The audacity of yin-yang

Yin-yang symbol

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1, The Bible

Heaven and earth. Light and darkness. High and low. Good and evil. Two forces, bold enough to go head to head directly, but at the same time, find a sort of opposed union.

In this blog post, I would like to discuss what yin-yang is and how it can be used to qualify entities in the cosmos.

Heaven and earth

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Genesis 1:4-5, The Bible

The best way to analyze yin-yang is to look at heaven and earth. The properties of heaven and earth give us a lot of clues as to how entities manifest themselves in nature.

I would go as far as to say that Genesis 1:1 is one of the most condensed scriptures in the Bible. I say that because breaking the universe down into heaven and earth is pretty much like breaking a house down into building blocks.

Don't believe me? Let's make a table of the differences between heaven and earth:

Heaven Earth
Lightweight Heavy
Easy to move through Hard to move through
Exists freely Exists under constraint
Tries to expose Tries to hide
No distinguishable parts Distinguishable parts
Mobile Static
Simple and therefore abstract Difficult and therefore concrete
Difficult to grasp Easy to grasp
Transparent Opaque
Spacious Tight
Lasts forever Lasts ephemerally
Essential Optional

This is by no means a comprehensive list; I just list a few of the property differences between heaven and earth. Because both entities appear in our physical world and are easily observed, they are easy to confirm by just looking at the world around us.

The yin-yang symbol has an important detail; the inclusion of a little black on the white side, and a little white on the black side. This distinction is subtle but must not be overlooked. It symbolizes that heaven can behave like earth sometimes, and earth like heaven.

This truth is what makes life the roller coaster that it is. Everything has a pattern, but can deviate from the pattern and throw you off.

How? Let's look at heaven, for instance. As much as it is difficult to grasp physically in your hand and seems to have no effect on the world, it can still show up as strong winds in nature, for example. We all know the dangers of a tornado! 🌪️

Earth is no different. As much as it has a hard exterior and can easily be grasped, under certain conditions, some solids can become liquid and sometimes directly gas. This is a clear transition of earth to heaven. A perfect example of this would be dry ice, which is a white solid in a fire extinguisher but quickly becomes gas when released into the atmosphere.

As is above, so is below

Heaven and earth are pretty much the foundations of the cosmos. Every other existing entity follows that fundamental principle, sometimes in a subtle way. Let's explore, shall we?

Light vs darkness

Light is:

Darkness is:

High vs low

Let's talk of high vs low in terms of melody (high) and harmony, or accompaniment (low), on the piano.

Melodies are:

Harmonies are:

Those are some rough examples. As you can see, they are not perfect, but you can see the similarities. They are not arbitrary either; the universe has a clever design to it.

With all that being said, how is yin-yang defined?

Yin: the glass half empty

Yin translates more to earth. According to Wikipedia:

yin (jɪn) Also Yin, Yn. [Chinese yīn shade, feminine; the moon.]

a. In Chinese philosophy, the feminine or negative principle (characterized by dark, wetness, cold, passivity, disintegration, etc.) of the two opposing cosmic forces into which creative energy divides and whose fusion in physical matter brings the phenomenal world into being. Also attrib. or as adj., and transf. Cf. yang.

b. Comb., as yin-yang, the combination or fusion of the two cosmic forces; freq. attrib., esp. as yin-yang symbol, a circle divided by an S-shaped line into a dark and a light segment, representing respectively yin and yang, each containing a 'seed' of the other.

Wikipedia

Yin also represents:

Yang: the glass half full

Yang translates to heaven. According to Wikipedia:

yang (jæŋ) Also Yang. [Chinese yáng yang, sun, positive, male genitals.]

a. In Chinese philosophy, the masculine or positive principle (characterized by light, warmth, dryness, activity, etc.) of the two opposing cosmic forces into which creative energy divides and whose fusion in physical matter brings the phenomenal world into being. Also attrib. or as adj. Cf. yin.

b. Comb.: yang-yin = yin-yang s.v. yin b.

Wikipedia

Yang represents:

It's all the same ying

For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.

Job 33:14, The Bible

If yin-yang truly embodies the foundational truth of the cosmos, then we should see the patterns repeat all throughout nature. After all, nature should know that human beings learn through repetition, and if there was a message out there for us, it should be repeated multiple times. Here are a few of my observations (excluding any explanations):

Animals

Electronics

Computers

Web Development

Physics

Poetry

Figurative language

Music

Christianity

Other symbols

Maybe someday I could discuss them all along with many more.

The bottom line

Understanding the symbol of yin-yang can be very helpful in analyzing the cosmos since it is the very atoms of creation. There are even deeper connections that can be made with yin-yang (like God vs man, love vs indifference, poetry vs music) and hopefully I can study and talk about more in the future.

Observations like this remind me to pay attention to the world around me and to look for similarities and differences to connect the universe. Understanding patterns is a skill that can translate to all fields of life, so it's definitely a skill worth acquiring.

If you would like to reply to or comment on this blog post, feel free to email me at efe@mmhq.me.