Yin and Yang

By Sarah Platenius

"I realize that the experience of oneness, though fleeting and rare, is life's deepest truth. Like a field of force, this knowledge slowly works in me, realigning each cell, turning me toward the source. I no longer look for salvation, for a highway to heaven, for explicit instructions, for blinding light. I don't look for any reward. While meditating or walking or loafing or working, I simply try to be present, attentive, open. And when I am blessed, my inner ruckus yields to stillness, and I am overcome by awe."

-Scott Russell Sanders

article title " A Private History of Awe"

Orion Magazine

Yin and Yang is the interplay of all things and how because of one, we are able to know and experience the other. We are also able to find balance within each. Yin and Yang have a list of their own characteristics. We can pick out anything from the universe, from a vegetable to the sun and fit it into being more yin or more yang. Yin characteristics tend to be weak, soft, more feminine, slow, cold, interior and water as the element. Yang is more robust, strong, hard, more masculine, fast, hot, exterior and fire as the element.

"Nothing is more completely yin or yang." In the universe--here on earth, within societies and our bodies there is a constant dance of yin and yang; rolling back and forth, leaning more towards one and then more towards the other. True harmony and health are obtained when there is an equalness between yin and yang and within yin and within yang.

In Chinese medicine, yin and yang are a tool used in diagnosing a patient. Most often illness is due to either a physical or psychological imbalance in the body. If a person is able to find the imbalance, they are that much closer to heath and harmony.

So the first thing to look at is whether a person is more yin or more yang. Too Yin would be lacking vitality, pale, cold, frail, so a patient would take measures towards building their yang--doing things that would energize their body, strengthen their system, maybe eat foods that would warm them up. And vice versa.

Yin and Yang can be used on many different levels. It is a complex, yet simple terminology developed by eastern oriental philosophers in order to understand that one thing exists because of the other, and on all levels of life there is a constant play of one thing with another--sun and moon, day and night, healthy and unhealthy, winter and summer. As humans we have quite the job of working towards finding balance in our daily lives. Just as there is a perfect balance between night and day because of this balance, magic is mage. This is what we strive for--the magic within ourselves--vibrating, quivering life , naturally.

(Notes from Paul Pitchford's Healing with Whole Foods)