The Yin-Yang Symbol & Taoist Cosmology

I found this really interesting article at taosim.about.com. She talks about the meaning of the symbol and I thought I'd share part of it here:

What is the meaning of the Taiji symbol?
In terms of Taoist cosmology, the circle represents Tao - the undifferentiated Unity out of which all of existence arises. The black and white halves within the circle represent Yin-qi and Yang-qi - the primordial feminine and masculine energies whose interplay gives birth to the manifest world: to the five elements and "ten-thousand things."

I had never realized how much inherent movement there was in the yin yang symbol until I saw the image posted here on the right. Elizabeth goes on to talk about that movement:

Yin & Yang are Co-Arising and Interdependent:
The curves and circles of the Yin-Yang symbol imply a kaleidoscope-like movement. This implied movement represents the ways in which Yin and Yang are mutually-arising, interdependent, and continuously transforming, one into the other. One could not exist without the other, for each contains the essence of the other. Night becomes day, and day becomes night. Birth becomes death, and death becomes birth (think: composting). Friends become enemies, and enemies become friends. Such is the nature - Taoism teaches - of everything in the relative world.

I also liked what she said about circles within circles, and the interdependence of opposites:

Smaller Circles Within The Larger Circle:
What's great about the Yin-Yang symbol is that the smaller circles nested within each half of the symbol serve as a constant reminder of the interdependent nature of the black/white "opposites." It reminds the Taoist practitioner that all of relative existence is in constant flux and change. And while the creation of pairs-of-opposites would seem to be an aspect of our human software, we can maintain a relaxed attitude around this, knowing that each side always contains the other, as night contains day, or as a mother “contains" the infant that she will, in time, give birth to.

Article by: Elizabeth Reninger
Source: Taoism.about.com

Yin Yang

The Essential Nature of Yin and Yang

These visual attributes of the Taiqi (Yin Yang) Symbol are meant to remind the Daoist practitioner of the essential nature of Yin and Yang -- and, by extension, of all pairs of opposites. Rather than being distinct, fixed and/or rigid categories, Yin and Yang are mutually-supportive, mutually-arising, inter-dependent, and in constant motion. Each contains the essence of the other, and they are continuously transforming one-into-the-other. So, for instance: friends become enemies, and enemies become friends; summer becomes winter, and winter becomes summer; from the lowest of plains pushes up the highest of mountains, and the highest of mountains, over time, recede once again to flat plains; external action, taken to its extreme, transforms into quietude; and from the depths of stillness, movement quite naturally emerges.

Relaxing Into the Dance

To train in this kind of perception, Daoism teaches, is to become a bit more relaxed in relation to our conceptual frameworks, with the potential for not getting “stuck” in them. We come to know the manifest world as a kaleidoscope of patterns of change -- in constant motion -- and ourselves (also constantly changing) as part of this. So we can allow the pairs of opposites to appear, and to dance, without having an egoic investment in their particular shape or form.

Consummation

If we are practitioners of Internal Alchemy, we invite an increasing intimacy between these pairs of opposites; finally allowing their interpenetration to be so complete that they dissolve one into the other: this is the “copulation” of Yin and Yang (or, in the language of Inner Alchemy, of the White Tiger and the Green Dragon) which – by dissolving the polarity of “self” and “other” – takes the practitioner back into the Mind of Dao, that primordial and ever-present Unity out of which the play of Yin and Yang originally emerges.

by Elizabeth Reninger