Unity of opposites

䷲ ䷳ ➡ ䷽
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震    艮 ➡ 小過 

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First suggested by Ἡράκλειτος (Heraclitus, “glory of Hera” [Cf Ἡρακλῆς (Hēraklês)] c. 535 – c. 475 BC), the pre-socratic Greek thinker, Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος, Heraclitus "The Obscure" 玄: "All things come into being by conflict of opposites, and the sum of things (τὰ ὅλα ta hola ("the whole")) flows like a stream"

Ἡράκλειτος sees a single, divine law of the universe, which he calls λόγος Logos. The universe he describes is in constant change 常易 while remaining the same i.e. when an object moves from point A to point B or modifies from state K into K' state, a change is created, while the underlying law remains the same 常道. Thus, a unity of opposites is present in the universe simultaneously containing difference and sameness. An aphorism of Heraclitus illustrates the idea as follows:

The road up and the road down are the same thing. (Hippolytus, Refutations 9.10.3)

Heraclitus' λόγος may be: "word", "account", "principle", or "plan" (Cf. R.A.M.'s plan), "formula", "measure", "proportion" and "reckoning." The later Stoics understood the λόγος as "the account which governs everything";

Eduard Zeller's opinion of Heraclitean logos stated:

λόγος in my [Zeller's] opinion, refers indeed primarily to the discourse, but also to the contents of the discourse, the truth expressed in it; a confusion and identification of different ideas, united and apparently included in one word, which should least of all surprise us in Heracleitus. He [Heraclitus] says: "This λόγος discourse (the theory of the world laid down in his work) is not recognised by men, although it ever exists (i.e. that which always exists, contains the eternal order of things, the eternal truth), for although all happens according to it (and thus its truth is confirmed by all facts universally) men behave as if they had never had any experience of it, when words or things present themselves to them, as I here represent them" (when the views here brought forward are shown them by instruction or by their own perceptions)

Cf. 道德經: 41: 上士聞道，勤而行之；中士聞道，若存若亡；下士聞道，大笑之。不笑不足以為道。故建言有之：明道若昧；進道若退；夷道若纇；上德若谷；太白若辱；廣德若不足；建德若偷；質真若渝；大方無隅；大器晚成；大音希聲；大象無形；道隱無名。夫唯道，善貸且成。

Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the Dao, earnestly carry it into practice. Scholars of the middle class, when they have heard about it, seem now to keep it and now to lose it. Scholars of the lowest class, when they have heard about it, laugh greatly at it. If it were not (thus) laughed at, it would not be fit to be the Dao.
Therefore the sentence-makers have thus expressed themselves:
'The Dao, when brightest seen, seems light to lack;
Who progress in it makes, seems drawing back;
Its even way is like a rugged track.
Its highest virtue from the vale doth rise;
Its greatest beauty seems to offend the eyes;
And he has most whose lot the least supplies.
Its firmest virtue seems but poor and low;
Its solid truth seems to change to undergo;
Its largest square doth yet no corner show
A vessel great, it is the slowest made;
Loud is its sound, but never word it said;
A semblance great, the shadow of a shade.'

道德經: 70: 吾言甚易知，甚易行。天下莫能知，莫能行。言有宗，事有君。夫唯無知，是以不我知。知我者希，則我者貴。是以聖人被褐懷玉。

My words are very easy to know and very easy to practise, but there is no one in the world who is able to know and able to practise them.

There is an originating and all-comprehending (principle) in my words and an authoritative law for the things (which I enforce). It is because they do not know these, that men do not know me.

They who know me are few, and I am on that account (the more) to be prized. It is thus that the sage wears (a poor garb of) hair cloth, while he carries his (signet of) jade in his bosom.

