The Yin-Yang of Body & Mind

Sometimes we like to bring you articles just about life.

 Have you ever seen a person with a front and no back? Have you ever been on an elevator that only goes up? Can there be an ending without a beginning? Would you even be able to determine what is hot without experiencing cold? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, well, then you are quite strange. But how would I even know “strange” without knowing “normal?” All phenomena in the universe inherently exist as a “coincidentia oppositorum” – a co-incidence of opposites – that arise mutually. Up. Down. Right. Left. Front. Back. Hot. Cold. Day. Night. Sun. Moon. Summer. Winter. Wakefulness. Sleep.  Abundance. Scarcity. Male. Female. Fire. Water. Growth. Repair. This coincidence of opposites is represented by the ancient Chinese symbol, the yin yang, the origin of which relates to the sunny and shady sides of a mountain.

You cannot have a sunny face without a shady face. And this coexistence creates a great irony. The duality of opposites, like sunniness and shadiness, points to an ultimate non-duality. This paradox is known as the “unity of opposites.” The unity of opposites defines a situation in which the existence of a thing or situation depends on the simultaneity of at least two conditions which are opposite to each other, yet reliant on each other. For example, “sunny” cannot exist unless there is a “shady.” They are opposites but they co-substantiate one another. Their unity is that either one exists because the opposite is necessary for the existence of the other. One condition instantiates the other. Hot could not be hot without cold, as a result of there being no contrast by which to define it as “hot” relative to any other condition. Hot could not have its identity if not for its opposite. The existence of hot and cold respectively are bound to each other. Hot is a prerequisite for cold and vice versa. A “deal” implies a seller and a buyer. And, in this sense, your body is a “deal” – brimming with mutually arising countervailing forces – at once explicitly distinct while implicitly unified. 

Of course, opposites exist along a spectrum and in a constant state of flux. The sunny side of the mountain is not always sunny. At times, depending on the season, time of day and position of the sun, the sunny side has a bit of shade. And, on the flip side, the shady side may have a dollop of sun on it. This, too, is represented in the yin yang, as the white of the yang has an eye of yin in it. And the black of yin has an eye of white in it. The mutually-dependent duality of the yin yang sits atop of an empty circle known as tai chi, the ultimate reality, the emptiness from which the phenomenal world instantiates. Yin Yang: The Unity of Opposites

• Yin characteristics: passive, negative, darkness, earth, north slope, cloudy, water, softness, female, moisture, night-time, downward seeking, slowness, consuming, cold, odd numbers, and docile aspects of things.

• Yang characteristics: active, positive, brightness, heaven, south slope, sunshine, fire, hardness, male, dryness, day-time, upward seeking, restless, producing, hot, even numbers, and dominant aspects of things.

  
  

The mutual arising of opposites is everywhere to be found and is central to all forms of energy. Electricity is dependent on the attraction and repulsion of negatively and positively charged particles. Electro-magnetic radiation exists as waves characterized by crests and troughs, amplitudes and frequencies. Sound energy also has a wave structure with amplitudes defining its volume and frequencies revealing its pitch. And, of course, hydraulics often have literal waves. Nature, when unimpeded, brings opposites into a sensitive order. This is the foundational cosmic intelligence, the force that pulls polarities into tenuous balance. This very same concept can be applied to your body.

The yin yang of your physiology is omnipresent. Nearly every function, hormone, neurotransmitter and cellular pathway has its counterpart. Your entire organism exists as a series of crests and troughs, yangs and yins. Many of our physiological contrapositions are hidden in plain sight. Growth, wakefulness, alertness, extraversion and pleasure reflect our yang. Repair, sleep, dreaminess, introversion and serenity suggest our yin. These states sit atop of mechanisms – on/off switches that are on a dimmer. One state rarely exists without a glimmer of its opposing state. And, when it does, there is generally a significant imbalance. Even strength must have some suppleness as depicted by the branches of a willow that will bend flexibly under the load of a heavy snow. This limberness allows the snow to slough off, where the stiff boughs of an oak may snap.