The Tao of I Ching's Yin Yang

[RascalPuff]

Yin Yang ('Tao')



The diagrammatic symbol of Tao is ambivalent; not to be confused with ambiguous. The antithesis-apparent is an illusion which actually represents mutual and reciprocal - supportive - complementarity. It's functional and spiritual occurrence in nature, philosophy, physics and phenomenology (by any and all other names of equality and unity) is apparently boundless. It is not infrequently misunderstood, especially by Westerners, hence, it's offered subjection here.

This thread hopes to be a - however modest - celebration of the I Ching/Tao/Ying-Yang (YinYan) and it's emergence throughout Western as well as Eastern philosophy, physics, philology, epistemology, ontology and omniscience.

What it relates to is also - in this forum - a matter of what is posted as an example, by whom.

"Is not the *I Ching a perfect book?" - Confucius
(*The Chinese Book of Changes)

"I Ching opens up the knowledge of the issues of things, accomplishes the undertakings of men, and embraces under it the way of all things under the sky...

"The sages made their emblematic symbols to set forth fully their ideas, appointed all the diagrams (64 hexagrams) to show fully the truth and falsehood of things; appended their explanations to give the full expression of their worlds." - Confucius (551 - 479 BC)

It is said that Confucius three times wore out the leather thongs that bound his copy of the I Ching, so often did he refer to it. No library is complete without it. - James Legge, speaking of the I Ching

(Refer: The Portable Dragon: The Western Man's Guide to the I Ching, by R. G. Siu)
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IMHO, a worthy, perhaps unending thread, comparable to the Upanishads or the Gita. Thank You - One and All - for Being The Light.

Regards,
- RP

[RascalPuff]

Dear mkirkpatrick (Michael):
Would you please care to simplify the start of this proposed thread?

Meanwhile, may the Reader please allow an offering in the form of a few quotations from the Wilhelm/Baynes presentation of the I Ching (Book of Changes), in the form of a few excerpts from the Foreward, by Carl G. Jung:
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"The manner in which the I Ching tends to look upon reality seems to disfavor our (Western) causalistic procedures. The moment under actual observation appears to the ancient Chinese view more of a chance hit than a clearly defined result of concurrring causal chain processes. The matter of interest seems to be the configuration formed by chance events in the moment of observation, and not at all the hypothetical reasons that seemingly account for the coincidence. While the Western mind carefully sifts, weighs, selects, classifies, isolates, the Chinese picture of the moment encompasses everything down to the minutest nonsensical detail, because all of the ingredients make up the observed moment.


"Thus it happens that when one throws the three coins, or counts through the forty nine yarrow sticks, these chance details enter into the picture of the moment of observation and form a part of it - a part that is insignificant to us, yet most meaningful to the Chinese mind. With us it would be a banal and amost meaningless statement (at least on the face of it) to say that whatever happens in a given moment possesses inevitably the quality peculiar to that moment. This is not an abstract argument but a very practical one... There are certain connoisseurs who can tell you merely from appearance, taste and behavior of a wine the site of its vinyard and the year of its origin. There are antiquarians who with almost uncanny accuracy will name the time and place of origin and the maker of an object of art or piece of furniture on merely looking at it. And there are even (rare) astrologers who can tell you without any prevous knowledge of your nativity, what the position of the sun and moon was and what zodiacal sign rose above the horizon in the moment of your birth. In the face of such facts, it must be admitted that moments can leave long lasting traces.


"In other words, whoever invented the I Ching (There are speculations that it was a collective effort of monks; perhaps generations of them), was convinced that the hexagram worked out in a certain moment coincided with the latter in quality no less than in time. To him the hexagram was the moment of the exponent in which it was cast - even moreso than the hours of the clock or the divisions of the calendar could be - inasmuch as the hexagram was understood to be an indicator of the essential situation prevailing in the moment of its origin.

"This assumption involves a certain curious principle that I have termed 'synchronicity', a concept that forumulates a point of view diametrically opposed to that of causality. Since the latter is a merely statistical truth and not absolute, it is a sort of working hypothesis of how events evolve one out of another, whereas synchronicity takes the coincidence of events in space and time as meaning something more than mere chance, namely, a peculiar interdependence of objective events among themselves as well as with the subjective (psychic) states of the observer or observers.


"The ancient Chinese mind contemplates the cosmos in a way comparable to that of the modern physicist, who cannot deny that his model of the world is decidedly psychophysical structure. The microphysical event includes the observer just as much as the reality underlying the I Ching comprises subjective, i.e., psychic conditions in the totality of the momentary situation. Just as causality describes the sequence of events, so synchronicity to the Chinese mind deals with the coincidence of the events. The causal point of view tells a dramatic story about how D, and C in its turn had a father, B, etc. The synchronistic view on the other hand tries to produce an equally meaningful picture of coincidence. How does it happen that A', B', C', D', etc., appear all in the same moment and in the same place? It happens in the first place because the physical events A' and B' are of the same quality as the psychic events C' and D', and further because all are the exponents of one and the same momentary situation. The situation is assumed to represent a legible or understandable picture...."


"My argument as outlined above has of course never entered the Chinese mind On the contrary, according to the old tradition, it is 'spiritual agencies', acting in a mysterious way, that make the yarrow stalks give a meaningful answer. These powers form as it were, the living soul of the book.


