Heaven and Earth

Long before Confucius or Lao Tsu, there was the I Ching. The I Ching starts with Heaven, Earth, and one. Heaven above, Earth below, with human beings in the middle and all are one in the same universe. Both Confucius and Lao Tsu, or Taoism, taught and used the I Ching.

We must be one with Heaven and Earth (Universe) and get along with our fellow human beings. We must learn about their religion and culture so we can get along with them.

Heart and mind are the same. Heaven and Earth are the universe. A person must be one with the universe. A person must have feng shui with their fellow human beings. A person must learn about the culture of others. A person must understand how others think so they can have a better chance of getting along with them.

Heaven is vast and limitless while in comparison the Earth is small. Man is a microorganism and is in-between Heaven and Earth yet Heaven and Earth are in harmony.

Heaven and earth in Chinese thought is the universe. Heart is mind or mind-heart-mind. Heart-mind is human nature being one with the universe or the world or fellow human beings. Heaven can also mean spirit and earth body. The heart (mind) is the center in human beings thus being as one with Heaven, Earth, and others.

Heaven and Earth, Yin and Yang, The Tao, that which permeates all things in the universe. One must strive for perfection, to attain balance in life. This means one should seek balance through practice. To achieve balance is to practice haragei (balance of gedan | chudan | jodan). Once great hara is attained within oneself a practitioner must continue to attain balance through hara/haragei with their fellow man, society, the world (earth) and in the Tao (heaven or the universe). To achieve balance, yin and yang (in-yo in Japanese), to achieve Tao or one; all things begin with one.

The heavens and the earth are intertwined. The heavens, i.e. sun, moon, and stars, all have an effect on both the earth and its inhabitants. One master alluded to this when they said to practice "sanchin" in the early morning facing the sun as it rises is to attain maximum benefits from its practice.

What is Heaven and Earth?

The expression, "heaven-and-earth" frequently designated the whole natural world, and as word referring to the natural world, it was often contrasted with the human world. The relation between man and the world of heaven-and-earth had many sides. For one, there was the idea of the parallelism of macrocosm-microcosm, i.e. the notion that man as the small world is an epitome of the great world, heaven-and-earth. A more pronounced aspect of the rela tionship between man and heaven-and-earth for the traditional Chinese was the idea of the triad of "heaven - earth - man", i.e. the notion of the world in which man lives harmoniously between heaven and earth. The basic component of the triad was the idea that man and heaven and earth complement each other. Heaven-and-earth does not do everything alone; there are some things that heaven-and-earth cannot do, which man does for heaven-and-earth.

In ancient Chinese theory, Heaven, Earth and Human beings (Man) are all a Macrocosm-microcosm.

A single human being is a microcosm of the whole of humanity; Their village was a microcosm of our world. Society is the macrocosm of each of its individual members.

Macrocosmic Trinity
Heaven - universal or general balance
Earth - social or relative balance
Man - individual or particular balance

Microcosmic Trinity
Body - physical or physiological harmony
Mind - mental or psychological harmony
Soul - spiritual or aesthetic harmony

3 or the triad of heaven, earth, and man for unity and balance. Also take note of the number three in that is one way to interpret the I-Ching is through the use of three (3) coins.