Attracted to the book, "The Tao of Physics" by Fritjof Capra, I searched for the understanding to the sentence: "By the very act of focusing our attention on any one concept we become aware of its opposite."
The background scene illustrates a beautiful story from Taoism and emphasizes this law of opposites. A farmer buys a horse. His neighbor comes over and exclaims how fortunate he is to possess such a magnificent animal. The farmer replies, "who knows what's good or bad." Then the horse runs away. The neighbor reappears and commiserates on this great misfortune only to hear the farmer calmly repeat, "who knows what's good or bad." The next day the horse returns and brings with him a herd of wild horses. The neighbor enviously exclaims, "how fortunate you are!" Once again the farmer patiently reiterates, "who knows what's good or bad." Again this proves to be true, for the next day the farmer's son tries to mount one of the wild horses and gets thrown, breaking his leg. The neighbor expresses his sympathy and sadly replies, "what a misfortune!" The farmer replies with his familiar unemotional statement. The farmer's logic prevails for the following day soldiers come to recruit men for battle - the son is exempted because of his injury.
The background scene illustrates a beautiful story from Taoism and emphasizes this law of opposites. A farmer buys a horse. His neighbor comes over and exclaims how fortunate he is to possess such a magnificent animal. The farmer replies, "who knows what's good or bad." Then the horse runs away. The neighbor reappears and commiserates on this great misfortune only to hear the farmer calmly repeat, "who knows what's good or bad." The next day the horse returns and brings with him a herd of wild horses. The neighbor enviously exclaims, "how fortunate you are!" Once again the farmer patiently reiterates, "who knows what's good or bad." Again this proves to be true, for the next day the farmer's son tries to mount one of the wild horses and gets thrown, breaking his leg. The neighbor expresses his sympathy and sadly replies, "what a misfortune!" The farmer replies with his familiar unemotional statement. The farmer's logic prevails for the following day soldiers come to recruit men for battle - the son is exempted because of his injury.