Monday, March 12, 2007

Are we all Yin Yangis ?


Are we all YinYangi’s

Before the Point
The concepts of yin and yang originate in ancient Chinese philosophy which describe two primal opposing but complementary principles said to be found in all objects and processes in the universe.
Yin (Chinese: yīn; literally "shady place, north slope (hill), south bank (river); cloudy, overcast") is the darker element; it is passive, dark, feminine, downward-seeking, and corresponds to the night.
Yang ( yáng; "sunny place, south slope (hill), north bank (river); sunshine") is the brighter element; it is active, light, masculine, upward-seeking and corresponds to the day.
Yin (receptive, feminine, dark, passive force) and yang (creative, masculine, bright, active force) are descriptions of complementary opposites rather than absolutes.
In western culture, the dichotomy of good and evil is often taken as a paradigm for other dichotomies.

The Point
So coming to the point, we, all have the inner side searching for something (yin), the outer side trying to extract the maximum from the world (yangs). So we can call a truly creative person an Yin‘gi’, an real outward person, say some one like Richard Branson (virgin atlantic) as an Yangi. An Alexander would be categorized as a perfect Yangi and an Buddha an perfect Yingi. Sometimes we listen to our Yin's voice more and some times to our Yang's .
I remember an interesting story by OSHO about Alexander.
Alexander had heard about the cynical strange philosopher Diogenes who lived in a bathtub, with just a lantern as his possession on the city of Athens so he went to meet him. The story goes like this: Diogenes was sitting half naked on the bank of a river, never paying heed to Alexander who had come to see him. Alexander is angered, he tells him “Do you know who I am, I am Alexander the prince of Macedonia. “ Diogenes gives him a look with a sarcastic smile suggesting “So what ?”….. Alexander becomes even more angry and tells him with a sense of pride “ you will not laugh if you know what my ambition is ?, I want to conquer the world “. Now Diogenes bursts out laughing, He starts laughing like a mad man . Alexander asks Diogenes why he is laughing, But Diogenes keeps laughing even louder. Alexander has never been insulted by anyone like this before, Now Alexander feels he has had enough of this man, He begs him to tell him why he was laughing. Diogenes replies “ All my life I have been sitting with a lantern on the river front trying to conquer myself And I have failed all the time “ and here you are telling me that You would want to conquer the whole world. “ Alexander did not get the point and went ahead on his ambition only to end up being a loser.


Quote of the Day: When one sees Eternity in things that pass away and infinity in finite things then one has pure knowledge: The Bhagwad Gita

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi I just accidentally came across this blog. Very well written...What do you do?

athi said...

thnks sridevi