Yin and Yang

The concept of Yin and Yang as a basic universal truth has been revered in the West since we started grasping the meaning of its power. What many people do not fully realize is that this is a universal principle and as such can be used as an easy tool to examine the validity of our personal and/or social constructs of opposites. Concepts such as love and hate that many people believe to be opposites can be tested for validity by comparing it with the known principles as illustrated in this ancient symbol. But as soon as we try we begin to see that our presumption may not be as solid as popular opinion suggests.

As a child I remember going to the cinema to watch Kung Fu movies, and I am almost sure that one of those Chinese Grand Masters expressed it in this way when he shook his head in disbelief at what he had heard: "You and your limited Western beliefs about love and hate..." He was obviously in disbelief about me, because I really could not understand his comment then. I do now...

You see, as much as you may probably find as many explanations as you ask people, when you do a survey of what we think love is, you will mostly find that the majority of people are quick to volunteer that the opposite of love is hate. But that isn't really the only truth, because both of these emotions or feelings are still very much in the eye of the beholder, in this case the person where those feelings originate. To really take a shot at finding the opposite of love we have to look further than that, and in my mind something like violence would fit the mould much better. Think about it?

In most people's mind, or by the rule of opposites, in the mind of 50% of people, love is a spiritual concept. The remaining 50% will see love more as a physical thing, but due to a curious twist of fate their view of love dictate what most of us believe to be its opposite. The belief that the opposite of love is hate. I must admit that an ever growing percentage of people know very well the opposite I mentioned earlier, and it seems a growing number of people choose to indulge in the opposite of love. Not hate, but it's parallel and physical opposite... Violence.

I have just witnessed a murder, and although I understand that it was put in the context of the classic universal struggle between good and evil, the cartoon that I watched was particularly graphical about the way the phantasm fighting on the side of "good" was killed. The scene even included a high resolution close-up of the desperate last moments of the phantasm of good. It was vivid, graphic and ruthless, and the expression of despair on the face of good as he/she realized that its existence was terminated is a picture that haunts me still. As a level headed adult I realize that it was only a cartoon and I know that by the rule of opposites 50% of viewers may interpret his slow motion expression as one of contempt or even victory because he knew in his death he would still be victorious because evil cannot exist on its own, I interpreted it as a look of fear and horror!

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer children to watch old Kung Fu movies, rather than the current fare of teenage entertainment. At least then I know that they may not always understand what they hear, but they can look forward to the future when they come across a revelation that suddenly gives them a new meaning to life. Rather that, than exposing them to the graphical violence that I saw in the cartoon this afternoon.

At least I am confident that there is at least 50% of people who would think the same as me, and far be it for me to deny people their freedom to choose, it is not a comforting idea to think that my neighbor may be contemplating to exercise his right to violence. Not him or any other person in my immediate environment, much less my child!

It is interesting to ponder if the amount of media that our children are exposed to is equally balanced in its portrayal of the opposite of violence, but somehow I think not. Should that be the case, I could try to understand people's choice to ultra-violence. If people were exposed to information that help them to understand the concept of free choice, and children could understand what love really is it would probably be a different story. If everyone knew that the feeling they know to be love isn't something that can be explained in their own experience, but in the experience of others, then perhaps I shouldn't have minded the cartoon as much.

The problem is that I know most of my peers have difficulty in explaining the concept of love, so much so that it is almost impossible to find any coherency between the varied explanations offered by passionate lovers and philosophers alike. I propose that the time is ripe for an open an honest discussion about the nature of love as well as its opposite, be it violence or hate. Without such a discussion to assist in raising the level of our collective consciousness our only remaining recourse is the principles we know and trust. Principles that can be used as tools to test the validity of our understanding. Tools like the Yin and Yang that assures us the opposite of spirit is flesh, tools that help us to see the opposite of time is infinity, and that suggest the opposite of love may not be hate after all.