The Yin and the Yang

The ancient Chinese saw the world and everything within it subject to two broad powers or energies: the yin and the yang. Yin corresponds to principles such as inner, dense, cold, feminine, while yang offers the opposite–outer, light, warmth and masculine.

Contrary to common Western interpretation, yin and yang are not opposing forces but complementary and interrelated ones. Think of the pedals of a bike: when one is up the other one is necessarily down. The movement of the bike requires one pedal to come back up pushing the other one down and so on. When this happens in an orderly fashion, the bike is in movement and the movement provides balance.

 Each phase of yin and yang always contains the seed of the other. Since everything is in movement, change is seen as the result of one energy expanding when the other one is contracting and vice versa. There is never 100% yan or yang any place because neither one can ever be excluded from the whole. , Movement and change would be stopped and all would be static. That's impossible!

The illustrations show the dynamic context of yin and yang. Do not think of yin and yang as absolute and static but rather as relative and dynamic.