re: the yin/yang continuum

[Guest guest]

Yes, I feel indeed awkward to express in English.

This is not my first language and I really have no idea

what my expression would trigger what conception in English speaking minds.

In my clumsy attempt, I found I tend to dissect and remove all the symbols

the moment I switch and utter in English language.

I just want to point a few things here.

Nothing is solely Yin or Yang. In that case everything is dissociated.

Both are entwined very beautifully and thus manifests all the phenomenon seen

and unseen.

So when I mentioned Blood is already close to Yang,

I meant Blood contains relatively high Yang quality although it is Yin.

(for example, its color red, it's fast moving.)

Also look at the Blood and Qi interactions.

They give rise to each other, nourish each other and travel together.

You might think these are two separate features but you can also

think they are just two aspects of one.

Concerning food, it's not Yin at all.

As you mentioned it's called Gu Qi.

When we eat food, we absorb Qi, not only material, the container which carries

Qi.

Different food has different composition (I hate this word) of Yin and Yang.

We know it with everyday experience.

 

Nama Ryu

 

> I learned a similar concept of the Yang-Yin continuum in school, but I have

> some problems with the ideas I was taught & with Nama Ryu's expression of

> them above.

> First of all, I don't understand what is meant (above) by blood being the

> " very last manifestation " of Yin - I think you mean blood is the least polar

> of Yin substances. I don't think it is correct to say, " It is already close

> to Yang. " Maybe you mean close to neutrality.

> If Yin is substance and Yang is completely insubstantial, blood, a very

> substantial fluid, made primarily from the Gu Qi of food (also substantial),

> should be quite Yin (by my thinking) and not at all " close to Yang. " I

> think of blood as vitally Yin in functioning to anchor the Yang -- after

> decades of losing blood each month, many women's Yang can no longer be

> anchored and floats to the surface (e.g. hot flashes, night sweats; insomnia

> [i.e. failure of blood/yin to anchor the shen, which is also completely

> insubstantial and therefore Yang]).

> Anyway, I would appreciate anyone else's elucidation of this concept in

> terms of the use of Yin vs. blood tonics.

> (Thanks to Ken & Jason for their keen insights)

>

>

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