Hello friends of SHU.
I'd like to invite you to join me on a journey into the field of yin and yang.
The two fundamental flows and forces of our lives.
Because when we begin to study and understand the Tao,
It's like we're bringing our consciousness back to the fundamental building blocks of the universe.
The zero and the one.
So something happens within us when we start to contemplate yin and yang.
The receptive,
The creative,
Within our own life.
Something happens within our consciousness.
We begin to perceive the world as interconnected and interweaving at all times.
When we bring into ourselves the contemplation that the receptive and the creative always move together.
There's always yin within yang.
There's always yang within yin.
An extreme yin gives birth to yang.
Extreme yang gives birth to yin.
In this fundamental understanding of nature,
Of the inward expression,
The outward expression.
It's the interwoven web upon which all of our life experience is laid.
Starting from our first breath,
We breathe in,
We breathe out,
We take in,
We let out.
So my invitation to you is start to pay attention to the yin and yang within your daily life.
Starting with your own body.
The practice of taiji quan and qigong teaches us how to move from our center.
From a point in our lower belly called dan tian,
The field of elixir.
And we start to feel and experience how every movement is an expansion out from dan tian or drawing in to dan tian.
The yang expanding outwards,
Creation.
The yin drawing within,
Receptivity.
So within your daily movements,
Washing the dishes,
Taking a walk,
My invitation to you is is to bring your awareness into this fundamental expanding,
Condensing energy of life.
When you're washing the dishes,
Scrubbing that pan,
When you're pushing the scrubber away,
It's moving outwards away from your center and you're drawing it back into your center.
Out and in.
Yang and yin.
Keep the circle moving.
And when you're out taking a walk,
Observe nature.
Observe the changing of the seasons.
The phases of the moon.
From new moon,
Half moon,
To full moon.
And at that peak of fullness,
At that moment when the moon is completely full,
The new moon is born.
And it begins to flow back,
Returning to the new moon.
And then it pulses out again into the full,
Drawing back into the new.
These are the phases of our life.
We're born.
We emerge from the great emptiness,
The great shu.
We move into our life.
We expand.
We go into our fullness.
And then naturally the energy starts to condense again as we draw back into the cave of original life,
Of original spirit.
And eventually we shed our mortal body,
Return to the shu,
Return to the Tao.
And there's always a spark of life within death,
And the seed of death within life.
And this process is absolutely safe and held.
Observe the flowers as they open in the springtime,
And they begin to shrivel and draw back in as the seasons change.
Observing nature in this way can change our heart,
Change our whole perspective of our life in the universe.
When we begin to contemplate and take deeply into our body the interrelation of these two fundamental forces,
There's something that polarizes us towards the center.
The center of the Taiji symbol is a portal.
At the summer solstice,
Be aware of the darkest winter.
At the winter solstice,
Remember the pole of the summer fullness.
Keep connected to this flow of yin and yang,
And let yourself be guided into the center of the Taiji.
There's peace in the center of this circle of light,
Of this rotating disc of darkness and light,
Yin and yang.
And right in the center of that symbol is the doorway to shu,
The great opening to the field of infinite potential.
And there are many ways to work with this when you are feeling excited,
Happy,
Bubbly,
Joyous in life.
Remember that there is a time of sadness,
Of internal contemplation as well,
And that will help draw you to the center.
Likewise,
If you're feeling down,
If you're depressed,
If you're just feeling disconnected,
Remember that spring will come again.
The door will open.
The flowers will bloom in your heart mind.
This will help draw you to the center.
The more you practice this awareness,
The more within that center you will live in a place that is neither happiness nor sadness,
But its presence.
Experiencing the highs and lows of life,
Understanding the interrelation between what we see as beautiful and what we see as ugly,
How one can't exist without the other.
So there's no need for judgment.
It's just the dance of balance and harmony,
Dancing within every moment of our life.
We can dance with yin and yang.
We breathe in,
Yin.
We breathe out,
Yang.
We rest,
Yin.
We create,
Yang.
We step back,
Retreat,
Yin.
We progress forward,
Yang.
Both sides are important.
We can't always be moving forward without taking a step back and gathering ourselves.
So wishing you many blessings of your contemplation of yin and yang as you wash the dishes,
As you walk the dog,
As you spend time with your beloveds,
Your family.
The moon becomes full.
The moon becomes new.
This is what the moon is here to do.
