YIN AND YANG

“Being, Consciousness and Bliss”, A Seekers Guide. Astrid Fitzgerald.
P. 13. 'Yin and Yang'

"If we sit on one side of a river valley, we can watch the hills across from us lit by sunlight. The summer grass is golden, and the contours are difined by shadows. We can watch those shadows travel across the hills as the day lengthens, until the gold turns to cinnabar in the sunset and the shadows stretch to touch the looming night".

This image of the sunlit side and the shadow side of a hill is the image of yin and yang. We cannot see one without the other. Take away the light, and you have no end to shadow. Take away the shadow and you cannot see the edges of the light.

What would joy be without conflict or enlightenment without despair. Every opposite lays bare the workings of yin and yang.

Yin is dark, female, old, lower, under, yielding, soft.

Yang is light, male, heat, higher, above, firm and hard.

Yin and Yang change as each moment passes. Yin and Yang are not 'things' and they are not 'forces'. Yin and Yang are the names for pure interaction. The top of a hill might be considered 'yang' when compared to a valley, but if it is compared to a mountain, it would be 'yin'. A woman would naturally be considered 'yin' but if she commanded an army, she would be considered 'yang'. There can never be a gap between Yin and Yang. The balance is dynamic and both create one another.