The Tao of Relationships

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: A wonderful exploration of the male and female energies. A must read for anyone interested in Sex Magick.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: A wonderful exploration of the male and female energies. A must read for anyone interested in Sex Magick.

Rating:
Summary: Unraveling the Confusion but Maintaining the Mystery
Review: Most people have heard of the opposite energies, called yin and yang. Although, commonly translated as male and female energies, they can also be viewed as push and pull, or negative and positive dualities that, when understood thoroughly, can be balanced to achieve harmony ... and a sense of unity or completeness. This book explores the mystery of the union of these energies in terms of male and female relationships. However, anyone thinking this is a manual for physical union should look elsewhere. This book is about the philosophical basis to imbalances. It provides a means or method to achieve a more balanced outlook and awareness.

Ray Grigg, the author, covers a lot of territory in the introduction alone. Although the book is about "love", the word love is never mentioned. When there is disharmony, there exists the feeling of loss, the giving away of energy without reciprocation, the lack of equality. In Chinese, the word, te, refers to "power" but not in the Western sense, it means something like virtue/power, where one loses or comes into balance with "what is" or the Tao, the natural flow of life ... When that is out of kilter --- so is the rest of your life. This book in essence is about the "dance of energy" between yin and yang. There is no real resolution to the opposites ... the dance is on-going ... there is a constant coming together in harmony and then a separtion of energies ... or coming apart. Adjusting ourselves to this wave-like exchange of energies ... not getting stuck in one phase or the other is the secret to a harmonious relationship. It is not necessarily a linear process ... It is a spiritual quest ... Sometimes, one must just take the plunge and experience the awakening of desire, of freedom without boundaries, of the accompanying confusion that arises, the awkwardness of imbalance and the resolution of opposite energies.

This book has extraordinairy translations ... that are not expounded upon or explained. They are left for the reader to ponder, determine if they are helpful and apply within their own life. There are beautiful drawings which illustrate, very simply, the concept or idea within the text. The drawings are elegant and profound ... each text has a heading which grips the reader's attention. The headings alone are pregnant with potential meaning. For example, "secret meeting secret", "undivided silence", "let the changing change", "a special kind of keeping", "ocean womb", "in the very center of now", "trunk and roots of words", "so much is found", "primal dark", and "the primal is tamed". This book rceives my highest recommendations for people daring to explore their own personal nature (energy) and then connect with "the other" or someone with an opposite nature (energy). Erika Borsos (erikab93)