Overview of Cultivation
harmony between heaven and earth,
union of individual and Divine.
The above picture symbolizes the basic components of cultivation.
Jade Ring
The jade ring represents the personal, both physical and subtle. Jade is both hard and soft, and so symbolizes being well blended. This part of the work is about exercise, opening the channels, the work of circulating, blending, and nourishing the physical as well as subtle. This might be said to be personal physical exercise, and personal qi gong.
The next two components are transpersonal.
It is individual integration with forces larger than the individual,
in a way that both transcends and supports the individual,
that lends cultivation effectiveness, stability, and grace.
Heaven and Earth
The trigrams above and below are heaven and earth, respectively. Heaven and earth energies, through practice, integrate through all of the layers of the human body. Progressive vertical integration.
Tao
The paper represents the Unspeakable Vastness, the Tao. The deep-centers (and related central vessel) of the personal have a special connection with the Universal.
NOTE:
Esoteric Buddhism~Taoism
In esoteric Buddhism, the jade ring would represent Compassion, the paper: Wisdom. In Taoism, the jade ring would represent True Yin, the paper: True Yang. The Path, the Way, is about very real, very practical unification of Compassion and Wisdom.