Τίμων ὁ Φλιάσιος (Tímōn ho Phliásios, Timon of Phlius) called Heraclitus "the Riddler" (αἰνικτής; ainiktēs)

Ἡράκλειτος considered fire as ἀρχή (sometimes also transcribed as arkhé) the arche, the most fundamental element that gave rise to the other elements [ἀρχή with primary senses "beginning", "origin" or "source of action" (ἐξ’ ἀρχῆς: from the beginning, οr ἐξ’ ἀρχῆς λόγος: the original argument), and later "first principle" or "element"]. 

Norman Melchert interpreted Heraclitus's use of "fire" metaphorically in lieu of Logos as the origin of all things while others see it as a metaphor for change 易, like a dancing 無/舞, flickering flame. It is also speculated this shows the influence of Persian Zoroastrianism with its concept of Atar, the concept of holy fire, sometimes described in abstract terms as "burning and unburning fire" or "visible and invisible fire"

Heraclitus characterized all existing entities by pairs of contrary properties:

"Mortals are immortals and immortals are mortals, the one living the others' death and dying the others' life"

Herakleitos proclaimed was that the world is at once one and many and that it is just the 'opposite tension' of the opposites that constitutes the unity of the One.

Heraclitus compares the union of opposites to a strung bow or lyre held in shape by an equilibrium of the string tension: "There is a harmony in the bending back (παλίντροπος palintropos) as in the case of the bow and the lyre".

He claims this shows something true yet invisible about reality; "a hidden harmony is better than an apparent one." He also noted "the bow's name is life, though its work is death," a play on both bow and life being the same word as written – biós; further evidence of a continuous, written work. 

Unity or identity of opposites can exist in reality or in thought. If the opposites were completely balanced, the result would be στᾰ́σῐς • (stásis) 艮, but often it is implied that one of the pairs of opposites is larger, stronger or more potent than the other, such that over time, one of the opposed conditions prevails over the other. Yet rather than 'stasis' the identity of opposites, there being unity within their duality, is taken to be the instance of their very manifestation, the unity between them being the essential principle of making any particular opposite in question extant as either opposing force. For example 'upward' cannot exist unless there is a 'downward', they are opposites but they co-substantiate one another, their unity is that either one exists because the opposite is necessary for the existence of the other, one manifests immediately with the other. Hot would not be hot without cold, due to there being no contrast by which to define it as 'hot' relative to any other condition, it would not and could not have identity whatsoever if not for its very opposite that makes the necessary prerequisite existence for the opposing condition to be. This is the oneness, unity, principle to the very existence of any opposite. Either one's identity is the contra-posing principle itself, necessitating the other. The criteria for what is opposite is therefore something a priori.

"every actual thing involves a coexistence of opposed elements. Consequently to know, or, in other words, to comprehend an object is equivalent to being conscious of it as a concrete unity of opposed determinations."

一 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Coincidentia oppositorum is a Latin phrase meaning coincidence of opposites. It is a Neoplatonic term attributed to 15th-century German polymath Nicholas of Cusa in his essay, De Docta Ignorantia (1440). Mircea Eliade, a 20th-century historian of religion, used the term extensively in his essays about myth and ritual, describing the coincidentia oppositorum as "the mythical pattern". Psychiatrist Carl Jung, the philosopher and Islamic Studies professor Henry Corbin as well as Jewish philosophers Gershom Scholem and Abraham Joshua Heschel also used the term. In alchemy, coincidentia oppositorum is a synonym for coniunctio. For example, Michael Maier stresses that the union of opposites is the aim of the alchemical work. Or, according to Paracelsus' pupil, Gerhard Dorn, the highest grade of the alchemical coniunctio consisted in the union of the total man with the unus mundus ("one world").

The term is also used in describing a revelation of the oneness of things previously believed to be different. Such insight into the unity of things is a kind of immanence and is found in various non-dualist and dualist traditions. The idea occurs in many a tradition, such as those of the Tantric Hinduism and in Buddhism, as well as in German mysticism, Zoroastrianism, Daoism, Zen and Sufism, among others.

