CONFLICT / OPPOSITION

Related States & Conditions | Syntonic | Dystonic

If you meet a disputant who is more powerful than you, fold your arms and bend your back. Confrontation will not make them agree with you. Disregard their evil speech. Your self-control will match their evil utterances and people will call them ignoramuses.
Khemetic Saying
Temt Tchaas: Egyptian Proverbs , Muata Ashaya Ashby, ed.

Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.
Heraclitus
c. 540-c. 480 BCE, Greek Philosopher
Fragments

To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
Sun Tzu
fl. early 4th Century BCE, Chinese Military Strategist
Sun Tzu Ping Fa

Just as Nature converts and alters every obstacle and opposition, and fits them into their predestined place, making them a part of herself, so too the rational person is able to finesse every obstacle into an opportunity, and to use it for whatever purpose it may suit.
Marcus Aurelius
121-180, Roman Emperor, Stoic Philosopher
The Spiritual Teachings of Marcus Aurelius , Mark Forstater, tr., 2000

If people find fault with you and try to put you in a bad light, wrongly slandering and vilifying you, just step back and observe yourself. Don't harbor any dislike, don't enter into any contests, and don't get upset, angry, or resentful. Just cut right through it and be as if you never heard or saw it. Eventually malevolent pests will disappear of themselves. If you contend with them, then a bad name will bounce back and forth with never an end in sight.
Yuanwu Kekin
1063-1135, Chinese Chan Master
in Zen Essence: The Science of Freedom , Thomas Cleary, tr. & ed., 1989

What is opposition?
It is the arena of hostility, of conflict and turmoil.
Where duality is transcended peace reigns.
This is the Dharma's ultimate truth.
Hanshan Deqing
1546-1623, Chinese Chan Master, Scholar, Poet
Journey to Dreamland , Jy Din Shakya, tr., 1998

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
Edmund Burke
1729-1797, Irish-British Statesman, Philosopher

The days are too short even for love; how can there be enough time for quarreling?
Margaret Scott Gatty
1809-1873, English Botanist, Artist, Writer

Only as we rise … do we encounter opposition.
Frederick Douglass
1817-1895, African-American Abolitionist, Writer

The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.
Frances Willard
1839-1898, American Reformer, Temperance Advocate
Journal

If two refuse, no one fights.
Joaquim Machado de Assis
1839-1908, Brazilian Writer, Poet
Esau and Jacob

The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.
Woodrow Wilson
1856-1924, 28th US President
"The New Freedom"

A clash of doctrines is not a disaster – it is an opportunity.
A. N. Whitehead
1861-1947, English Mathematician, Philosopher

Opposition to a righteous work initiated with moral courage will only awaken the moral power of the initiators the more. That which meets with no obstruction, no opposition, only takes men to the path of moral death. Struggle is the sign of life.
Vivekananda
1863-1902, Indian Guru, Writer
The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 1984-1987 , 7:219

I owe much to my friends; but, all things considered, it strikes me that I owe even more to my enemies. The real person springs to life under a sting even better than under a caress.
Andre Gide
1869-1951, French Writer, Critic, Dramatist, Poet, 1947 Nobel Laureate

Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it.
Winston Churchill
1874-1965, British Prime Minister, Historian, 1953 Nobel Laureate

The stirring up of conflict is a Luciferian quality in the true sense of the word. Conflict creates the fire of affects and emotions, and like every fire it has two aspects: that of burning and that of giving light.
Carl Jung
1875-1961, Swiss Psychologist, Theorist
in Jolande Jacobi & R. F. Hull, Psychological Reflections

An attack is proof that one is out of control. Never run away from any kind of challenge, but do not try to suppress or control an opponent unnaturally. Let attackers come any way they like and then blend with them. Never chase after opponents. Redirect each attack and get firmly behind it.
Morihei Ueshiba
1883-1969, Japanese Martial Artist, Founder of Aikido
The Art of Peace , John Stevens, tr., 1992

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
Dale Carnegie
1888-1955, American Writer, Trainer

Nothing strong, nothing new, nothing urgent penetrates man's mind without crossing resistance.
Henri de Lubac
1896-1991, French Cardinal, Theologian, Writer
Paradoxes

The beginning of thought is in disagreement – not only with others but also with ourselves.
Eric Hoffer
1902-1983, American Writer, Philosopher, Longshoreman
Aphorism 266, The Passionate State of Mind, And Other Essays , 1955

It is well to remind ourselves that anxiety signifies a conflict, and so long as a conflict is going on, a constructive solution is possible.
Rollo May
1909-1994, American Psychoanalyst
Man's Search for Himself

To be desperate is to discover strength.
We die of comfort and by conflict live.
May Sarton
1912-1995, American Poet, Writer

Whenever new kinds of thinking are about to be accomplished, or new varieties of music, there has to be an argument beforehand. With two sides debating in the same mind, haranguing, there is an amiable understanding that one is right and the other wrong. Sooner or later the thing is settled, but there can be no action at all if there are not the two sides, and the argument.
Lewis Thomas
1913-1993, American Physician, Educator, Writer
"To Err is Human," The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher , 1979

It is a true miracle when a man finally sees himself as his only opposition.
Vernon Howard
1918-1992, American Writer, Dramatist
The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power

If there's nobody in your way, it's because you're not going anywhere.
Robert Kennedy
1925-1968, American Legislator

One fifth of the people are against everything all the time.
Kennedy

Disagreement shakes us out of our slumbers and forces us to see our own point of view through contrast with another person who does not share it.
R. D. Laing
1927-1989, Scottish Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst, Poet
The Politics of Experience , 1967

To oppose something is to maintain it.
Ursula Le Guin
1929-, American Writer, Critic, Feminist
The Left Hand of Darkness

There's a way to oppose and still be beyond opposition. There's a way to express viewpoints but remain outside the destructive clash of opinion. There's a way to call for justice but not get lost in constantly judging. And there is harmony beneath discord. From such a perspective we're more able to recognize what's appropriate. When an action is appropriate, when it's in the Way of Things, it has great power, the power inherent in the Way.
Ram Dass
1931-, American Psychologist, Teacher, Writer
in Ram Dass & Paul Gorman, How Can I Help?

In dealing with a foolish or stubborn adversary remember your own mood constitutes half the force opposing you.
- Austin O'Malley

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Wisdom for The Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing, © 2004