Yin and Yang
Ancient tradition believes that the universe is made up of two opposing forces, Yin and Yang, which must balance each other out.
When these two forces become unbalanced, nature seeks the way to balance them again.
If the imbalance is too strong, disasters happen.
But if these two forces are in harmony, they manifest power and generate life.
If the sky loses its yin and yang balance, storms must occur, just as if the earth loses its balance, natural disasters occur until the balance is restored.
When yin and yang lose their balance in the human body, it becomes ill.
The yin and yang of heaven and earth directly affect man’s yin and yang.
So, if we want a healthy body and a long life, it is imperative that we know how to adjust the yin and yang of our body and coordinate it with the yin and yang of heaven and earth.
For Qigong practitioners, understanding the balance of yin and yang in the human body is very important, as this is the only way to adjust these two forces and maintain a healthy life.
Qi is energy, and energy in itself has no yin or yang.
It’s like the energy generated by the spark of a positive and a negative charge.
Charges have the potential to generate energy, but they are not energy in themselves.
The origin of Yin and Yang
As we saw at the beginning, ancient tradition believes that the universe is made up of two opposing forces.
These two forces are born out of the movement from unity to duality, so change is seen as the expression of duality.
The two components of power that promote duality are called Yin and Yang.
The most basic and ancestrally known meaning of Yin and Yang is: the dark side of the mountain for Yin; and the sunny side of the mountain for Yang.
The forces of Yin and Yang are considered to be the primordial forces of the universe that unfolded from the moment unity was set in motion: from 1 came 2, from 2 came the 3,000 things of the world.
The 2 represents the two forces, Yin and Yang.
It is from the movement from 1 to 2 that the duality of Yin and Yang develops, in other words, Yin and Yang were born from movement, and are in constant movement, in other words, in constant change.
Thus representing the impermanence of our reality.
Since Yin and Yang are the primordial elements from which the universe evolves, it is only natural that these two elements have innumerable qualities.
Yang is represented in the sun, sky, day, fire, heat, dryness, light, etc.
Yang tends to expand, to flow upwards and outwards.
Yin means moon, earth, night, water, cold, damp and darkness.
Yin tends to contract and flow downwards.
There is also a representation of Yin and Yang that goes beyond physical forces, such as: Yang is high up and therefore noble; Yin is low down and therefore considered commonplace.
Yang: good and beautiful.
Yin: bad and ugly.
Other contrasts are: virtue and vice, order and confusion, joy and sadness, wealth and poverty, health and sickness.
The fact that in these contrasts Yang represents the positive and Yin, the negative side, should not be interpreted to mean that Yin is an “evil” principle and Yang a “good” principle.
It should always be borne in mind that Yin and Yang were conceived as one entity and that the two together are always present.
Day changes to night, light changes to darkness, spring and summer to fall and winter.
Thus, all events in nature and in human life are conditioned by the constantly changing relationship between these two cosmic regulators.
It should also be noted that the general application of this duality has also led to the conclusion that neither of these two forces
exists in an absolute state, thus the concept arose that within Yang there is Yin and within Yin is contained Yang.
The Canon of Chinese Medicine (The Book of the Yellow Emperor) provides many examples of this exchange between Yin and Yang and of the duality preserved within a single thing.
The most concrete example of this duality is man.
As a man, man belongs to Yang; as a woman, man belongs to Yin.
However, both male and female are products of two primary elements, so both qualities are contained in both sexes.