#Yin-Yang Balance

[tmarshconnors]

Exploring the Wisdom of the I Ching

The I Ching, also known as the Book of Changes, is an ancient Chinese divination text that has been revered for thousands of years. Rooted in Taoist philosophy and mysticism, the I Ching is more than just a system of divination; it is a profound guide to understanding the dynamic nature of the universe and the patterns of change that shape our lives. In this blog, we will delve into the rich history, philosophy, and practical applications of the I Ching, exploring how this timeless oracle can offer insight and wisdom for navigating the complexities of our modern world.

The Origins and History:

The origins of the I Ching can be traced back to ancient China, where it was initially developed as a manual for divination around 3,000 years ago. Its creation is often attributed to the legendary sage Fu Xi, who is said to have discovered the eight trigrams, the fundamental building blocks of the I Ching, while contemplating the patterns of nature. Over the centuries, the text evolved and expanded, incorporating the wisdom of subsequent scholars and philosophers, including the famous Confucius.

The Structure of the I Ching:

At its core, the I Ching consists of 64 hexagrams, each composed of six stacked lines, either broken (yin) or unbroken (yang). These hexagrams represent various archetypal situations and states of being, offering a nuanced view of the ever-changing nature of existence. The combinations of yin and yang lines within each hexagram create a unique symbol, accompanied by a poetic description that serves as a guide to interpreting its meaning.

Philosophical Underpinnings:

The philosophy underlying the I Ching is deeply rooted in Taoism, emphasising the principles of Yin and Yang, the interplay of opposites, and the cyclical nature of change. The text encourages individuals to align themselves with the natural flow of energy, known as the Tao, and to adapt to the constant transformations in life. The I Ching teaches that change is inevitable, and by understanding its patterns, one can navigate through challenges with grace and wisdom.

Practical Applications:

While the I Ching is often associated with divination, its practical applications extend far beyond fortune-telling. Many users turn to the I Ching for guidance on decision-making, problem-solving, and gaining insight into personal development. The process of consulting the oracle involves casting a set of coins or using yarrow sticks to generate a hexagram, which is then interpreted in the context of the question or situation at hand. The responses provided by the I Ching are often thought-provoking and open to multiple interpretations, encouraging users to tap into their intuition and deeper understanding.

In a world marked by uncertainty and rapid change, the I Ching stands as a timeless source of wisdom, offering a profound perspective on the cyclical nature of existence. Whether used for divination or personal reflection, the I Ching provides a unique lens through which individuals can navigate the complexities of life with a sense of harmony and balance. By embracing its teachings, we can learn to flow with the currents of change, gaining insights that resonate across the ages.

[fistfuloflightning]

Some XuanXian for the soul 😌

[floatyhands]

Whenever a yin-yang symbol shows up in something Two-Face related, I'm like "okay are they doing this on purpose or is this just for the duality motif? It's just for the motif isn't it? Goshdarn it"

[smile-files]

rin and len! len and rin! where does one twin end, and the other begin?

[rrotostap]

#shuakeweek2024 | Day 2 | Animal traits

They say that the tiger and the dragon challenges each other, yet here they seem content...

[spookysalem13]

I'm a combination of light ✨️ and dark 🖤 of love and chaos. I can be sweet but I can flip when the situation calls for it.

[allura-raine]

[lotus-pear]

i love causing discourse so i want EVERYONE who sees this to comment which bsd character has the best character design and WHY. i want to see some analysis in the tags or simply why u think ur blorbo is on top in terms of fashion taste

[bear-boi-5]

Balance

Balanced Yin-Yang anyone?

He's a big boy and very very dangerous if provoked. Standing at a massive 20ft

Candle has been working for a while to get Yin-Yang to have his own form of inner flame, this being pure balance. It lets him not lash out as often but is something she has to keep in mind that is dangerous is left unchecked

[carpethedamndiemdejavu]

Find your balance despite the absurdity.

