Everything
can be described as either yin or yang.
1. Yin
and yang are opposites.
Everything
has its opposite—although this is never absolute, only comparative. No
one thing is completely yin or completely yang. Each contains the seed of its
opposite. For example, winter can turn into summer; "what goes up must
come down".
2. Yin
and yang are interdependent.
One
cannot exist without the other. For example, day cannot exist without night.
3. Yin
and yang can be further subdivided into yin and yang.
Any
yin or yang aspect can be further subdivided into yin and yang. For example,
temperature can be seen as either hot or cold. However, hot
can be further divided into warm or burning; cold into cool or icy.
Within each spectrum, there is a smaller spectrum; every beginning is a moment
in time, and has a beginning and end, just as every hour has a beginning and
end.
4. Yin
and yang consume and support each other.
Yin
and yang are usually held in balance—as one increases,
the other decreases. However, imbalances can occur. There are four possible
imbalances: Excess yin, excess yang, yin deficiency, and yang deficiency. They
can again be seen as a pair: by excess of yin there is yang deficiency and vice
versa. The imbalance is also a relative factor: the excess of yang
"forces" yin to be more "concentrated".
5. Yin
and yang can transform into one another.
At a
particular stage, yin can transform into yang and vice versa. For example, night
changes into day; warmth cools; life changes to death. However this
transformation is relative too. Night AND day coexist on Earth at the SAME time
when shown from space.
6. Part
of yin is in yang and part of yang is in yin.
The
dots in each serve: 1. as a reminder that there are always traces of one in the
other. For example, there is always light within the dark (e.g., the stars at
night), these qualities are never completely one or the other. 2. as a reminder
that absolute extreme side transforms instantly into the opposite. For example,
the hardest stone is easiest to break.