ying yang

The Tai Chi or Yin Yang was derived from ancient chinese efforts to discover and interpret patterns in the sky and the changing seasons. An eight foot tall pole would cast a shadow of varying lengths as the seasons passed revealing a cycling between times dominated by the day and times dominated by the night. Day and night being opposites, the universe is interpreted as a place of constant change resulting from the interaction and balancing of opposite forces. This philosophy extends to other pairs of opposites such as man-woman, right-left, good-evil. From the dot in each side of the yin yang symbol we learn that, just as during summer the days are long but nights still occur, there can be some bad side-effects even from good actions. And the reverse, good can sometimes come from bad events or experiences.