Cloudscape

That our society inclines towards yang might be because of our primal ancestry, for the African jungles in which they lived are a very yang environment: basking in sunlight, broiling with heat, brimming with life, whirling with activity and abundant in food. Vivacity, hedonism, sociability, industriousness and materialism are all values characteristic of our species, and they are also all very yang. Scientists have already found that war is something we inherited in common with primates from our evolutionary ancestry, and so are language and community; why then, not materialism? That so much of the earth's surface is covered with our factories might be a direct consequence of the fact that we share our original homes with the primates.

Yin and yang can be hard to reconcile. The only reason that nature has managed to combine them is that this was necessary for it to exist at all, since neither yin nor yang can exist by themselves in any form at all. It was needed for nature to achieve this balance between yin and yang in order for it to be able to evolve at all. We must be cautious to retain this balance.

Yin and yang cause one another; yet at the same time, they also avoid one another, as night shuns day and day shuns night. Try at all times to be mindful to be balanced between the two. Do not fear sadness when you are in joy, and do not fear joy when you are in sadness, but try to accept that one flows into the other as day and night. There can be joy in sadness and sadness in joy, and neither is above the other.

As our species are more yang than yin, we tend to fear sadness rather than joy, even though, when our joy remains too long, it will turn into anxiety. Some who are in sadness, on the other hand, fear joy when it comes to them. Try to accept both. Do not deny your sadness, but neither deny your joy. We must accept it when one has to succeed the other. The same counts for all things yin and yang, such as work and rest, or society and solitude.

It is not so that balance means stability; for as there must be a balance between all things, so there must be a balance between stability and fluctuation. Things must be combined both through simultaneity and through fluctuation, so that these two things as well can be combined in balance, and also separated in balance, and combined also through their separation. Things must be combined not only in space, but also over time.

Think of climate, for instance. The earth must be balanced between hot and cold. Not only should its average temperature be balanced between these, but also should the oscillation between temperature be balanced, as in the seasons. Nature would be limited, were there no seasons. But nature would also be limited if the seasons were too extreme.

Extremism is not only out of balance in itself, but it will also cause even more imbalance through reverse extremism, which comes as a reaction to counterbalance it. You cannot achieve your goal through extremism, not only because it will only cause you to shoot right past your goal, but also because it will cause the opposite extreme to grow, and increase conflict between the two extremes. Only if both extremes are reconciled and combined harmoniously with one another can balance be restored. There is a tendency, called enantiodromia, of opposites to attract. If you remain sufficiently in the middle, then the two will flow into one another in harmony, rather than coming together in collision.

Do not be afraid to be content, even though you dream of more, but always keep dreaming even when you are content, and keep being content even when you dream of more; so that your thankfulness, and so your happiness, might help to make your dreams come true, and that your dreams might also help to make you happy.
Day and night must alternate within you; but so too, in some part they must be one. When night falls, keep the light of day within you, and when dawn comes, keep the dreams of night within you.

Yang seeks out what it loves; yin loves that which it finds. The yin side of love is to be thankful for beauty; the yang side of love is to nourish it.

To be loving, one must be both thankful (accepting, yin) as caring (giving, yang).

Compare everything to absolute nothingness, so that you are thankful for that which you already have; at the same time, compare everything to absolute perfection, so that you can be ambitious to strive towards it.

When unsatisfied about something, imagine what it would be like if it weren't there at all. When apathetic with something, imagine what it would be like if it were complete.

It is perfectly possible to be both thankful and ambitious at the same time; to combine these in balance will bring us most beauty. Yet again, we are here faced with the question of combining yin and yang.

Earth needs water, or it will crack; water needs earth, or it will stagnate. Either put alone will destroy itself.

Combine everything with its complement and you will grow yet remain balanced — something which is in itself a combination of complements.

It turns out that in every single aspect of our lives, and not only as aspects of our lives, we need both yin and yang. For one thing, while yang is motivation, but yin is patience, and so, even though yang is more oriented on motivation, you cannot achieve something with only yang.

Everything has both a yin and yang aspects, and therefore be yin in one area yet yang in another; in particular, it may be yin in the material world yet yang in the emotional world, or the other way around. Anger, for instance, is an emotion and therefore yin when compared to material things, but for an emotion, it is a yang emotion. A dance is an example of the opposite.