The yin and the yang of it all

THROUGH EVERYTHING IN LIFE flows the lazy line of yin and yang, first looping this way, then leaning that way, forever alternating the two energies, male and female, active and receptive, extrovert and introvert, warm and cool. The picture wobbles and wavers and bends and bows and swings and sways, but always, in the end, the two tides are kept in balance and the circle is maintained. The yin cannot pull away from the yang; the one cannot exist without the other. The two form the underlying warp and weft of the cosmic structure.

Flow with this endless tug of war without taking sides. Celebrate both dark and light, joy and sorrow, good and evil, as here in this mandala, the pennants of some medieval jousting match are flying in honour not of either contestant, but of the whole grand occasion. It is only the mind that seeks to exclude one half of the whole. Existence is even-handed; it knows no preferences.