Introduction To The Yin-Yang Symbol.

What Does The Taoist Yin-Yang Symbol Look Like?

The most well-known of Taoist visual symbols is the Yin-Yang symbol, also known as the Taiji symbol. The image consists of a circle divided into two teardrop-shaped halves - one white and the other black. Within each half is contained a smaller circle of the opposite color. View larger image of Yin-Yang Symbol here.

The Yin-Yang Symbol & Taoist Cosmology:

What is the meaning of the Taiji symbol? In terms of Taoist cosmology, the circle represents Tao - the undifferentiated Unity out of which all of existence arises. The black and white halves within the circle represent Yin-qi and Yang-qi - the primordial feminine and masculine energies whose interplay gives birth to the manifest world: to the Five Elements and Ten-Thousand Things.

Yin & Yang are Co-Arising and Interdependent:

The curves and circles of the Yin-Yang symbol imply a kaleidoscope-like movement. This implied movement represents the ways in which Yin and Yang are mutually-arising, interdependent, and continuously transforming, one into the other. One could not exist without the other, for each contains the essence of the other. Night becomes day, and day becomes night. Birth becomes death, and death becomes birth (think: composting). Friends become enemies, and enemies become friends. Such is the nature - Taoism teaches - of everything in the relative world.

Heads & Tails - Another Way of Looking at the Yin-Yang Symbol:

The black and white halves of the Yin-Yang symbol are similar to the two sides of a coin. They are different, and distinct, yet one could not exist without the other. The circle itself - which contains these two halves - is like the metal (silver, gold or copper) of the coin. It is what the two sides have in common - what makes them "the same."

When we flip a coin, we will - in terms of the imprints - always get either "heads" or "tails," one answer or the other. Yet in terms of the essence of the coin (the metal upon which the "heads" and "tails" symbols are imprinted) the answer will always be the same.

Smaller Circles Within The Larger Circle:

What's great about the Yin-Yang symbol is that the smaller circles nested within each half of the symbol serve as a constant reminder of the interdependent nature of the black/white "opposites." It reminds the Taoist practitioner that all of relative existence is in constant flux and change. And while the creation of pairs-of-opposites would seem to be an aspect of our human software, we can maintain a relaxed attitude around this, knowing that each side always contains the other, as night contains day, or as a mother “contains" the infant that she will, in time, give birth to.

The Identity Of Relative & Absolute:

We see this same idea illustrated in this passage from Shih-tou's poem "The Identity Of Relative And Absolute":

Within light there is darkness,
but do not try to understand that darkness.
Within darkness there is light,
but do not look for that light.
Light and darkness are a pair,
like the foot before and the foot behind in walking.
Each thing has its own intrinsic value
and is related to everything else in function and position.
Ordinary life fits the absolute as a box and its lid.
The absolute works together with the relative,
like two arrows meeting in mid-air.


Existence & Non-Existence In The Yin-Yang Symbol:

"Existence" and "non-existence" is a polarity which we can understand, also, in the way suggested by the Yin-Yang symbol: as mutually-arising and interdependent “opposites" which are in constant motion, transforming one into the other. The things of the world are appearing and dissolving continuously, as the elements of which they are composed go through their birth-and-death cycles. In Taoism, the appearance of “things" is considered to be Yin, and their resolution back into their more subtle ("no-thing") components, Yang. To understand the transit from "thing" to "no-thing" is to access a profound level of wisdom.

All These Forms:

The following song, by the Tibetan teacher Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, makes the same point as the Yin-Yang symbol, and advises us - in the face of the arising and dissolving of myriad forms - to "just let go, and go where no mind goes."

All These Forms
All these forms -- appearance-emptiness
Like a rainbow with its shining glow
In the reaches of appearance-emptiness
Just let go and go where no mind goes

Every sound is sound and emptiness
Like the sound of an echo's roll
In the reaches of sound and emptiness
Just let go and go where no mind goes

Every feeling is bliss and emptiness
Way beyond what words can show
In the reaches of bliss and emptiness
Just let go and go where no mind goes

All awareness -- awareness-emptiness
Way beyond what thought can know
In the reaches of awarenessemptiness
Let awareness go -- oh, where no mind goes