kybalion. This deepens the concept even further. So it's not just that light and darkness arise together... they're actually the same phenomenon just expressed at different degrees on a single spectrum. When we apply these principles to the way we see, approach and understand our inner world, we can move forward with grace. The things we experience as opposing forces within ourselves, like confidence and insecurity or love and fear, aren't seperate experiences at war with one another. We can see them instead as different expressions of the same core life force, just vibrating at different frequencies along a continuous spectrum. Instead of trying to push past the "bad" to get to the "good", we can learn to work with whatever is arising in the present moment, regardless of where it is on the spectrum. As we do this, as we be with what is in our experience with [[Loving Presence]], the energy inevitably begins to shift. [^1]: ["Hsiang Sheng": Mutually Arising Opposites - The Hero's Journey: Life's Great Adventure](https://www.yourheroicjourney.com/hsiang-sheng-mutually-arising-opposites-2/)