Mysterium Coniunctionis subtitled An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy, is Volume 14 in The Collected Works, and was published in 1970. Completed in his 81st year, it is C.G. Jung's last major work on the synthesis of opposites in alchemy and psychology.

陰陽 yīnyáng (lit. "dark-bright", "negative-positive") is a concept of dualism, describing how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of primary chaos of material energy, organized into the cycles of Yin and Yang and formed into objects and lives. Yin is the receptive and Yang the active principle, seen in all forms of change and difference such as the annual cycle (winter and summer), the landscape (north-facing shade and south-facing brightness), sexual coupling (female and male), the formation of both women and men as characters and sociopolitical history (disorder and order).

There are various dynamics in Chinese cosmology. In the cosmology pertaining to Yin and Yang, the material energy, which this universe has created itself out of, is also referred to as 氣 qì. It is believed that the organization of qi in this cosmology of Yin and Yang has formed many things. Included among these forms are humans. Many natural dualities (such as light and dark, fire and water, expanding and contracting) are thought of as physical manifestations of the duality symbolized by yin and yang. This duality lies at the origins of many branches of classical Chinese science and philosophy, as well as being a primary guideline of traditional Chinese medicine, and a central principle of different forms of Chinese martial arts and exercise, such as 八卦 Bāguà Zhǎng, 太極拳 Tàijí quán (t'ai chi), and 氣功 qìgōng (Chi Kung), as well as appearing in the pages of the 易經.

The notion of duality can be found in many areas, such as Communities of Practice. The term "dualistic-monism" or dialectical monism has been coined in an attempt to express this fruitful paradox of simultaneous unity and duality. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary (rather than opposing) forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts. According to this philosophy, everything has both yin and yang aspects (for instance, a shadow cannot exist without light). Either of the two major aspects may manifest more strongly in a particular object, depending on the criterion of the observation. 陰陽 (i.e. 太極圖 tàijítú symbol) shows a balance between two opposites with a portion of the opposite element in each section.

In Daoist metaphysics, distinctions between good and bad, along with other dichotomous moral judgments, are perceptual, not real; so, the duality of 陰陽 is an indivisible whole.

अनेकान्तवाद, Anekāntavāda, "many-sidedness" is the जैनमतम् Jain doctrine about metaphysical truths that emerged in ancient India (X-XI century of the CE). It states that the ultimate truth and reality is complex and has multiple aspects. According to Jainism, no single, specific statement can describe the nature of existence and the absolute truth. This knowledge (Kevala jñāna or Keval gyāna: omniscience, a soul who has attained Kevala jñāna is called a kevalin केवलिन्), it adds, is comprehended only by the Arihants, árhat "conqueror"  जीव a jiva (soul) who has conquered inner passions such as attachment, anger, pride and greed. Other beings and their statements about absolute truth are incomplete, and at best a partial truth. All knowledge claims, according to अनेकान्तवाद, the anekāntavāda doctrine must be qualified in many ways, including being affirmed and denied. The word अनेकान्तवाद, anekāntavāda, is a compound of two Sanskrit words: anekānta and vāda. The word anekānta itself is composed of three root words, "an" (not), "eka" (one) and "anta" (end, side), together it connotes "not one ended, sided", "many-sidedness", or "manifoldness". The word vāda means "doctrine, way, speak, thesis". The term अनेकान्तवाद, anekāntavāda, is translated by scholars as the doctrine of "many-sidedness", "non-onesidedness", or "many pointedness".

Hieros gamos or Hierogamy (Greek ἱερὸς γάμος, ἱερογαμία "holy marriage") is a sacred marriage that plays out between a god and a goddess, especially when enacted in a symbolic ritual where human participants represent the deities.

The notion of hieros gamos does not always presuppose literal sexual intercourse in ritual but is also used in a purely symbolic or mythological context, notably in alchemy and hence in Jungian psychology. Hieros gamos is described as the prototype of fertility rituals.

The Rebis (from the Latin res bina, meaning dual or double matter) is the end product of the alchemical magnum opus or great work.

