Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The balanced Opposites....Yin-Yang

This symbol (Yin-Yang) represents the ancient Chinese understanding of how things work. The outer circle represents "everything", while the black and white shapes within the circle represent the interaction of two energies, called "yin" (black) and "yang" (white), which cause everything to happen. They are not completely black or white, just as things in life are not completely black or white, and they cannot exist without each other.
While "yin" would be dark, passive, downward, cold, contracting, and weak, "yang" would be bright, active, upward, hot, expanding, and strong. The shape of the yin and yang sections of the symbol, actually gives you a sense of the continual movement of these two energies, yin to yang and yang to yin, causing everything to happen: just as things expand and contract, and temperature changes from hot to cold.
The essentials of the yin-yang school are as follows: the universe is run by a single principle, the Tao, or Great Ultimate. This principle is divided into two opposite principles, or two principles which oppose one another in their actions, yin and yang. All the opposites one perceives in the universe can be reduced to one of the opposite forces. The yin and yang accomplish changes in the universe through the five material agents, or wu hsing , which both produce one another and overcome one another. All change in the universe can be explained by the workings of yin and yang and the progress of the five material agents as they either produce one another or overcome one another. Yin-yang and the five agents are, I need to stress, a universal explanatory principle. The Five Agents are categories referring to the fundamental ingredients of the universe. They are named after wood, fire, earth, metal and water, but do not simply refer to these five concrete substances. Rather, they represent a basic framework or mental model by which all phenomena can be classified into five types.
The Five Agents are a fundamental classification system for all things. The relationships between the Five Agents represent the basic relationships between all things. The Five Agents are wood, fire, earth, metal and water, each having manifold meanings, which it would be impossible to fully enumerate. Below, we shall give a brief list of those most commonly used in Daoist religious practice and scriptures:Five Agents: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, WaterFive Directions: East, South, Centre, West, North Five Colors: Green, Red, Yellow, White, Black Five Flavors: Sour, Bitter, Sweet, Acrid, Salty Five Planets: Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, Mercury Five Viscera: Liver, Heart, Spleen, Lung, Kidney
The relationships between the Five Agents are characterized by mutual generation and mutual control. Mutual generation means that each Agent gives birth to another Agent according to a specific order. The order of mutual generation is an endless cycle. Mutual control means that each Agent restricts another Agent according to a different order. The cycle of control is also an endless one: each controlling Agent is also under the control of another Agent in a different situation. The order of mutual generation is as follows:Wood generates Fire; Fire generates Earth; Earth generates Metal; Metal generates Water; Water generates Wood. The order of mutual control is as follows: Wood overcomes Earth; Earth overcomes Water; Water overcomes Fire; Fire overcomes Metal; Metal overcomes Wood. If the Five Agents are enumerated in the order of Wood-Fire-Earth-Metal-Water, then in the cycle of mutual generation each Agent generates the next Agent down the list; while in the cycle of control each Agent overcomes the second Agent down the list.


The Five Agents are the basic ingredients of the universe. All phenomena can be understood using yin-yang and the five agents: the movements of the stars, the workings of the body, the nature of foods, the qualities of music, the ethical qualities of humans, the progress of time, the operations of government, and even the nature of historical change. All things follow this order so that all things can be related to one another in some way: one can use the stars to determine what kind of policy to pursue in government, for instance, the yin and yang represent all the opposite principles one finds in the universe. Under yang are the principles of maleness, the sun, creation, heat, light, Heaven, dominance, and so on, and under yin are the principles of femaleness, the moon, completion, cold, darkness, material forms, submission, and so on. Each of these opposites produce the other: Heaven creates the ideas of things under yang, the earth produces their material forms under yin, and vice versa; creation occurs under the principle of yang, the completion of the created thing occurs under yin, and vice versa, and so on. This production of yin from yang and yang from yin occurs cyclically and constantly, so that no one principle continually dominates the other or determines the other. All opposites that one experiences—health and sickness, wealth and poverty, power and submission—can be explained in reference to the temporary dominance of one principle over the other. Since no one principle dominates eternally, that means that all conditions are subject to change into their opposites. This cyclical nature of yin and yang, the opposing forces of change in the universe, mean several things. First, that all phenomena change into their opposites in an eternal cycle of reversal. Second, since the one principle produces the other, all phenomena have within them the seeds of their opposite state, that This cyclical nature of yin and yang, the opposing forces of change in the universe, mean several things. First, that all phenomena change into their opposites in an eternal cycle of reversal. Second, since the one principle produces the other, all phenomena have within them the seeds of their opposite state, that is, sickness has the seeds of health, health contains the seeds of sickness, wealth contains the seeds of poverty, etc. Third, even though an opposite may not be seen to be present, since one principle produces the other, no phenomenon is completely devoid of its opposite state. One is never really healthy since health contains the principle of its opposite, sickness. This is called "presence in absence."


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