17/06/2018

I was in awe to find out that yesterday marked the first anniversary of setting up my blog. With or without a good reason, I didn’t write anything for months. Finally, it must be HIS Spirit,  and together with my BFF, Linda Lai’s soft nudging, so here I am. I have made a few minor changes to my header; moved away a few of my previous postings and I hope to find time to apply a new coat of colour to boost the outlook of my blog soon.

YinYang 101

People, in general, may profess to know the idea of YinYang ( not Yin and Yang).  But how many could boldly claim to possess this profound Chinese wisdom? I am still in the midst of searching for the essence of it. However, I have perceived that even with my shallow knowledge of it, I can use it as a lead-in to articulate the insights and visions that I have received in the past, in areas of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), my Christian faith and many other issues in life.

The simple concept of YinYang is how ancient Chinese people philosophically take the initial view that of all things that exist on earth through the lens of either a single Yin (Y-) or a single Yang (+) for thousands of years. Today, people would accept, for example, Sun is Yang (Y+), and the Moon is Yin (Y-);  the night is Yin (Y-), the day is Yang, and small is Yin, and big is Yang, and so forth. Soon the ancient Chinese were able to discern that nothing is absolute even with the strong opposite premises.

Like the Shadow is Yin and the Light is Yang, but shadow exists only with the existing light; our Moon is at night, so it’s Yin and Sun is Yang and how the contrast between the Sun and Moon. But if we knew about the various lunar phases, especially the phrase in the relationship between Sun and Moon, then, in fact, we can see the Moon, during the day that’s in the shadow of the Sun. Therefore, it would be a fallacy to say that we see the Moon only at night.

In conception, the single Yin, and Yang has evolved into a two-word phrase concept of YinYang.  And YinYang is seemingly Opposite yet is Complimentary. YinYang is ‘Opposite but not Absolute;’ YinYang is Co-existing and is also ‘Codependent.’ Like the Moon and Sun; YinYang is interconnected; they grow into each other as they interrelate to each other in spite of its Opposite reference. If we expound YinYang with YinYang, then it is the constant ‘Duality within Oneness’ to the point that we can touch the infinity.

Sadly, the downright misconception is that many were led to believe that YinYang is full of Taoism. It’s understandable, as people, in general, would know not the distinctive difference between the Taoism as philosophy and the school of Taoist that teaches the practice of ‘Divination.’ More than 10 years ago, the Tao (道) of Taoism was defined as ‘ineffable’ through my Google search. Only recently, it says that the early Taoism drew its Cosmological notions from the School of Yinyang.

Without having a little Chinese resource, it would be hard for people to fathom the depth of YinYang. Worst of all, if we had ministers irresponsibly, openly labelled YinYang with evil contents from the pulpits, no wonder many Christians curl their lips in disdain. In fact, the idea of YinYang had derived from its original inception in the Chinese Classics of I-Ching (易经), also known as ‘the book of Change’ dated 1000BC and before. Chronologically Taoism didn’t come to China till 5th century BCE.

Thousands of years later, we have the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) finally been wildly accepted in the Western world as an alternative, in the past few decades. Many still look down upon TCM and consider it not scientific when people compare it with the Anatomical medicine. The irony here is that the doctrine of YinYang has always been the guiding principle of TCM in ‘(辨证论治 biàn zhèng lùn zhì),’ the ‘Symptom and Treatment Differentiation. 

In the view of TCM, our stomach, which is inside (Y-) of the human body, so that’s Yin, but the stomach is also the powerhouse of the human body to generate temperature  (Y+) to digest the food, and our stomach, it is Yin because of its position, it is also a Yang because of its function. Therefore, our stomach is Yin/Yang.  TCM is not scientific, that’s Yin whereas modern medicine is Yang. As of now more and more no cures found in many chronic conditions, TCM has become a compelling alternative, but it has also offered scientists a new direction for research, so TCM is Yang, and modern medicine becomes Yin. 

Stay tuned