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Yin - yang, beyong appearences
Tai ji
The tai ji symbol has widely spread in the west. It shows the opposite and yet complementary nature of qi: the dark dot in the clear area and the white dot in the dark area remind us that there never is only yang or only yin.
All things are interrelated: no yin without yang, no light except out of darkness, joy and sadness alternate.
Tai ji also represents the cyclical nature of everything, the never ending movement of life, impermanence.
Like the seasons or the cycles of the moon, the strength of daylight, yang, grows and progressively replaces the power of the night, yin. It reaches a climax before the strength of the night in turn develops.
Tai ji stems from wu ji, a disk without yin-yang separation, the supreme state of completeness.
Life comes from flux
Everything that is born lives and finally dies some day.
Likewise, what is not born cannot die.
Qi is both yin and yang, it is the ultimate form of energy, contains everything that was, is and will be because it is out of the reach of time.
Time emanates from the separation of yin and yang as this partition created flux. The existence of objects, the occurrence of events, the life and death of people is only possible because of the movement created by those two energies.
It is similar to lightning: lightning originates from the potential difference between the earth and the clouds, it doesn't last long but can nonetheless have long-lasting effects.
Cause and effect
"30 beams converge at the center, but it takes the empty space to move the cart forward" - Lao Tseu
Yang stands for what is visible, yin for what is not. This is another way to look at things which we should remember. Yang is the energy of the living, in the broadest meaning: living beings and also all that is matter.
If the wheel was only made of matter, there would be no moving forward, everything would be set.
To move a step further in the hidden world of yin energy,
we could look upon yin as the energy that underlies our material world.
Yin is the underlying cause of the world, yang is its fruition in matter.
Yin & yang always come together
Life and death mingle endlessly. Yang is the world of the living, yin is the hidden world of the dead. Nonetheless, yin and yang are never apart and always remain connected to one another. The filial link is not broken by death.
This is the reason why Chinese and other people, put much emphasis on worshipping their ancestors. Up to the point that there is an entire part of feng shui, yin feng shui, that is devoted to the dead. It is commonly considered that location and environment of a tomb have a strong impact on the life of the next generations.
This connection between yin and yang can also be seen when looking at pagodas: the roof is sharp and connects the earth to heaven very much like a giant acupuncture needle.
