There are two primal emotions in the world: love and fear. In my opinion these are metaphorically expressed by yin and yang in Chinese philosophy.

Don’t believe me ?

Here’s a clue. Greed: love for the possessions of others and fear you will not obtain them.

That’s just one of many examples.

However love and fear complement each other, and each has part of the other. For example if you love something you fear to lose it. If you fear something you love the world without that something.

The idea is not to see the world black and white, but to balance your emotions. However the balance should slightly tilt towards love rather than fear.

It’s a simple principle:

“Creation tends to infinity, destruction is limited to what has already been created”

If you remember anything from this book it’s the line above.

Do we need love and fear ?

Well you need fear to protect yourself, you need love to co-exist with members of your species. There is the theory that you could abandon emotions to achieve enlightment.

This is a somewhat dangerous theory, if you abandon all morals and emotions you could psychologically reach the next level. This has not been proven and over the years many writers and philosophers warned that this kind of attitude could cost you your sanity.

It does sow the seeds of anarchy to some extent but I can’t tell anything about it. I haven’t experienced it so far.

The balance, the duality seems a better option for the moment, as it can be found all around us. Just look at the natural world. There are two genders each with its own unique, physical and mental attributes , but they are EQUAL. Men aren’t superior to women, women aren’t superior to men. Any activity can be mastered by both sexes, it’s just a matter of a few differences of perception. Men are prone to develop muscle mass more easily because traditionally they have been the provider: hunter, fisher, forager. Women are prone to develop empathy as it helps considering they raise the young and need to offer comfort in times of need to their “cubs”.

In a couple both man and woman complement their abilities to succeed in their biological function of raising their young and providing for them. This is the idea of a successful couple.