вЂњSo what do you want? You want a paper that you can almost understand, the cognitive frameworks that you understand are sufficient for you to take the next steps into the unknown, and the paper will inform you of that. And then thereвЂ™s absolutely no reason to read a paper for the tenth time if youвЂ™ve already extracted the information from it. ItвЂ™s no use reading a paper that you canвЂ™t understand at all, even if hypothetically it would be a tremendously informative paper, but you canвЂ™t understand it because itвЂ™s all chaos to you. The fact that the thing that youвЂ™re engaged in grips you, which is really an unconscious process, is because your nervous system, which has adapted to the environment of chaos and order, is telling you that if youвЂ™re engaged and interested you are in the place where the balance between chaos and order is perfect. Your nervous system basically tells you when youвЂ™re there by making you interested in whatever it is that youвЂ™re engaged in.

вЂњSo whereвЂ™s the proper place? The Daoist answer is right on the line, where you have one foot in order so that youвЂ™re fairly stable, and you have another foot in chaos so that new and interesting and compelling and transforming things are happening to you. That indicates that the optimal position for a human being isnвЂ™t in chaos or in order, because if itвЂ™s too orderly then itвЂ™s totalitarian, and if itвЂ™s too chaotic then itвЂ™s disgust and fear and emotional pain and depression. вЂњThe final thing thatвЂ™s interesting about this symbol is a brilliant idea because Dao also means вЂthe wayвЂ™ and the way is the line between the two. So even though these two things oppose each other in some sense thereвЂ™s a continual dynamic interplay between them. But by the same token, if youвЂ™re in a place thatвЂ™s orderly and predictable something can happen that casts you into a chaotic situation right away. The reason for that is the Daoists also recognised that chaos can turn to order at any moment, so a new order can rise out of a chaotic structure. вЂњAnother interesting thing about the yin yang symbol: The black paisley has a little white dot in it and the white paisley has a little black dot in it. ItвЂ™s permanent, so itвЂ™s part of the existential landscape of human being. No matter where you go there are things you know and things you donвЂ™t know, and it doesnвЂ™t matter who you are. In fact theyвЂ™re hyper real, because one of the things that defines real is that itвЂ™s permanent. вЂњA typical person will look at this and think, вЂњWell, those arenвЂ™t real.вЂќ They are real. вЂњSo in some sense these are symbolic representations of the most unchanging elements of being - the most real things. The reason for that is quite straightforward - wherever you go, and whenever you live, and whoever you are, each environment that youвЂ™re in is composed of things you understand and things that work the way that you expect them to, and things you do not understand and that can pull the rug out from under you at any moment. And for the Daoist being is made up of these two elements - order and chaos. Being is what you experience as a conscious creature. вЂњNow, being is not the same thing as objective reality.

вЂњThe yin yang symbol is interesting for a variety of reasons, because the Daoists believe that the symbol represents вЂњbeing.вЂќ ItвЂ™s a symbol IвЂ™ve seen throughout my life but IвЂ™ve never heard it explained in this way. Afterward, as YouTube does, it led me to a related video showing one of his older university lectures where he shared an interpretation of the meaning behind the yin yang symbol. I stumbled upon one of Jordan PetersonвЂ™s talks on YouTube, Who Dares Say He Believes in God.

Yin and yang symbol picture