After one has gone through the stages of putrefaction and purification, separating opposing qualities, those qualities are united once more in what is sometimes described as the divine hermaphrodite, a reconciliation of spirit and matter, a being of both male and female qualities as indicated by the male and female head within a single body. The sun and moon correspond to the male and female halves, just as the Red King and White Queen are similarly associated.

The Rebis image appeared in the work Azoth of the Philosophers by Basil Valentine in 1613. The Azoth, believed to be the essential agent of transformation in alchemy, is related to the Ain Soph (ultimate substance) of the Kabbalah. In his book The Secret Teachings of All Ages Manly P. Hall explained this connection:

The universe is surrounded by the sphere of light or stars. Beyond that sphere is Schamayim (שמים), the Hebrew word for 'heaven', who is the Divine Fiery Water, the first outflow of the Word of God, the flaming river pouring from the presence of the eternal mind. Schamayim, who is this fiery Androgyne, divides. His Fire becomes Solar fire and his Water becomes Lunar water in our universe. Schamayim is the Universal Mercury or Azoth—the measureless spirit of life. That original spiritual fiery water comes through Edem ("vapor" in Hebrew) and pours itself into the four main rivers of the four Elements. This comprises the River of Living Water—the Azoth—or fiery mercurial essence, that flows out from the throne of God and Lamb. In this Edem (vaporous essence or mist) is the first or spiritual Earth, the incomprehensible and intangible dust out of which God formed Adam Kadmon, the spiritual body of man, which must become fully revealed through time.

In his book Transcendental Magic, Eliphas Levi wrote:

The Azoth or Universal Medicine is, for the soul, supreme reason and absolute justice; for the mind, it is mathematical and practical truth; for the body it is the quintessence, which is a combination of gold and light. In the superior or spiritual world, it is the First Matter of the Great Work, the source of the enthusiasm and activity of the alchemist. In the intermediate or mental world, it is intelligence and industry. In the inferior or material world, it is physical labor. Sulfur, Mercury, and Salt, which, volatilized and fixed alternately, compose the Azoth of the sages. Sulfur corresponds to the elementary form of Fire, Mercury to Air and Water, Salt to Earth.

Basil Valentine's Azoth (1613)

A holon (ὅλον, holon neuter form of ὅλος, holos "whole") is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part. The word was used by Arthur Koestler in his book The Ghost in the Machine (1967, p. 48) and the phrase to hólon is a Greek word preceding the Latin analogue universum, in the sense of totality, a whole. A significant feature of Koestler's concept of holarchy is that it is open-ended both in the macrocosmic as well as in the microcosmic dimensions. This aspect of his theory has several important implications. For example, if we take string theory to be legitimate, the holarchic system does not begin with strings or end with the multiverse. Those are just the present limits of the reach of the human mind in the two dimensions. Humans will cross those limits eventually because they do not encompass the whole of reality. Karl Popper (Objective Knowledge, 1972) teaches that what the human mind knows and can ever know of truth at a given point of time and space is verisimilitude — something like truth — and that the human mind will continue to get closer to reality but never reach it. In other words, the human quest for knowledge is an unending journey with innumerable grand sights ahead but with no possibility of reaching the journey's end. The work of modern physicists designed to discover the theory of everything (TOE) is reaching deep into the microcosm under the assumption that the macrocosm is eventually made of the microcosm. This approach falls short on two counts: the first is that the fundamental is not the same as significant and the second is that this approach does not take into account that the microcosmic dimension is open-ended. It follows that the search for TOE will discover phenomena more microcosmic than strings or the more comprehensive M theory. It is also the case that many laws of nature that apply to systems relatively low in the hierarchy cease to apply at higher levels. M theory might have predictive power at the sub-atomic level but it will inform but little about reality at higher levels. The work of the particle physicists is indeed laudable but possibly they should give the theory they are looking for another name. This is not to claim that the concept of holarchy is already the theory of everything.