Yin & Yang

Yin & Yang

• Hello and welcome to my podcasts Ancient Wisdom, ModernHealth: Reaching the Balance within. 
• In this podcast I would like to address the question of what is Yin & Yang. 
• Most people have seen the symbol or diagram that is usually known as the Yin, Yang Symbol. It may also be referred to as the Fish Symbol.

• But what does it mean, what is it trying to convey, and what relevance does it have to us and our health? 
• This is quite a big area to discuss. So lets begin.
• If you don’t have a diagram handy, there is one to be found in the members are of Sagire.com.au, but as we go through this discussion you might be able to simply draw along with what I’m saying.
• To start with, it is a circle, not a square or a triangle, but a circle. This is important, as a circle has no beginning or end. It is smooth and can represent anything and everything.
• A circle has been used throughout human history to represent the inclusion of everything, every body, entirety. 
• Next the circle is divided into two halves. One side is black and the other white.
• This represents Yin (black) and Yang (white) the two halves of everything. They are the ‘in and the out’, ‘the up and the down’, the ‘male and the female’, the list is indeed quite endless.
• So now if you are following along, you have a circle and it is neatly divided in two, one side black the other white.
• But now I would like to digress a little for a minute or two.
• Our circle is now balanced by the two halves, neither is bigger than the other, we can consider this as in a state of harmony.
• I find it easy to use a see saw image here, and look at Yin and Yang in this context. When the balance point of the see saw is reached, then there is harmony between Yin and Yang, they match each other.
• If we were to look at Yin at one end and Yang at the other, then it is quite obvious, that there must be an equal amount of each to reach, and maintain balance. 
• If we were to move the Yin and Yang toward to centre point, could see that the transfer back and forward between the two will result in a continuous state of minute movement at the balance point, but not over balance.
• Ok, now back to the symbol.
• In the symbols there is always ‘eyes’ in the two halves. A black dot in the white and a white dot in the black. Another way to view this is that within the Yin, there must be some Yang, shown as a white dot in the black; within the Yang there must be some Yin, this is shown as a blank dot, this is to maintain balance.
• It also shows that everything is infinitely able to be further divided into more sub sets of Yin and Yang.
• This can get a bit complex, but lets have a look and try to see what this actually means.
• Here I will use something that we are all familiar with, the body.
• So to start simply, lets divide the body into front and back. This can represent, Yin the front, and Yang the back, so far nothing to complex here.
• Now to just be clear here, the front we can refer to as the Yin aspect of the body.
• Now keeping in the front or Yin aspect of the body, we will divide the body into two, the top half and the bottom half.
• We can now refer to the bottom as Yin and the top as Yang.
• So now we have the bottom which is Yin, within Yin (the front of the body), and so two parts Yin, and the top half is Yang within the Yin.
• Confused yet? If so you are not alone here, this can seem quite confusing.
• The real thing here is that we need to think, or see, that everything is dividable into ever smaller parts, and each part is referenced to something else as Yin or Yang.
• Another way I explain this is that there must be an up to have a down, you can’t have a front without a back. One cannot exist without the other.
• Yin needs Yang to exist.
• The next image of importance within this symbol is that the two halves are not simply a circle neatly divided into two by a line down the middle. 
• The line dividing the two halves is a curved line.
• This is to signify that there is a growth and decline of Yin and Yang. As one grows the other must decline so as to maintain the balance within.
• If we look around at the natural world, we can start to see that things change in a progression. When things move from one state to another it is done so as a process.
• What I mean here is that Day changes to night through a transition, and that transition is called dusk at night and dawn in the morning.
• At night the transition actually starts from midday, when the sun is at it high point, and from that point on we are moving toward night.
• At dusk we see the transfer from day to night as quick, however, it has been happening over hours.
• The some process is reversed from the point of midnight, toward dawn.
• This transition of energy states is happening everywhere, and all the time.
• Even in western Physics, we recognise that energy, matter, energy cannot simply disappear, it can be transformed into another form of energy, but it must still exist.
• A good example is that of a seed; it hold all the energy for a tree within it, as it grows, that energy is transformed into the full grown tree, as it grows it takes in energy from the earth, air, rain etc. As it grows it places energy into its seeds and they drop to earth to become new plants, and so the cycle of life continues. Until, it finally reaches the end of its life and falls down and returns all of the energy it has left to the earth, providing energy in the form of nutrients to the soil for use by other life. 
• Now, we have a circle that has two halves, one black with a white dot, and the other black with a white dot, and the line separating the two halves is a curved line.
• And I have said that this is a representation of the two halves of everything and that within one there must be something of the other, and that there is a flow from one to the other and that this is continuous.
• And I have also said that it is a circle because that is symbolic of including everything, but how is that relevant to us, or our health?
• Well, as I said earlier, if we have this idea and we think about all I have just said and start to put that into a context of our health and our bodies, we can start to see that if there is not an equal balance of both parts within the body, then there is not going to be this cycle, the continuous flow from Yin to Yang and back again.
• If that happens then how can we have balance in our health state?
• How can we reach the point of Balance where our own bodies can maintain our health?
• This must start to show as an unbalanced state, a state of disharmony, dare I say, disease.
• So this simple symbol is showing us the importance of being in balance, and that to follow this principle is to stay within the natural cycles, and therefore maintain balance.
• Balance in health, is really a place which requires less energy to maintain, think of an old fashioned see saw.
• If we start from when one end is on the ground, and we want to lift it to the point of balance. Then we must expend energy to overcome gravity. Gravity wants to keep it the way it is. Another way to say this is, that there is inertia that must be overcome.
• Now if we are not careful, the end we lift will go past the point of balance, and then we require to exert more energy to control it.
• Now eventually we find the point of balance.
• How much energy needs to be expended now that things are stable?
• Yin and Yang have equalised, and balance is obtained.
• This is a healthy state, and one that we want to obtain.
• If we are able to reach this point and maintain it, then we have become our own Health Champion!

•  Once again, thanks for coming and listening to the end of my podcast on Yin & Yang, as part of my Ancient Wisdom, Modern Health: Reaching the Balance within series of Podcasts. If you have anything that you wish to have more information on, or a topic expanded on, please let me know by contacting me through one of the links in the podcast description.
•  See you next time for Ancient Wisdom, Modern Health, Reaching the balance Within.