The ancient Chinese got it right ... and it's the wisest of the martial artists that validate it ... yin and yang. But generally, most don't really comprehend yin and hang. Most consider yin and yang as complimentary qualities - something that is sometimes hot, sometimes cold.
Not so.
Yin and yang refers to mutually opposing activities - resulting in the cycling between the two qualities that we traditionally think about. That is, we see hot and cold, but underneath is an activity that wants to drive the system to ever higher temperatures, and there is also a mutually opposing activity that wants to drive the system to ever colder temperatures. Inevitably, one or the other activity dominates and the system naturally cycles between some maximum warmth and some minimum coolness.
But here is the real part that has gotten lost over time. There is a period where both mutually opposing activities have disappeared. This is called zero. If the system is our body ... there is a yang activity that wants to energize us, to heat us up, to get us going. Think of this yang activity as all the chemical reactions that are required to get you going ... the heart pumping more blood, the injection of more sugars into the blood stream, the brain getting kick-started, etc. There is also a yin activity that wants to cool and quiet the body - to keep it from wearing out, overheating, it needs to reset, etc. Think of the yin activity as the sum of all bodily reactions that make you quiet and sleepy ... dreamy.
So we can naturally see these activities constantly working. But as importantly, this model predicts imbalances to the system. Because they are mutually opposing activities (and not complimentary activities), there is the inevitable case where the yin activity is weaker and the body generally runs too hot. There is also the case where the yang activity is weak and the body generally runs too cold.
But lastly, there is a time during the day, when both activities just disappear. In the body, this is generally coincident with the time of maximum coolness. For all intents and purposes the body is in a dormant state - no longer cooling down, no longer heating up. We call that zero. But inevitably zero splits into yin and yang, and the cycle repeats.
So, why is this important? Every martial arts encounter is simply yang - yin / zero.
But most importantly, the mind is yang - yin / zero
Not so.
Yin and yang refers to mutually opposing activities - resulting in the cycling between the two qualities that we traditionally think about. That is, we see hot and cold, but underneath is an activity that wants to drive the system to ever higher temperatures, and there is also a mutually opposing activity that wants to drive the system to ever colder temperatures. Inevitably, one or the other activity dominates and the system naturally cycles between some maximum warmth and some minimum coolness.
But here is the real part that has gotten lost over time. There is a period where both mutually opposing activities have disappeared. This is called zero. If the system is our body ... there is a yang activity that wants to energize us, to heat us up, to get us going. Think of this yang activity as all the chemical reactions that are required to get you going ... the heart pumping more blood, the injection of more sugars into the blood stream, the brain getting kick-started, etc. There is also a yin activity that wants to cool and quiet the body - to keep it from wearing out, overheating, it needs to reset, etc. Think of the yin activity as the sum of all bodily reactions that make you quiet and sleepy ... dreamy.
So we can naturally see these activities constantly working. But as importantly, this model predicts imbalances to the system. Because they are mutually opposing activities (and not complimentary activities), there is the inevitable case where the yin activity is weaker and the body generally runs too hot. There is also the case where the yang activity is weak and the body generally runs too cold.
But lastly, there is a time during the day, when both activities just disappear. In the body, this is generally coincident with the time of maximum coolness. For all intents and purposes the body is in a dormant state - no longer cooling down, no longer heating up. We call that zero. But inevitably zero splits into yin and yang, and the cycle repeats.
So, why is this important? Every martial arts encounter is simply yang - yin / zero.
But most importantly, the mind is yang - yin / zero
