Ancient Wisdom for Personal and Planetary Transformation.
You likely don’t know the treasure-trove of wisdom contained in the Yin-Yang symbol. Much of it in fact was not even taught to me in Chinese medicine school. This ancient symbol has been a subject of deep meditation and learning for me over the last couple decades. So, I will share with you here the essence of how valuable this symbol is for our healing and thriving.
Without light and goodness, life is meaningless. Yet so much of the light we need is paralyzed in violence and greed, pain and suffering. The way to release these hidden riches and create more light and love is through transformation. This yields sustainable light, when the dark has been befriended and healed, transformed into an ally.
Transformation involves the death of one thing for the next. Death involves darkness; without darkness there is no death and no transformation. No transformation, no gaining of sustainable light. So, the object of health and creating sustainable abundance is to make what is dark light, which makes the darkness an ally, not an enemy, fear, or a force of violence. When darkness is transformed more light results, more compassion happens, more thriving blossoms.
In practical terms, for example, this means converting compost into nourishment for vibrant plant growth. Spiritually, it means converting personal pain into joy, beauty, and more love. I have found no better model to discuss transformation and the creation of sanity and fertility than the Yin-Yang symbol. This symbol has its roots in ancient Taoism, which is nothing more than wisdom for living in harmony with nature, according to the laws of nature we experience every day.
This happens physically, emotionally, and spiritually in every aspect of our lives, linking us with the natural world. There is no more important meme for our world today than this reunion with Nature on every level of our being.
Genius in Motion
One of the most well-known emblems of Eastern wisdom is the Yin-Yang symbol. No symbol, in my opinion, is more appropriate, more instructional, for healing our current personal and global modern illness. So, let’s take a look into some of what this symbol means and why it matters so much for us in the most practical ways.
First, however, note that this symbol is not hypothetical. It is a reflection of the world we live in and the world we are. It is your own body. It is the body of the Earth, the fertility of the land, the growth of forests, the way of rivers and waterways, and everything else. It is our relationship with nature, with everyday life, in the most fundamental sense. So, there is no theory here, just common sense, really. It’s simply helpful to have these realities we live inside of, often too close to notice and appreciate as we should, to be objectified for the sake of discussion. So, when you see the symbol and I discuss it, I invite you to feel your body, see your life, see the natural world and our interaction with it, as what this symbol points to.
First, the Yin-yang symbol is a circle. Circles represent wholeness, especially because any point on the circumference of the circle is equidistant from its center. We can understand this to mean that no part of the circle is separated from truth, the whole, balance, or “God,” or the Tao in Chinese thought. No part of life is separate from others; we are all interrelated and connected. In other words, the Yin-Yang symbol is egalitarian; it is a symbol of justice and equality. When we divide a circle in half and color half of it white and the other half black, the circle also represents paradox and completion, two important aspects of sustainability. The Yin-Yang symbol therefore embraces the Native American wisdom of acting now for the next seven generations, and then some.
In fact, the old riddle of which came first the chicken or the egg, also represents the interdependence of Yin and Yang. This is why it’s a riddle, because without Yin (the egg) there is no Yang (chicken) and without Yang there is no Yin. Chinese medicine doesn’t really care which came first; it is concerned with practicality, with fortifying and protecting the egg and making strong chickens. And by “chickens” I mean all of life. Chinese medicine is more immediately interested in what works, in benefitting our experience, our ordinary wellness. This is why it’s such a practical system of healthcare, not to mention its applicability and insights for global health, which is a topic I cover a bit later here and in more depth in this presentation called Wild Inside.
Circles also represent cycles. The Yin-Yang symbol is also a model for the turning of seasons and their cooperation for fertility to sustain life on the planet. This is why Taoism is considered “the way of nature.” It is the original deep ecology. As part of nature, when we employ its Yin-Yang wisdom to our own lives we participate in this thriving, in sustainability, in a sane future. For a humanity on the brink of collapse though the destruction of the biosphere, we would do well to pay more attention to this ancient symbol of decency and responsible thriving.
Passion and Sustainability
Yin and Yang is a sustainable model because it embraces opposites in dynamic equilibrium, which means balance, and balance means growth and decay, activity and rest, fertility and thriving, dark and light. This thriving, as the constant movement and channeling of vital energy, is passion in action because it is fundamentally creative, earthy, carnal, and life-enhancing. If we want real, sustainable passion we would do well to embrace and honor both dark and light in ourselves and in the natural world. This is to honor the whole of the circle. When we do not, this causes stagnation and the experience of pain, which is suffering, which decreases vitality, which increases apathy, disconnection, thereby decreasing our passionate participation in life. Yet, when we can dip into and embrace pain, we can also release it and gain wisdom. So, Yin-Yang is always bringing us into greater participation; healing is always possible, but it relies on the flow of dark into light and back and forth from life unto death unto rebirth…..
Read continuation the next week.
Written By: Jack Adam Weber
Jack Adam Weber, L.Ac. is a Chinese medicine physician, author, celebrated poet, organic farmer, and activist for body-centered spirituality. He is also the creator of The Nourish Practice, an Earth-based rejuvenation meditation. Jack is available by phone for medical consultations and life-coaching, via www.JackAdamWeber.com. His books, artwork and provocative poems can be found at his website www.PoeticHealing.com. And you can connect with Jack directly at www.Facebook.com/JackAdamWeber or by emailing Jack@PoeticHealing.com