Monday, October 23, 2006

So we have chi

Chi, a subtle force we will be dealing with again and again. We must understand that at first there was the one perfect whole. That whole split into half and became yin and yang. Yin and yang are the beginnings of all that is. As the Taoists texts say, "The one becomes the two, and the two becomes the three, and the three becomes the ten thousand things." When the perfect whole split, it split perfectly and equally. Therefore yin is no greater than yang, nor yang than yin. They are perfect complements to each other. Yin is the perfect complement to yang, not merely its opposite. We make it its opposite when we rally against one, and promote the other. It would seem that the Confucian model promotes yang over yin, as yang is strong, firm, and all the things we think of as positive. It would seem that the Taoist model promotes the yin. As it says in the Tao Teh Ching, "nothing is softer than water, yet nothing can stand in its way." Actually, in terms of an overall view, neither one can promote the one without the other, for yang must have a recepticle, to place the life force within, and yin must be that recepticle, without which there would be no womb for the life force to grow in. What then, do you think of as God? A male giant up in the sky? Or perhaps he is that perfect whole, that never having separated, is one with him/her self, being both totally male and totally female. As such he/she can create the ten thousand things because being totally united, one with the other, there is a permanent and total orgasm, and whole universes are created eternally. What would you give for that kind of sex life? Perhaps that was what we had before God, or more accurately, "The gods," separated us into male and female. For our sake? Or for theirs, or for partly both? Think about it, There is much more to this Genesis story than meets the eye. More than you will get in the English translation, that is for sure.

1 comment:

Michelle Wood said...

Hi Gene,

Everyone does seem to focus on the physical life force, martial arts power, longevity, whatnot.

However, as you point out, there is yand AND yin, and I believe qi/chi is not just physical life force, it is mental life force, too. It is intuition and intention. It is manifestation thorugh the power of the hand as well as power of the mind, meditation and visualization and so on. It is all the life force of the present incarnation, both physical and non-physical.