[mariocki]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

"You have one choice, boy: sex or the saw. Sex is... well, nobody knows. But the saw, the saw is family."

[scheunensohn]

life is yin and yang. protect the ones you feed. one day you will be the one in need

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

Since it seems, I need to point all this out... again...

Anonymous asked:

Like, I have no trouble seeing WWX as a good guy, or even the least bad in the cultivation world, but if he can subject a man to forced autocannibalism and orchestrate a scenario where a woman is made to put her mouth around his penis before biting it off, then he’s far from an ideal guy imo. There are things no one deserves no matter what they’ve done. Mxtx could have done more to distinguish his actions from the way XY subjects people to cannibalism and JGY forces women to rape his father.

I've answered a bit of this before, I will repost my response as well as respond further to my own view as to why I don't condemn him the same as Jin Guangyao and Xue Yang. As well as how it is a fandom fallacy he did the act to force Wang Lingjiao to do anything.

About the supervisory office:

First, let me at least mark the difference between “gui dao” and “mo dao” as it will be important for the courier station antics.

魔道 (Mo Dao): Lit. Devil’s way/path/truth

鬼道 (Gui Dao): The Ghost’s/twisted/sly, way/path/truth

心 (Xin) Soul/center/core/heart

心魔 (Xin Mo): Devil, Soul/center/core/heart

鬼 (Gui) lit. A ghost/demon/crafty/cursed

With these in mind, the way Mo Dao is crafted as a cultivator, is that you have to have a center/a core, that is innately tuned to be crafted as evil, hence, a corrupted core. To use real mo dao, it needs to come from within to manipulate, not from outer external references, it is the corruption of the self and the still living to craft evil beings.

To use real gui dao, it comes from the dead, the ghosts and the supernatural, in other words not of much of the self. It is using the outside forces of death and non-living beings to use techniques. It is simply using what already existed before to craft an entity.

Now, on to the Wang Lingjiao and Wen Chao scenes and why these distinctions are important and it was just Wei Wuxian manipulating the two’s already heightened paranoia’s to exasperate the negative energy they fostered between themselves.

1:

In that moment, as soon as she opened the chest, she was able to peer inside.

It was none of her beloved treasures, but the body of a pale, curled-up child!

2:

She snuck within the room once again, found a long clothing pole, and flipped the chest over. Inside of it, her treasure sat peacefully.

There was no child whatsoever.

Wang Lingjiao sighed in relief. With the pole in her hands, she squatted down. Just as she was about to brace herself, she suddenly realized that two bright spots were shining underneath her bed.

It was a pair of eyes.

That pale child from before lay prone under her bed, staring into her own.

3:

As he turned around, the rest of what he wanted to say stuck within his throat. He was staring at a woman in front of his door.

The woman’s features were broken, as though they had been smashed and then pieced together haphazardly. Her eyes stared in two different directions; the left upward and the right downward. Her entire face was horrendously disfigured.

Wen Chao, with some difficulty, was able to recognize her from her scanty robe. It was Wang Lingjiao!

4:

Still on the ground, Wang Lingjiao immediately picked up one of the stools legs, and frantically, she began stuffing it into her mouth, laughing all the while, “Fine, fine, I��ll eat it, I’ll eat it!

Haha, I’ll eat it!”

She had already stuffed a significant length of the stool leg down her throat!

Remember, that just before these confrontations Wang Lingjiao had already assumed that Wen Chao’s time was up as well as she herself making plans to run away. They had already turned on each other, as she was planning to move on to a more prospective target, and he wanting her out of the way as an annoyance.

As such, both have created a negative space for themselves, also, remember all of the talismans for protection that they had placed on the outside of the courier station, and their effects which had been reversed by Wei Wuxian. Their 风水(geomancy) physically and mentally has been disordered. Their harmony is broken. Thus, they have cultivated an outside force for Wei Wuxian to manipulate and turn the two against each other.

The above scenes are simply the inner hell they created from their own paranoia and negativity they trapped themselves in. Wei Wuxian only had to change a few character strokes on the protective talismans to sic them on each other while he was on the outside looking in.

