yin & yang ~ universal principles?
yin yang ~ universal principles?
do all things go by opposites, mainly yes i would think but not always. in some ancient traditions everything was thought of as being of male or female form, and from this perhaps the yin and yang notion was formed. we see that reproduction in nature is always [? or nearly always] based on these opposites in some way even if both are present in the same creature.
we may move from there to the more metaphoric meaning; i can imagine that the ancients would have seen male and female in all shapes and forms in existence and e.g. the cup and the sword is used to illustrate this in celtic traditions. we often use metaphor as analogous to sexual activity and behaviour like train-tunnel, nut-bolt, then we can also think of things like a cave as a feminine space and entering it would be similar to the sexual act. perhaps the very idea of a sacred space eminated from caves which were used as temples in ancient times.
in science we can perhaps think of laws like ‘each action creates its equal and opposite’ as a metaphoric form of yin and yang/male-female? this is if we think of it so; in a spiritual sense a force penetrates the womb or entity of ‘space’ [a space to be moved into rather than space itself] which reacts producing or giving birth to the opposite. or in more simple terms an arrow representing the primary force can be considered as male, its recepticle being female.
mm perhaps that is not the best explanation, can you see any other laws that may be seen as yin-yang like?
the universe itself may in a sense also be considered as male and female entities, where space is feminine, then points and forces within that space are masculine. when we move into this realm of metaphor the sexual connotations become less apparent although still relevant as i see it. this then is probably why the chinese taoists developed the notion of yin-yang, as it takes the idea to its most universal context.
here is an explanation of yin and yang principles...
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHPHIL/YINYANG.HTM
quote
The essentials of the yin-yang school are as follows: the universe is run by a single principle, the Tao, or Great Ultimate. This principle is divided into two opposite principles, or two principles which oppose one another in their actions, yin and yang. All the opposites one perceives in the universe can be reduced to one of the opposite forces. The yin and yang accomplish changes in the universe through the five material agents, or wu hsing , which both produce one another and overcome one another.
ok so do you think yin and yang represent universal principles?
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Originally Posted by RomanKnight990