"... The I Ching does not offer itself with proofs and results; it does not vaunt itself, nor is it easy to approach. Like a part of Nature, the I Ching waits until it is discovered. It offers neither facts nor power, but for lovers of self knowledge, of wisdom - if there be such - it seems to be the right book. To one person its spirit appears as clear as day; to another, shadowy as twighlight; to a third, dark as night. He who is not pleased by it does not have to use it, and he who is against it is not obliged to find it true. Let it go forth into the world for the benefit of those who can discern its meaning."
- Carl G. Jung, Zurich 1949


"What we do in the present, echoes through eternity".
- Marcus Decimus Meridius (Excerpt from the film, Gladiator)


Refer, 'The Butterfly Theory', by Lao Tzu.
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Regards,
-RP

[Profpat]

A most informative and interesting post RP. Thank you.

I've learned much from your post, even though I am somewhat familiar with, as you know, both the I Ching and the Tao.

I read where the I Ching is the oldest "book" ( manuscript ), and that the Chinese writing symbols have nothing similiar to the I Ching trigrams.

The Tao diagram is inspirational.
So many things represented in such a simple but dynamic symbol.
And correctly so I believe.

Well I'm going to reread your post RP as I learned there is much to be gleaned from a second reading of your posts.

Thanks again RP for the research and information sharing.

Pat

[mkirkpatrick]

Rascal my dear friend,I feel you credit me with far too much,but I thank you for the kindly thought.

My limited take on this,to kick off if you so wish,you talk of ancient principles,eastern ideals of mastery of mind,the higher self over that of the lower self,of authenticity,
sychronicity,spontanaeity,realism of being,mastery of self,developing these principles
of mental discipline,that lead to union and harmony within,with expansion of consciousness,and of realized awareness,the more occult or esoteric aspects went
far deeper into this,and spoke of union within the spinal area(the home of kundalini)
the serpent within the spine,that when these two rotary motions were harmonised
then Ying and Yang were balanced within that being.

This lead to authentic living,spontaneous actions,rather than re-actions,insight into
previously unknown aspects of being,a deep understanding of ones fellow man,and
an acceptance of things that we would find hard to understand.

When sychronicity becomes a regular aspect of your life,it is the universes way of saying
you are on the right path.

hope this little piece is of some use Rascal.

regards michael.

[Profpat]

And I think it is a great idea for a post Michael, but I keep losing it, and only found it again after your post.

But listen up RP and Michael, and any other members who could locate this post.

A little reseach yielded this:

" The Copenhagen Interprtation (CI) described the quantum world with the principle of complementarity which consist of three parts.

1. A "whole" must consist of two opposite parts.

2. These two opposite parts must be mutually exclusive.

3. These two opposite parts are complementary to each other.
(http://www.fortunecity.com/business/...3/Constant.htm)
Does that describe an image we know.(yin/yang).

Parallel universes here we come.

Best to all,

Pat

P.S. Can we get a better site for this RP or is it too speculative

[RascalPuff]

And I think it is a great idea for a post Michael, but I keep losing it, and only found it again after your post.

But listen up RP and Michael, and any other members who could locate this post.

A little reseach yielded this:

" The Copenhagen Interprtation (CI) described the quantum world with the principle of complementarity which consist of three parts.

1. A "whole" must consist of two opposite parts.

2. These two opposite parts must be mutually exclusive.

3. These two opposite parts are complementary to each other.
(http://www.fortunecity.com/business/...3/Constant.htm)
Does that describe an image we know.(yin/yang).

Parallel universes here we come.

Best to all,

Pat

P.S. Can we get a better site for this RP or is it too speculative

____________________

Dear Prof:
Thank you very much for the additional contributions to our ongoing thread.
I really do think you're on to some real possibilities and contributions. Your insight as to what we're talking about - and its contingencies - is impressive. Inspirationally so.

Indeed. The afore issued two meshed gears moving in opposite directions seem to be the other side of the same coin.

I don't undestand the import of your *Post Script:
Please tell me what you mean by *'getting a better site.'

What kind of 'better site' did you have in mind? Where?

(No. I do not think that what/how we're dealing with is too speculative.
Avante garde is probly a more appropriate term. Note how the YinYang Tao Symbol is open to interpretation, as to whether the two images in the icon are in mutual or opposing directions. In either case they are understood to be symbiotically balanced.)

Best regards,
- RP

[N0B0DY]

Found this alternate depiction of the symbol. I wonder if the black and white portions of the normal depiction were mixed together, would we be left with a gray circle?



http://www.youarethat.org/library01/symbols-center.htm

[Profpat]

Good question Nobody, does anybody out there have a turntable? You can get a large copy of the diagram on the internet.

R.P. Thank you so much for those kind words. ( parallel universe inspiration came from you though)

I had no trouble locating the site this time. So all is well.

Well let me report some additional research I did.

I guess none other than the great Gottfried Leibniz, had an interest in Chinese symbols also. In fact he was the first to come up with the binary number system, and made the connection between the I Ching symbols and binary numbers.

Writing on the Tao Diagram Richard Wilhelm wrote:

"What it posits is simply....the line. With this line, which in itself represents oneness, duality comes into the world...the world of opposites."

Best to all, and again thanks R.P.

Pat

[MJA]

"Before God we are equally wise - and equally foolish." Albert Einstein

Is the above quote more simply stated: EQUAL

Is that the TAO I Ching Yin Yang of it, or more simply: The equal truth of it?

TOE
=
MJA

[mkirkpatrick]

We are a centre of consciousness within an ocean of energy,Ying and Yang are two spirals
that twist around the area of our spine,and await the time when we can safely rise them up through our body to exit through the crown chakra,becoming a balancing agent for these potent powers.

Mastery of mind ,body, and soul,a natural harmonious whole being.




regards michael.