About Ying&Yang (and Life&Death)

Love and Hate. Past and Future. Man and Woman. Good and Evil. Powerful and Weak. Light and Darkness. Beautiful and Ugly. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Life and Death.

Are all these really two polarities that do not belong together? Maybe it is true that both sides have to fight each other as long as time exists but it is also true that none will ever win the last battle once and for all.Starting with this important knowledge you can decide either if you want to continue to see them as separates or as a union.

Let us assess a little the eternal Ying&Yang circle. It has a big white and a big black area. These represent all dualism in life. However, they are together in the circle and only through this they can be perfectly in union building a complete and impeccable circle. In order to make it more touchable, let's also use one explicit attribute. Let's take Life and Death. Many people fear death (without knowing they also fear life, but that's another story). Life could not exist without death and death could not exist without life. If nobody died, then nobody could live in a physical world, either. At least we would be forbidden to have children. Our ego however always tells us that we have to live as it thinks that this life in this body is the only possible form that exists. This is the most egoistic but most regular approach that human beings have. This might also be the most common reason why many are afraid of death while I'm sure there are many more different reasons to explain fear of death.

But let's look more into the Ying&Yang circle. Why are there dots on each side? Among other things it means that life also contains death and death contains life. This is reasonable as one (life/death) leads to the other (death/life). The next thing we might notice is the wave in the middle. It is not a straight line but on one end, it reaches deeper into the other side whereas on the other end it is more consumed by its adversary. This represents the giving and taking as well as the active and the passive. Sometimes life is more present and sometimes it is death which is stronger.

Furthermore, let's look at the amount. In the picture we can see that there is an equilibrium of both energies. Life and death always needs to stay in an equilibrium. It might move in waves from time to time, but in the long run, there will always be a natural balance.

Finally, if we look at all the attributes of Ying&Yang, everything that is contained within will always stay inside. It is a natural flow (remember the wave) of giving and taking, so when we die within the Ying&Yang we will not disappear. Our body might transform into dust, earth or food for worms and ultimately food for new babies who are born and grow adult by consuming this transformed energy that is always flowing anew within the Ying&Yang. Our souls also wander within the invisible world and will manifest in a different form, maybe visible, maybe staying invisible. Maybe as an angel. Maybe as another human being, maybe as a different star within the universe. Maybe as another universe within another macrocosmos. I don't know the answer and it's not important to me because I know the energy will never cease to exist - it only dies in order to go through a transformation into something else. A caterpillar has to die in order to become a butterfly. The water in the ocean evaporates in order to fall as raindrops over the mountains, uniting later with rivers and wandering back to the wonderful vast ocean.  If we can win against our ego and give up the fear of dying, then we can even embrace death and look forward to it when the time has come for our bodies and souls to transform.

Meanwhile, I think it is also not favorable to just stay around the edges of the Ying&Yang. We should strive to move into the middle (although the edges are important, too, as they bring extreme joy, but let's not forget that they will also bring extreme agony along). There at the threshold between life and death we have to meet, so we can always see both sides. With one eye we see life, with the other we see death so we will always be able to cherish both. On the corners we will become fearful if we dwell for too long in there as we won't be able to understand or accept the other side sooner or later. Sleep under the moonlight can be enchanting but the sweet rays of the sunlight remind us to come back and be alive.

The Ying&Yang circle can also be translated into God. It encompasses everything that exists. Outside of the circle there is only non-existence. Argumentum e contrario, all non-existence is not God and all existence is God. Someone could of course argue that within Ying&Yang one side is existence and the other side is non-existence...that I leave for you to decide. But what would this mean? Only the same thing. What exists is God and what doesn't exist, is not God. 

What do we ultimately derive from all this for our own purpose of being?