The concepts of quantum mechanics, relativity, and the like are difficult for the western mind to comprehend because we have so few metaphors, or “just-like references,” to help us understand. In his 1975 book, The Tao of Physics, Capra alternated his chapters between explanations of modern physics and Taoism. Interestingly, the chapters on Taoism make it easier to comprehend the physics, and the chapters on physics in turn make it easier to understand Taoism. Said another way, our left-brained metaphors seem to work well for Newton’s classical physics, but it takes a more right-brained approach to comprehend either modern physics (like quantum mechanics) or Taoism – taken together, they create metaphors for each other.

Modern physics complements our traditional view of classical physics, and, in a similar way, The Sys-Tao Way complements our traditional western leadership philosophies. Like modern physics, Sys-Tao presents a very different paradigm and it also requires a more right-brained point of view. We do not need to become Buddhists, but we must engage the right hemisphere of our brains in order to comprehend this complementary leadership philosophy.