Fire and Water are necessary for life but yet one or the other or both can be harmful to life. They are quoted as examples of yin and yang by sages of old in China and reiterated by Lord Bo Tien.
Men must be able to balance the two, the yin and yang to have optimal life that is uneventful and peaceful. The point for this balance is no fixed point but a shifting and dynamic one. In Winter, we need more of fire and warmth but in Summer, we need less.
Looks like men need to have opposites to live life and that must be present in all aspects of society. This is a reality.
We even need religions and sects that are different in presentation and stress with some more simple and others more complex. They may be different like fire and water or if we like sunlight and rain. But without all and depending on only one, life cannot go on.
We need religions that differ in presentation and focus so as to meet the needs of the diversity of people in society. But if one religion is overzealous and want to sell and dominate, there will be conflicts. This is refereed to as imbalance of yin and yang.
This is not good at all and is never the wish or desire of the founder. The founders of religions are humble, meek and with the people and they never lord or bear down on people. Every founder had no wish even for a religion in his name but he only wanted men to be more close to goodness of God or Divinity.
But society which propels and give life to religions have culture that dominates and takes over religion. Religion becomes dominating and over pushy if the society that promotes it is like that. Religion then can be the reason for wars and terrorism.
If the society is lax and tends to be inclusive, a new religion introduced to it will in no time lose its distinctiveness and would become integrated with other religions as part of popular religion. This is seen in Asian societies with ethnic Chinese as good example.
Let not religions divide men but let men see the richness in diversity and realise that they meet different needs, can be complementary even synergistic and together that more wholesome. Religions like fire and water must work as one - like the yin yang sphere below.
