What do I mean by the middle?

For many people the "middle" implies the worst of both worlds, an unhappy compromise between opposing passions.  But I mean the middle in a different way--not the muddy middle, a gray and lifeless place, but the transcendent middle, a new perspective that unites old oppositions into something bigger.  Not between boths sides, but beyond them.

This idea is best conveyed by the yin/yang, the core symbol of the Chinese philosophy of Taoism.  According to Taoism, in our normal consciousness we see the world strictly in terms of opposition.  Everything is either this or that, black or white.  But it’s also possible to step back and see the bigger picture, to see that black and white create each other, and that we can’t know one without the other.  Instead of seeing things in terms of either/or, we begin to see things in terms of both/and.

This stepping back, seeing how each side of the conflict is creating the other, and then getting the new idea, is transcendence.  It's a very hard thing to do, particularly when you're convinced that you're right.  But that's the middle I mean.