Ways I see the World #1

Two aspects to being human, both fundamental

Humans evolved as both predator and prey.

We have those two aspects to us. The part of us that can focus and act decisively when it needs to, and the part of us that has a more diffuse awareness of the world. We can sharply focus our vision or look broader. The sympathetic nervous system readies us for action while the parasympathetic nervous system allows us to relax. We are both a tournament species and a pair-bonding species. Our brain can be more driven by the future-orientated dopamine or by the now-orientated neurotransmitters such as oxytocin and serotonin.

These two aspects corresponds to the Taoist duality of yang and yin. In Taoist philosophy, the masculine yang denotes action, dominance, desire, effort, order, energy, exploration and movement. Yin on the other hand is feminine and relates to surrender and submission - the unconscious, the intuitive, the spiritual, the wild and the creative. Yang is the world of reality while yin the the world of the soul. 

The same polarity is seen in traditions beyond Taoism. The Tantra has Shakti and Shiva. Indian traditions have Prakriti and Parish. Neopaganism has the Goddess and the God. Jungian psychology has the anima and the animus. Kabbalism has Shekhinah and Jehovah.

One sees the distinction too in the lateralisation of the brain. In neuro-scientific terms, it isn’t quite as simple as being left-brained or right-brained. Almost all thinking uses both hemispheres. But there are functions associated with each hemisphere and our brain does seem to do two different types of thinking: the yang world of language, logic, science, judgement and the ego, and the yin world of subtle pattern recognition of understanding emotions and perceiving interconnectedness. There is the idea of System 1 thinking (yin) and System 2 thinking (yang) from Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow. The book The Inner Game of Tennis talks about the Self 1 (yang) and the Self 2 (yin). The Self 1 finds itself giving instructions to the Self 2 that actually plays the tennis, often sitting in judgement over that Self 2.

The Taoists are clear that it is not a case of yin being good and yang bad, or vice versa. One needs both in harmony. Our lives in the West tend to be frantic and stressful and overly dominated by yang, meaning most of us here are lacking in yin qualities more than yang ones. We see both the glorification of yang by Western society in so many ways and also the reaction against that by people like Iain McGilchrist.

I also don’t believe that yang, or indeed yin, is good or bad. Instead I believe we need both and can have both yin and yang in light and dark ways. We see the light side of yang in great leaders and the dark side in aggressiveness or demanding-ness. Yin is beautiful when it allows you to be in touch with your creative, spiritual side. Unhealthy yin by contrast is passivity, over-submissiveness, resignation or people-pleasing.

The Jungian idea that archetypes have corresponding shadow archetypes is good for illustrating the way that both yang and yin can manifest in positive ways but also in ‘shadow’ ways. There are some good example of this in the book King, Warrior, Magician, Lover by Robert L. Moore and Douglas Gillette. For instance, the shadow archetypes of the King archetype as being the active Tyrant and the passive Weakling.

There are two quotes I like about the necessity of both yin and yang. I am not sure of the origin of the first:

 Yang without yin is joyless, while yin without yang is unexcited.

The second is from Cory Muscara:

Action without stillness is reactivity.

Stillness without action is resignation.

Action informed by stillness is purpose.

I like to think that either can come from a place of love or a place of fear.

For yang, it is the difference between responsive and reactive action and for yin, it is between surrender and excess passivity and resignation. Our yin side fears isolation, while our yang side feels shame and fears loss of status.

We want both yin and yang and we want them infused with love, not those fears.