The Tao is an undifferentiated whole.
It is both the unity of all things and the way the universe works.
Out of this oneness emerges Yin-Yang,
The world in its infinite forms.
Yin-Yang is a symbolic representation of the universal process that portrays a changing rather than a static picture of reality.
The Yin-Yang model is also used to differentiate aspects of process.
Within the magnetic field of fundamental opposition and creative tension,
Each aspect interrelates,
Interpenetrates and depends upon the other.
The poles of a unified whole are characterized in relationship to each other,
Revolving cycles of the one becoming the other.
Yin-Yang can be a difficult concept for us to grasp because it escapes strict either-or categories that are fixed and concrete.
Wholly relative in its designations,
Yin-Yang depends entirely on the point of view of the observer as this Taoist poem reflects.
To the frogs in a temple pool,
The lotus stems are tall.
To the gods of Mount Everest,
An elephant is small.
All things have a polar nature.
Time is divided into day and night,
And summer and winter.
Gender into male and female.
Place into heaven and earth.
Temperature into hot and cold.
Direction into up and down.
Space into inside and outside,
And so on.
But the designations of Yin or Yang are made only in relation to each other.
For example,
The sun is bigger,
Brighter,
Hotter in relationship to the earth,
Which is smaller,
Darker and cooler.
The earth,
However,
Is more Yang in relation to the moon,
Which is more Yin.
Yin and Yang cannot be separated.
There is no dark without light,
No front without back,
No up without down,
No in without out,
And no heat without cold.
There is no space without time,
No birth without death.
Yin also appears within Yang,
And vice versa.
For example,
If Yang is considered to be warm,
Expanding,
And light,
And Yin is cool,
Contracting,
And dark,
Then the shady side of the mountain is Yin in relation to the sunny side of the mountain,
Which is Yang.
As the sun rises and moves across the sky in relation to the mountain,
However,
The warmth and light of the morning upon the one slope shifts to the other slope in the afternoon.
The sunny and shady sides merge and alternate.
Yin becomes Yang,
Yang becomes Yin.
As night becomes day,
Day becomes night,
The entire mountain is dark,
Cool,
Quiescent.
In the night,
When the moon shines on the mountain,
The light of the moon is Yang within the dark Yin of the night.
Because everything is in motion,
All processes are cyclical,
And everything contains its opposites,
The dilemma of what came first,
The chicken or the egg,
Is transcended in Chinese philosophy by accepting them as inseparable agents in the process of creation.
Chinese theory does not separate cause from effect.
The day does not cause the night,
Birth does not cause death,
Summer does not cause winter,
But one precedes the other,
And the other follows.
Life is a game of leapfrog,
With events tumbling over each other in a perpetual cascade.
The chicken makes the egg,
Yang generates Yin,
But the chicken grows out of the egg,
Yin produces Yang.
They are only mutually generative.
Which came first,
Linear logic,
Matters less than how they interact,
Systems,
Dialectical and relational logic.
All states,
Events and moments can be characterized as being Yin or Yang,
And relative aspects of an alternating cycle along a single continuum.
Yin is at the core,
Sinking,
Condensed,
And internal.
Yang is at the surface,
Rising,
Dispersed,
And external.
The humidity of the air accumulates and condenses into the clouds.
This dense mass of vapor,
Which is Yin,
It builds until the moment of discharge,
Which is Yang,
When the weight and density of the moisture transforms into thunder,
Lightning,
And rain.
Relative to each other,
Yin is quiescent,
Static,
And contracting,
Whereas Yang is dynamic,
Active,
And expansive.
Yin responds to Yang's stimulus,
And Yang is supported by the solidity of Yin.
Yin is dense and hidden,
While Yang is dispersed and exposed.
In a candle,
The beeswax and the wick are the material foundation,
Solid and heavy.
Yin,
The flame which moves upwards,
Is insubstantial in nature,
Bright and hot.
Yang,
The interaction of the two is what produces useful light and heat and reflects the interaction of matter and energy.
Their dependence on each other renders them inseparable.
Yang makes things happen.
It transforms.
Yin provides the material basis for the transforming power of Yang.
Energy,
Heat,
Activity,
And light transforms matter.
If Yin is a noun,
Then Yang is a verb,
And life is a complete sentence.
