Religion and Theology - The Yin and the Yang - Essay Example

The nature of yin-yang lies in the interchange and interplay of two components. The alternation of day and night or coldness and hotness is an example. The Taoist belief system holds that the best way an individual can improve his life is by learning how to create his yin-yang power. Yin Yang power permeates our world. There is a way to balance it to our advantage.

These two different states will alter into each other under definite circumstances. For example, in the process of affliction from an illness, a person will experience a high fever, turmoil, and uneasiness. All of a sudden, the fever will slough off. A period of listlessness will then engulf the patient. This is an example of the yin succeeding the yang. The yin and yang are even used to explain the functions of the human body. When speaking of the yin and yang of the body, the upper part is the yang and the lower part is the yin. The skin is the yang, and the body viscera is the yin (Bishop, 2010). The vital energy that courses through the body to strengthen man is the yang. The liquid life force that bears that energy through the body and to various organs is the yin.

What this seeks to portray is that all forces of nature work together to render the balance that is necessary for survival. All opposites that an individual will experience such as wealth and poverty or illness and health, touch on the yin-yang reality. They can be explained by the short-term dominance of one theory over another. Since no one principle dominates eternally, it means that all the conditions are subject to change. It is a way of nature to process through periods of flourishing and decline.

The Chinese view opposites as evolving and declining. There is neither right nor wrong but a balance, transformation, interaction, and dependent opposition. Both sides are needed to maintain a balance. Since one principle produces the other, all phenomena have within them the seeds of their opposite state. In the yin-yang theory, time itself is a series based on the movement of the planets. Read More