Yin and Yang as defined by personaltao.com are “Two halves that together complete wholeness. Yin and yang are also the starting point for change. When something is whole, by definition it is unchanging and complete. So when you split something into two halves – yin / yang, it upsets the equilibrium of wholeness. This starts both halves chasing after each other as they seek a new balance with each other.”
Yin and Yang, two opposite yet coexistent entities. Both are necessary for a balanced life and a balanced life is important for many reasons. The dark makes the light a lot brighter and the light would be blinding without the dark. But before I ask a crucial question it might be good to specify which side is yin and which is yang, just in case you’re like me and have no idea which is which and what the many interpretations they take on are.
According to http://www.iep.utm.edu/yinyang/ Yin and Yang originated around the 14th century on “oracle” bones which were used in early Chinese divination rituals. Within these contexts yin meant “a closed door, darkness and the south bank of a river and the north side of a mountain.” And yang referred to “height, brightness and the south side of a mountain.” But perhaps a more practical origin of the concepts were from the daily life of Chinese peasants. When the sun rose they would go to work in the fields since they depended on daylight to come and provide them with the light to be able to work. When the sun went down they would then return home to rest. This pattern of work then rest then work then rest from day to day led to the concept that yang was movement, activity, or “doing” and yin was rest.
Basically in a nutshell, Yin (the black side with the white dot) is seen as feminine, negative, and passive, wet, slow, and soft in nature and represented by the moon, water, earth, and nighttime. Yang (the white side with the black dot) is masculine, positive, active, fast, hard, focused, hot, dry, and aggressive in nature and is represented by the sun, fire, the sky, and daytime.
So the crucial question: Why are the qualities and representations of Yin associated with negativity? Why are all things that Yang entails seen as positive? Is it that we don’t appreciate the yin as much as the yang? That can’t be, because without the dim earthiness of yin there would be no appreciation of the bright passions of yang. But that isn’t to say that the only reason we appreciate yang is because of the dull negativity of yin. I don’t even believe that yin is really truly negative. I also don’t believe that yang is entirely all positive.
I would argue that the words “positive” and “negative” are obsolete. The word positive makes it seem as if yang is just over all better than yin and that yin is below it. If yin and yang are “coexistent” then really neither should be more positive or negative than the other. The dark is just as important and beautiful as the light. While it is a matter of appreciating one because of the other, it is not one sided in the sense that we should appreciate the positivity of yang only because of the negativity of yin. The moon can be just as stunning as the sun, and the softness and peacefulness of nighttime can be just as brilliant as the fast activeness of daytime.
So while we focus on the terrifying aspects of black and the darkness it can often represent let’s not forget that terror, fear, and negativity are not the only qualities that darkness can have. It can be soft and peaceful and the many aspects that yin can represent such as water and earth, neither of which we could live without. There’s a lot of wonder in the world and a lot of ways to see it and interpret it and not all things that are seen as negative have to be taken as such.
The overarching theme of Yin and Yang is coexistence and balance. Not the negative versus the positive. Appreciation of one does not come solely because the other exists. Appreciation stems first from the wonders and qualities that both Yin and Yang independently represent, then from whatever wonders are formed when they come together as a whole.
http://personaltao.com/teachings/questions/what-is-yin-yang/
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/yin-and-yang
http://www.iep.utm.edu/yinyang/
No comments:
Post a Comment