Yin and Yang

Discussion in 'General Philosophy' started by davenslice, Jan 30, 2003.

  1. davenslice Registered Member

    Messages:
    3
    I have heard many different thoughts on the meaning of yin and Yang. I have my own personal belief and understand it to some extent. I am curious as to what others think its meaning is.

    I understand through the idea of Yin and yang that everything has an opposing force or side. Without good you cannot have evil and vise versa. I understand that for something to exist in this world that its opposite or the potential for its opposite has to exist as well. Its easiest to put it in terms of good and bad but it goes much further than that and applies to every aspect of life and how it works. This is how I understand Yin and Yang.

    If anyone else has thoughts on it I am all ears and eager to hear different view points.

    Cio
    davenslice
     
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  3. Jolly Rodger Banned Banned

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    it is a beautiful thing the yin yang, My belief is slightly different though i just think it is more so about balance not just with good or evibut with everything in everyday life! Like for example, to much work and no play will burn you out, all play and not work you will be a poor barstard.
     
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  5. davenslice Registered Member

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    ture, I sometimes tend to over-think things and miss the obvious.

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    Anyone else have any ideas or thoughts on Yin and Yang?
     
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  7. notme2000 The Art Of Fact Registered Senior Member

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    I see it as the mascot of dualism.
     
  8. EvilPoet I am what I am Registered Senior Member

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    "Anyone else have any thoughts on Yin and Yang?"

    yin-yang

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    "In chinese philosophy and religion, two principles, one negative, dark, and feminine (yin) and one positive, bright, and masculine (yang), from whose interaction all things are produced and all things are dissolved. As a concept the two polar elements referred originally to the shady and sunny sides of a valley or a hill but it developed into the relationship of any contrasting pair: those specified above (female-male, etc.) as well as cold-hot, wet dry, weak-strong, etc. It is not a distinct system of thought by itself but permeates chinese life and thought. A balance of yin and yang is essential to health. A deficiency of either principle can manifest as disease. (encyclopedia americana)"

    Source: On-line Medical Dictionary
     
  9. Firefly Registered Senior Member

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    1,330
    Interesting that the feminine side is the dark, negative one.
     
  10. BLASTOFF Registered Senior Member

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    380
    what is yin and what is yang? try this
    Yin COLD-- ice...rain...water...rivers...vegetables...(but not all)..scaly animals...animals that crawlsuch as the tortoise...the moon...autumn...head colds...metal...earth and the earth
    PASSIVE women...pools and lakes...floods...trees...sheep...cows...phoenix...snake.
    DARK night...winter...death...underground...coal...all dark colours...spirits...north.


    Yang HOT steam...sunshine...fire...cooking...the sun...energy...vibrancy...spiced foods...fevers...
    ACTIVE men...engines and machines driven by power...spring...mountains...earthquakes...fires...dragons...hairy animals...birds...spices...alcohol...
    LIGHT the stars...lightbulbs...heaters...daytime...summer...the gods...south..
     
  11. Chagur .Seeker. Registered Senior Member

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    2,235
    Surprised no one has mentioned the contained
    opposite within each (the white within the black,
    the black within the white).

    There is not a 'perfect' duality.

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  12. EvilPoet I am what I am Registered Senior Member

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    2,007
    Two Dots

    "The two dots in the diagram symbolize the idea that each time one of those forces reaches its extreme, it contains in itself already the seed of its opposite. The pair of yin and yang is the grand leitmotiv that permeates Chinese culture and determines all features of the traditional Chinese way of life. "Life', says Chuang Tzu, is the blended harmony of the yin and yang.'" -The Tao of Physics
     
  13. Slacker47 Paint it Black Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    667
    Its all about balance. To be in complete happiness is to be perfectly balanced. This is totally impossible, but trying is bliss.
     
  14. orthogonal Registered Senior Member

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    579
    Isn't a dualism rather arbitrary? Why not a triadism? Why a balance of only two opposites? Why not four or seven?

    St. Augustine believed that God made the world in six days because six is a so-called perfect number (an integer which is the sum of its positive proper divisors).

    Oh, I'm sorry...but I can't help it:

    ARTHUR:
    And we'd better not risk another frontal assault.
    That rabbit's dynamite.

    ROBIN:
    Would it help to confuse it if we ran away more?

    ARTHUR:
    Oh, shut up and go and change your armour.

    GALAHAD:
    Let us taunt it! It may become so cross that it will make a mistake.

    ARTHUR:
    Like what?

    GALAHAD:
    Well... ooh.

    LAUNCELOT:
    Have we got bows?

    ARTHUR:
    No.

    LAUNCELOT:
    We have the Holy Hand Grenade.

