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Yin and Yang

himindoors | Oct 18, 2009 |

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Most people have heard of yin and yang - the yin and yang symbol is so well known that it has been adopted and used by many in the west as the ultimate expression of Eastern Wisdom. Unfortunately, many people only have a very vague idea of what yin and yang actually mean. The traditional symbol is a circle with two intertwined "fish"; one dark and one light. Within the dark side of the circle is a small circle of white and within the white side is a small circle of black. For most people, yin and yang really just represent opposites – at it's simplest, night and day or cold and hot. But yin and yang is not simply about placing things and phenomena into fixed categories, the theory is far more encompassing than that. Yin and yang define a relationship more than fixed categories. For example, 10am is yang if it is being compared to 6am, but it is yin if you compare it to 11am. Yin and yang complement each other In fact, the theory of yin and yang explains not only the idea of opposites but also their relationship to each other.

There are 4 main principles that define yin and yang:

Yin and Yang are opposites. This is what everyone knows about yin and yang – it is the classification of cold and hot, night and day.

Yin and Yang are interdependent. Yin and yang cannot exist without each other. There is an old saying "there is no fool's gold without real gold". Yin and yang are, in a way like that – we cannot fathom the idea of high without also understanding there is an idea of low.

Yin and Yang support and consume each other. Ideally, yin and yang should be in harmony, but if one is greater than the other in any system, and if the balance is too far out to be put right, yin can completely consume yang and vice versa. For example as night wears on, yin becomes so great that it consumes all the yang until we reach a point of pure yin midnight. Which brings us to the final property of yin and yang.

Yin and Yang transform into each other. Just as night becomes day and hot becomes cold, yin and yang transform into each other. This is perfectly shown in the yin yang symbol

That's a whirlwind tour through yin and yang theory a seemingly simple, but ultimately fairly advanced concept that has been applied to everything from philosophy to science to medicine.