Where we see tension in between things, Lao Tzu sees an attraction; where we see clearly that someone is trying to destroy us, Lao Tzu says, it is impossible for us to exist without them. He illustrates his points with many examples. He says, "If there are not two, there is no place for one." This is an arithmetical example. Mathematicians admit that if we want to preserve the number 1, we will have to preserve all the following numbers. If we wipe out all numbers from 2 onwards, there will be no meaning left to 1. Whatever is in 1, is all due to 2. Think for a moment: If we had only the figure of 1, what will it means? Nothing. It will be meaningless. Its meaning construes from its expansions into 2, 3, 4.....9. If we remove all figures after 1, 1 becomes meaningless. Lao Tzu says: "One is not apart from Two. It is a part of Two." He says, if we remove the heights, what will become of the depths? If we remove the mountains, will the valleys remain? How? And yet the valleys look just the opposite of the mountain-tops. The peaks of the mountains seem to touch the skies whereas the valleys plunge deep into the netherlands. But Lao Tzu says, "The valleys are formed near and only because of the mountains." In fact, the valley is the other part of the peak of the mountains -- its other dimension. Destroy the one and you destroy the other. If we destroy the peaks, the valleys are destroyed. But we always see them as opposites of each other. Lao Tzu says, "The valleys are the support of the peaks. The peaks are creators of the valleys. Both these are connected -- one -- and there is no way of separating them."