5:

Wen Chao cried sharply in pain. It sounded piercing within the silence of the courier station.

Jiang Cheng asked, “Why is his voice so pitched?”

Wei Wuxian responded, “Of course it would sound like that with a certain something gone.“

Jiang Cheng replied in disgust, “You’re the one who took it? ”

Wei WuXian said, “It’s wretched if you think that. Of course I wasn’t the one who took it. It was bitten off by his woman when she went mad.”

There is no reason for Wei Wuxian to lie here, he has already proudly admitted to his tortures of Wen Chao before hand and his physical abuse against him and Wen Zhuliu. Wei Wuxian’s entire persona here was meant to be cruel and monstrous and he continued further torture of course, but it was added on to the existing abuse that Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao cultivated together already.

So, no, anon, Wei Wuxian was not a rapist in any capacity here. He simply played dirty tricks to make these two ruin each other even more by themselves.

Now, to the second part of your ask. Personally, I am content with the way MXTX portrayed the act of his vengeance as being different than Jin Guangyao and Xue Yang. Because ultimately, when he did choose to do this, it was for all the violence these two (Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao) reaped themselves, by the mandate of heaven and Chinese Buddhist belief, they have gathered their merits of "negativity" to face the consequences of their own actions. Cruelty is met with cruelty it has accrued. Nothing more, in Doaist terms, it is the way of nature righting it's harmony that humans are not made for. An eye for an eye.

The way of the world is for a human to be able to balance the self in it, and not for the world to cater to humanity. In this sense, the only ones who are in turmoil are those that have misrepresented their own words and actions (i.e. Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian).

And, as I said, Wei Wuxian took revenge on none other than those that had wronged him. To Daoist principal that is as it should be. As for Jin Guangyao and Xue Yang however, they did not leave it to just that, they steeped in obsession of hate. To be doaist, you cannot place obsession, of any sort, over the tranquility of your own choices and way. They continued to cause ruin without the give. This has already set them apart as lost to the moral code of a daoist.

Daoism is not about the call of morality humanity is, it is simply the act of natural actions. Good and bad, are human and a fight that is constant to make peace with.

And for further details, let's get what geomancy is out of the way since it is critical to the usage of this scene and how the Wens there were easily turned against each other with just TALISMANS.

For starters, in China the art of geomancy is also divination , I Ching, specifically and has been used to say that by following the earth's natural patterns harmony can be achieved for life and home.

To garner negativity is to welcome negativity by being unaligned with those patterns. Which brings in the warding talismans that have been used all over by the Wens during this time. To shift the ward meanings is very simple and expounds the paranoia and hate that have already festered within this particular place. It has no Feng Shui based on natural energy that these people have. Harmony that is vital for daoism and cultivation has already been ruined and altered enough for it to be easy to manipulate through simple divination and the manipulations of the outside force that already is in existence.

Wei Wuxian already had the tools for all there to hurt themselves. Gruesome yes, but also in line with what is deemed as the energy accumulation and disruptions humans made themselves for revenge.

[girl4music]

This is when the yin-yang representation that has been bubbling under the surface in the show starts to be made explicit visual symbolism. They show you Xena and Gabrielle sleeping on a bed designed as the yin-yang ☯️ symbol, visually depicting them as the human representation of yin-yang and each other’s balance in the theme of it.

Oddly enough, Gabrielle here looks feminine for taking up the masculine side of the symbol, and Xena here looks masculine for taking up the feminine side of the symbol. But then again, that’s just the nature of yin-yang. It is both all at once, and yet not so separately because both contain the seed of the other. That’s what makes it balanced.

These characters are literally The Tao. The Way.

[purplemellowdyyy]

there is kindness in evil, and evil in kindness ☯️

[vividscavenger]

Alphabet Challenge. A different letter every week. This week's letter is B.

B for Balance - Balan and Lance

B was postponed a week due to technical difficulties. This is still fun to do.