    ARTHUR:
    Yes, of course! The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch! 'Tis one of the sacred relics Brother Maynard carries with him. Brother Maynard! Bring up the Holy Hand Grenade!

    MONKS:
    Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem. Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem. Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem. Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem.

    ARTHUR:
    How does it, um-- how does it work?

    LAUNCELOT:
    I know not, my liege.

    ARTHUR:
    Consult the Book of Armaments!

    BROTHER MAYNARD:
    Armaments, chapter two, verses nine to twenty-one.

    SECOND BROTHER:
    And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade that, with it, Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits in Thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and large chu--

    MAYNARD:
    Skip a bit, Brother.

    SECOND BROTHER:
    And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three. No more. No less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.'

    MAYNARD:
    Amen.

    KNIGHTS:
    Amen.

    ARTHUR:
    Right!
    One!... Two!... Five!


    I say the number is three!
     
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2003
  15. Neville Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    696
    hey thats a good definition that you found there Evil poet. I was going to say that i can see how it stand for opposing forces giving balance but i have always seen it as representing the male and the female. In Yin and Yang 2 really do become 1.


    just notice your post firefly. yeah that is interesting!! I would have thought it would be the other way around i.e. the female would be the light and positive/happier one and the male... Maybe its because of the different culture that the chinese were living in when the Yin and Yang were formed.
     
  16. LaoTzu Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    160
    Bah, Ram, Ewe

    Yeah, yin and yang are just a way of looking at the world. It doesn't HAVE to be the only way you look at it, though; triadism would be very interesting, and so would others.

    Side note: As to the actual symbol, I have no idea if this is true, but I found it unusually interesting.
     
  17. sly1 Heartless Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    692
    I would have trouble understanding how a triadism would work with the same ideals in a dualism type relationship like yin and yang. the reason a dualism is in yin and yang and other things is because it is the easiest to understand. a triadism would be too complex from most and would cause them to miss the point of what is trying to be said/expressed. But thats just my thoughts on it.
     
  18. notme2000 The Art Of Fact Registered Senior Member

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    1,464
    Dualism makes more sense than triadism because for every force, there is a contrary... The yin yang, in one case, would represent hot and cold. How could a triad represent this?
     
  19. LaoTzu Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    160
    Courage, Knowledge, Power

    The nature of "contrary" implies dualism only because of our usage of it. If every force was said to have two contrary forces, that would be triadism (e.g. any nonzero vector can be broken up into two component vectors). You could think of it like an extradimensional algebra: you have +x, -x, and *x. Number lines would be impossible, so you'd have to represent a single variable on a number plane of some sort (or conceivably as a fractal). I'm sure that there is a way of modeling the world with triadism, but I can't pull one right out of a hat.

    As to simplicity: I don't think the point of yin yang is necessarily simplicity so much as harmony. For simplicity, the idea of unity is better than duality. One can derive all sorts of allegorical lessons from this sort of thing (one for simplicity, two for harmony, three's a crowd, or whatever), but one should keep in mind that it's not reality; it's a model.
     
  20. notme2000 The Art Of Fact Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,464
    Lao, I disagree. I think the most efficient way to describe our existance is through dualism, not triadism (in any way). We have not mad up the concept of contradiction. It's not that we have somehow linked black and white, which would otherwise be unlinked. It's that we recognize the link. Hot and cold are the 2 oposite sides of temperature, etc... There is an alternative to dualism, but it is most certainly not triadism. The empty/full argument. White is full of contrast, black is the lack there of. Cold is the lack of heat. Evil is the lack of good, etc... Instead of contradiction, a question of presence... But triadism I would see as useless no matter what the conditions or perspective.
     
  21. Good and evil is most surely a very unsuitable example, comrade. Evil is not the absence of good, but a category of human conduct we must regard as not merely a paucity of morality or goodness, but as an abstract yet appreciable "mode" of its own. Light and dark or heat and cold are more appropriate examples for this fundamental concept.
     
  22. Empty Dragon Empty Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    633
    Too the best of my understanding.
    From Wu-chi(Stillness) came T'ai-chi (Movement)
    From T'ai-chi came Hsing-I (The Five Elements)
    From Hsing-I came Pa-Kua (The Eight Triagrams)
    From Pa-Kua came all myriad things.

    T'ai-chi (Ying yang) This is an older symbol.
     
    Last edited: Feb 4, 2003
  23. Slacker47 Paint it Black Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    667
    For some reason, I trust in the number three. It is my favorite number and I always try to do tasks in three steps.

    I think that triadism is plausible, but dualism is more powerful. The absolute compromise in dualism is much more intriguing.
     

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