In life, we have opposites that we cannot do without. We cannot have males without females. This does not mean that monks cannot exist without being celibate. It is just that they are more cultivated and have two in one. They are better able to internalise the yin and yang and be more whole.
But like everyone, they face the yin and yang. Everyday is no different to them as to the family or society men. They face the same sunrise and the same sunset. They go through odd and even days - the yin and yang days.
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| Bagua |
That is why the monks of the Tao tradition in China wear the robes with Ba qua or Tao symbol on their robes. The two fish-like symbols are in apt opposition (side by side) and close harmony. Together they form the wholeness of the full circle.
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| Sunrise |
Day and night or rather sunrise and sunset exist together to make the day, yet they are very different. There is light within the dark of the night and there is darkness within the day. This is illustrative of the presence of yin within yang and the yang within yin, like the dots within each fish-like symbol of the Bagua.
Some people or beings may be more yin and some more yang. But if they cannot balance and be atop the yin and yang either within them or outside them in life, they are not at peace but ever in strife. Those in Heavens are more yang and those in Hells are more yin.
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| Sunset |
Some people or beings may be more yin and some more yang. But if they cannot balance and be atop the yin and yang either within them or outside them in life, they are not at peace but ever in strife. Those in Heavens are more yang and those in Hells are more yin.
Yang has to do with more warmth, like sunrise and day. Yin has to do with coolness like night or sunset. Thus when deities descend in trance, the medium is warm but when spirits of lower realms come in trance, the medium feels the chills.
But all of us know that sometimes day can be cool and night warm. This is just illustrative of yang within yin and yin within yang. Some hell beings if cultivated in Tao can make the medium to feel warm and cold at the same time. There are those in hell who attain stages of sainthood.
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| P.Philip in trance of Lord Bo Tien |
But all of us know that sometimes day can be cool and night warm. This is just illustrative of yang within yin and yin within yang. Some hell beings if cultivated in Tao can make the medium to feel warm and cold at the same time. There are those in hell who attain stages of sainthood.
That yin and yang are present within each other is good. but yang must be in harmony with yin for saints to have the highest attainment in Buddhahood.
Thus to achieve full enlightenment, even Gautama must descend from Tusita Heaven to be reborn as man as only in life of man will there be full play of yin and yang. Only with full equal play of sunrise and sunset will there be the proper pre-requisites for full enlightenment. That is why Gautama had to be born in the Tropics of India where there is correct equilibrium of night and day - of sunrise and sunset.
If we feel that the phenomena of sunrise and sunset are so dry and routine or worst still if we feel lost and ruffled by the various forms of duality of life like sunrise and sunset, gain and loss and what have we, then we have long way to go to have the taste of sainthood when there is balance and harmony of yin and yang.
So when we go through each set of sunrise and sunset, be reflective and see deep into the wonders of sunrise and sunset. They are one of the obvious daily manifestations of yin and yang. Sunrise and sunset of life make us grow day by day not only in the secular sense but in the spiritual sense as well. Omitofo
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| Lord Bo Tien says men generally work by day and sleep by night. To be exact, this is simple yet profound His image with feet on elements depicts yin and yang - sunset and sunrise. The image is the doctrine. He said. The doctrine is in the image. Life is about sunrise and sunset. Isn't this true? In whatever religion or none we are in, surely one and all will agree. |
