Balancing things TAO-gether...

"Heaven’s Way is indeed like the bending of a bow.

When (the string) is high, bring it down.

When it is low, raise it up.

When it is excessive, reduce it.

When it is insufficient, supplement it.

The Way of Heaven reduces whatever is excessive and supplements whatever is insufficient.

The way of man is different.

It reduces the insufficient to offer to the excessive." (Tao Te Ching, 77) 

Perhaps it is real, nowadays, that the way of man in living out his life is to lower down what is already lowered and empower up what is already empowered. Just like the very social context we have, especially here in the Philippines. I even wrote a song about this one for our Sociology class in my first year in college entitled "Wala". The chorus goes like this:

"...Wala na bang matuwid? Wala na bang mabuti? Wala na bang naiwang tama sa mundo? Sila ang pinili natin, para tayo'y gabayan. Masisisi ka ba nila kung ba't ka nagkaganyan? Sila na mayayaman na ang tuluyang yumayaman. At mga taong naghihirap ay tuluyang naghihirap. Sino? Sino ba ang dapat pang asahan? Wala na nga ba? Wala ba talaga? Wala na nga ba? Wala na bang naiwan?..."

The song really, is intended to question if there is really someone that is righteous enough to do the right thing which is to maximize the inferior and to minimize the superior in order to meet up in the middle; to be balanced and not the other way around were one is over the other. But take note: "Wala" (but still with the question mark though), there is none to be such kind of a person, and this is what Lao Tzu asserted to be true: That there is NO way for a man to do such, it is only the heaven's that can. 

Well, the point is, this thing is the Way of Heaven, not of the man, as suggested by Lao Tzu (which is also kind'a similar to the Confucian balance; illustrating their non-total dispute). Yet again, we must remember that Lao Tzu, referred the Heaven's way as the real way, which (unlike that of Confucius) can not be done through manly ways of conduct; but it is only through the Heaven's means, for again, the man's is different and somehow subordinate under that of the Heaven's. And maybe that's why if we refer to the "Heaven", we refer to that which is above us -and LOOK UP.