An Obsessional Yin-Yang Dialectic

An Obsessional Yin-Yang Dialectic

So, typically, the assumption is that

yin = shadow = female = feminine = black half of the symbol

and

yang = light = male = masculine = white half of the symbol






and that this symbol represents their primordial interplay, which gives rise to the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water) and the ten-thousand things (all of manifest phenomena).




From wikipedia:

"In Daoist philosophy, dark and light (☯) yin and yang, arrives in the dàodéjīng (道德經) at Chapter 42.[3] It becomes sensible from an initial quiescence or emptiness (wuji, sometimes symbolized by an empty circle), and continues moving until quiescence is reached again. For instance, dropping a stone in a calm pool of water will simultaneously raise waves and lower troughs between them, and this alternation of high and low points in the water will radiate outward until the movement dissipates and the pool is calm once more. Yin and yang thus are always opposite and equal qualities. Further, whenever one quality reaches its peak, it will naturally begin to transform into the opposite quality: for example, grain that reaches its full height in summer (fully yang) will produce seeds and die back in winter (fully yin) in an endless cycle."




Here, the concept of "Primordial Interplay":


Concretely:

Their co-arising





Subtly:

Their interdependent meaning...

Their co-creation / co-definition of one other

(giving rise to the elements and all phenomena)...




And even then... once more:

Their co-existence within each other
(the white dot within the black half, the black dot within the white half...)

Yang within Yin... Yin within Yang


Before the stone is dropped into the water, so that a distinction between waves and troughs is discerned, both waves and troughs are 'integrated' in the stillness of the water...

Already embedded within the constitution of the one is the very totality of its 'other.'
The names assigned to either 'wave' or 'trough' are arbitrary, and these forms themselves are constantly splitting and dissolving into their essential essencelessness.


Back to stillness.



What is the stone that is thrown?


When we are completely strong, we will find also our brokenness.
When we are completely thrown into our weakness, there we will find our greatest strength.
Hot enough, we sweat our own coolness...
And cold, we shiver up our own deepest heat.

Full of rage, we discover our love.
And full of loving intensity, we will find our lingering resentments.

To reach equilibrium, yes, but even that imposes arbitrary 'disorder' on a territory that can never be unbalanced. (neither balanced, nor unbalanced... the ephemeral Tao)


"The Way (Tao) that can be deviated from is not the True Way"

- ? Confucius ?



Here, my motivation:
An exploration of a dynamism that underlies and overlays all my movement and stasis...



Yin and Yang
Play and Justice
Love and Anger
Artist and Activist
Ultimate Truth and Relative Truth
Oxytocin-Serotonin and Dopamine-Noradrenaline