Introduction to Laozi and Daoism

For instance, Laozi said: "Therefore Being and non-being give birth to one another; Difficult and easy give completion to one another; Long and short form one another; High and low fill one another". (CP., 36/80) This sentence clearly explained the general idea of the YinYang relationship. Being, easy, long, high are included in Yang and compare to them, non-being, difficult, short, low represent Yin. Yin and Yang are not specific object. They are just two names to describe this relationship.
             Non-Being is another famous idea from Laozi. But not many people know that non-being is the preparation of being. Non-Being is not the same thing as doing nothing. It means to keep a quiet heart with no desire. Laozi said: "If one takes quietness to the extreme, then how can desire to be arising." (Donald Sturgeon 2006) After people stop thinking about personal gain or loss of profit, they can have an extremely peaceful mind. Then being is followed by achieving the non-being based on the YinYang relationship. In this situation, being represented achieving a state of "real calmness". People in this state can control all their behaviors by their congenital gnosis like Laozi said "eternal truth copes with true value, eternal truth obtains virtuosity, often coping and often be calm, will often be in the state of purity and calmness." (Donald Sturgeon 2006).
             In fact, every single people are living like an independent universe and no people can clearly state the reason for our existence in this world. Most of us will non-rationally choose some goals that are filtrated by laws, moral criterion, benefit, and use our whole life to reach this dream. However, Laozi was standing on the "Way/Path", which is a very high position to look at this problem. He only showed us the way (understanding of being and non-being) without listing goals for us. In another word, if people don't have such strong desire, everyone can be satisfied and live peacefully in the world.