Peace, Harmony and Balance   
By Lisa Levstein
 

"Accept as equal
   grace and disgrace
   fortune and misfortune
   profit and loss 

The ego suffers because it
   cowers from the latter
   clutches at the former

The sage
   accepts all
   cares for all" 

- tao te ching

Harmony and balance, the cornerstones of Chinese medicine and philosophy, are the interplay of yin and yang, opposing forces of nature. All of nature and society have aspects of yin and yang that intertwine, ebb and flow. The trick is to learn to accept the cyclical nature of yin and yang, understanding that all of life is subject to change. Well known adages such as "What goes up must come down," and "Every cloud has a silver lining" express the yin-yang concept in Western terms. 

The Yin aspect is female. It represents everything about the world that is dark, hidden, passive, receptive, yielding, cool, soft, and feminine. Originally yin meant "shady, secret, dark, mysterious, and cold”, like the shaded, north side of a mountain or the shaded, south bank of a river. Yin indicates the material aspect, something which is at rest, solid, organic. Individual body organs and tissue, which are fundamentally stable and still, are assigned to this aspect. 

The Yang aspect is male. It represents everything about the world that is illuminated, evident, active, aggressive, controlling, hot, hard, and masculine. Originally, yang meant "clear, bright, sunny, and hot", like the sunny, south side of a mountain or the sunny, north bank of a river. Yang can be understood as "activity", the non-material, and as being dynamic. All active body functions and everything which can be defined as living (eg. the mobility of the limbs, the emotions and such physiological functions as sleeping, perspiring, maintaining the digestive process and keeping the temperature stable) come together under the yang aspect. 

Just as the sunny side of the mountain becomes shady and in turn, the shady side of the mountain becomes sunny as the sun moves over the sky, so do the two forces of yin and yang constantly move and interact.  

In the Yin-Yang symbol, notice that the black shape for yin and white shape for yang within the circle are not purely black or white. This is to remind us that things in life are not completely black or white. Although dark and light, sickness and health, riches and poverty, and other opposites are separate, they cannot exist without each other. 

For instance, you really appreciate good health when you know illness. Happy times are even sweeter, when seen in relation to harder times. And so on. 

While Chinese spirituality advocates putting yin and yang in relative balance, it also understands that balance is only relative in nature. The continual flow between states of yin and yang are necessarily part of life’s harmony.
 

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Article courtesy of Well Now Inc: www.wellnow.ca