The subject of Yin, Yang, and the Tao can fill a whole library. It is a vast subject deserving much more discussion than a length of a blog entry. However, I do wish to share a personal perspective on the subject.
Lately I have been experimenting with creating my own Qi Gong exercises, that not only promote physical health but at the same time carry a symbolic gesture of the nature of the universe. In effect I was hoping to emulate the macrocosm of the Universe in my own body microcosm.
What I stumbled upon was an exercise of "contraction and expansion" or probably better described as an exercise of "Yin and Yang". Synchronizing this exercise with my own breathing was instinctively easy...the ease of which also led me to another synchronicity.
Let's begin to examine this model with the question of why we are here. What is the purpose for any one of us to be on this planet? Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once said, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience." It is a reminder that we are more than just our body. Our "roots" are much more divine than we think.
As spirits we are limitless. As spirits, we can be anything, be anywhere, or create anything by merely think it. It is an omnipresent and an omnipotent state of being. It is a state of ultimate freedom. However, as spirits we would not be able to "feel" this ultimate freedom, because in the spiritual realm we would never experience confinement. We would never able to experience this feeling of "ultimate freedom" because the state of "non-freedom" doesn't exist in that realm.
It is through the human experience that we can achieve what we could not as spirits. By voluntarily putting ourselves within the limitation of a physical body, we are able to know what freedom really means. Only by existing in a state of "limit-full" that we are finally in awe of something "limitless". As humans we would look to the heaven yearning to be near God or to be with God. As humans we are deeply immersed within our yin nature and we yearn to be again with our yang nature.
As spirits, we have a similar yearning to be with our yin nature. As spirits, we are pure yang with no anchor. We have power but no substance. We have energy but no mass. As spirits, we yearn for the yin aspect of the human experiences...the joy and the love as well as the pain and sorrow. It is the yin nature of our human experiences that gives meaning to the energy and power of our yang nature. This yearning is the drive that propels the cycle. It is the the Way. It is the Tao.
Our yin, mortal, human existence is equally as important as our yang, spiritual, immortal state. As we move from one state to the other and back again, we are also growing spiritually. The experiences that we gather during our many lifetimes help us to expand spiritually along with the expansion of the Universe. Our physical bodies may grow, wither and die, but the experiences that we gain while inside those bodies are never lost. As the Universe breathes in, so do we. When it is time for the Universe to breath out, so will we.
It is an endless cycle of change, of growth, and eventually of rebirth...not unlike the expansion and contraction cycle of the Universe itself.
The One gave birth to Two
Two gave birth to Three
and Three gave birth to the Myriad of all things...
...so said the Tao Te Ching
Lately I have been experimenting with creating my own Qi Gong exercises, that not only promote physical health but at the same time carry a symbolic gesture of the nature of the universe. In effect I was hoping to emulate the macrocosm of the Universe in my own body microcosm.
What I stumbled upon was an exercise of "contraction and expansion" or probably better described as an exercise of "Yin and Yang". Synchronizing this exercise with my own breathing was instinctively easy...the ease of which also led me to another synchronicity.
Let's begin to examine this model with the question of why we are here. What is the purpose for any one of us to be on this planet? Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once said, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience." It is a reminder that we are more than just our body. Our "roots" are much more divine than we think.
As spirits we are limitless. As spirits, we can be anything, be anywhere, or create anything by merely think it. It is an omnipresent and an omnipotent state of being. It is a state of ultimate freedom. However, as spirits we would not be able to "feel" this ultimate freedom, because in the spiritual realm we would never experience confinement. We would never able to experience this feeling of "ultimate freedom" because the state of "non-freedom" doesn't exist in that realm.
It is through the human experience that we can achieve what we could not as spirits. By voluntarily putting ourselves within the limitation of a physical body, we are able to know what freedom really means. Only by existing in a state of "limit-full" that we are finally in awe of something "limitless". As humans we would look to the heaven yearning to be near God or to be with God. As humans we are deeply immersed within our yin nature and we yearn to be again with our yang nature.
As spirits, we have a similar yearning to be with our yin nature. As spirits, we are pure yang with no anchor. We have power but no substance. We have energy but no mass. As spirits, we yearn for the yin aspect of the human experiences...the joy and the love as well as the pain and sorrow. It is the yin nature of our human experiences that gives meaning to the energy and power of our yang nature. This yearning is the drive that propels the cycle. It is the the Way. It is the Tao.
Our yin, mortal, human existence is equally as important as our yang, spiritual, immortal state. As we move from one state to the other and back again, we are also growing spiritually. The experiences that we gather during our many lifetimes help us to expand spiritually along with the expansion of the Universe. Our physical bodies may grow, wither and die, but the experiences that we gain while inside those bodies are never lost. As the Universe breathes in, so do we. When it is time for the Universe to breath out, so will we.
It is an endless cycle of change, of growth, and eventually of rebirth...not unlike the expansion and contraction cycle of the Universe itself.
The One gave birth to Two
Two gave birth to Three
and Three gave birth to the Myriad of all things...
...so said the Tao Te Ching
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