Yin-Yang

Discussion in 'Eastern Philosophy' started by Soulcry, Apr 16, 2003.

  1. Soulcry Registered Senior Member

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    162
    I was surprised that people have so many different opinions when they see a Yin-Yang sign. What do you know about Yin-Yang? What are your thoughts about it.
     
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  3. stray dog Registered Senior Member

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    65
    a balance in nature; night and day
    a balance in comfort; neglect and love
    a balance in existence; death and life


    yin/yang is the natural state of our universe, and perhaps
    an important clue to that which is limited and that which
    is eternal...
     
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  5. EvilPoet I am what I am Registered Senior Member

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  7. Soulcry Registered Senior Member

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    162
    ooops sorry evil-poet i am new here and didnt know that you guys talked about this already. I just opened this topic cause i have a Yin-Yang necklace and yesterday a friend of mine said "oh man so you are interested in martial arts" My response was like this :

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  8. EvilPoet I am what I am Registered Senior Member

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    Soulcry,

    No biggy as far as I am concerned - it happens. I thought what was being discussed on that thread might be of interest so I posted a link to it in this thread.

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    Here is another link if you are interested in reading more on yin-yang: Yin & Yang and the I Ching. It goes into quite a bit of detail about it and is, in my opinion, a good read. I have a question for you: what does the yin-yang symbol mean to you?
     
  9. EvilPoet I am what I am Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,007
    Here is one more thought I would like to add. It's an excerpt from a book entitled "What Is Tao?" By Alan Watts.

    The World and its Opposites

    When we say what things are, we always contrast them with something else, and when we try to talk about the whole universe -- about all that there is -- we find we really have no words for it. It is "one what?"

    All of this "one what?" is represented by the symbol of the great circle. But in order to think about life, we have to make comparisons, and so we split it in two and derive from the circle the symbol of the yang and the yin, the positive and the negative.

    We see this symbol over and over on Chinese pottery, and today on everything from jewelry to T-shirts. Traditionally this emblem is one of the basic symbols of the philosophy of Taoism. It is the symbol of the yang, or the male, and the yin, the female, of the positive and the negative, the yes and the no, the light and the dark. We always have to divide the world into opposites or categories in order to be able to think about it. In the words of Lao-tzu,

    When people see some things as beautiful,
    other things become ugly.
    When people see some things as good,
    other things become bad.

    Being and non-being create each other.
    Difficult and easy support each other.
    Long and short define each other.
    High and low depend on each other.
     
  10. BLASTOFF Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    380
    the yin yang symbol/ this is sometimes known as the T'ai Ch'i, the supreme ultimate or the great art. From the supreme ultimate there comes the Tao from the Tao comes yang and yin and from those two opposites there is everything in balancealthough the yang and the yin are sometimes seen as opposites by westerners within each other there is always an element of the other, this is why there is always a tiny white dot within the black yin, and a tiny dark dot within the white of the yang.the yin/yang symbol should always be shown with the yin dot to the right, this begins to give us the compass directions the light yang is at the top representing summer and the south, while the dark yin isat the bottom representing winter and the north, as the shinese compasses are the opposite way around to those in the west they have their south at the top where our north would be the north at the bottom where our south is, and the east to the left and the west to the right.
     
  11. Canute Registered Senior Member

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    1,923
    IMO, as has been well put by EvilPoet, it is a symbol representing the inescapable dualism of the phenomenal and conceptual world, and the ultimate monism of what underlies it.
     
  12. Siddhartha Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    317
    Continuous balance in motion.
     
  13. VitalOne Banned Banned

    Messages:
    2,716
    Balance of Happiness and Unhappiness. You can actually notice it if you look back on events, something bad happens after something good happens and vice-versa.
     
  14. DJSupreme23 neocortex activated Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    387
    Yin Yang:

    Symmetry - Balance - Harmony - Symbiotics - The acceptance of no absolutes

    Yang (as light) is:

    Masculine
    Strong
    Outward oriented
    Light
    Day
    Heat
    In motion
    Agitated

    Yin (as darkness) is:

    Feminine
    Composed
    Inward oriented
    Dark
    Night
    Cold
    Still
    Relaxed
     
  15. dr. ski wampas Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    66
    throughout the universe everything contradicting creates balance and harmony, through opposite atraction.
     
  16. Canute Registered Senior Member

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    I think you'll find that the universe depends on assymetry for its existence. It is the result of imbalance. (Although what you say may be right for what underlies it).
     
  17. river-wind Valued Senior Member

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    2,671
    stasis results from balance, change results from inbalance. while everything changes constantly, to change too much or too fast is death. change and not-change must exsist together for life to continue in a changing universe.
     
  18. Canute Registered Senior Member

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    1,923
    Quite agree.
     
  19. exsto_human Transitional Registered Senior Member

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    473
    I've been exploring the concept of duality, and at a primary glance the ying-yang symbol might insinuate the very essence of duality. It is through duality that we define our world. existence and non-existence.
     

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