In Two Minds: The Yin & Yang Minds

The Tao are the two ultimate archetypal spirits/minds. They're the archetypes of the two basic 'worldviews' of reality.

There are two fundamentally different ways of looking at reality and they equate to the mind-set of the child and that of the parent.

This is the "service to self vs. service to others" duality. It's the child / parent duality.

Element		Meaning	Yin-Mind (Child)	Yang-Mind (Parent)
	Fire	Will	"I NEED" Desire to serve Self The mind of the Child All things are born needy, it's natural and good. This is the default mind. It's Animal Instinct. The Survival-Mind. (circular attention - only interested in getting things for me) Yin is Blind to Reality, seeing only her own fictitious version of it. Yin lives in Fear and danger.	"I HAVE" Desire to serve Others This mind of the Parent. Must be developed by conscious effort. The Selfless God-Mind (straight attention - interested in everything) Yang sees all things for what they truly are. Yang lives in Gratitude and security.
	Air	Law	Might Is Right The Law of the Jungle	The Golden Rule The Law of Justice
	Water	Action	Collectivism Working together as a group	Individualism Working alone
	Earth	Product	Authority Competition, Coercion "The law doesn't apply to me." Yin does not understand herself, or Yang. If you try to fix a problem you don't understand, you'll make it worse. Yin creates problems.	Equality Cooperation, Voluntaryism "All are equal before the law." Yang understands himself, and Yin. Yang solves problems.

The Self-Contradiction of Yin: Collectivism

You might notice that: The Yin-Action of Collectivism/Groups is linked to Competition as a result, while Yang Individualism leads to cooperation. This seems illogical, and doesn't fit at all. Surely being in a group is all about cooperation? Surely being on your own precludes cooperation?

Things that are Yin on the outside are Yang on the inside, and vice-versa.

As Yin=Child, consider children: They form groups / cliques / gangs. Gang-behaviour in school-children is the norm, and different social cliques may have practically zero-contact, despite being in the same classroom every day.

The group-dynamic divides people into in-group and out-group, so collectivism divides as it unites. Consider government and society, it's a collectivist enterprise but there are competing political agendas at it's heart.

Groups are naturally divisive, even internally, because they require division between leader(s) and followers. So while individual followers within a group will usually cooperate, their leaders may be in competition with them.

Followers often covet the 'top-job', and will also compete against each other to become the leaders, to work their way up the hierarchy, so they can gain more power and status. Curent leaders will try to prevent that, and cling to power.

The group-dynamic that creates leadership also creates perverse incentives for that leader. Power corrupts, etc. Collectives accumulate power at the top of he pyramid, and this attracts opportunistic people. The larger the group the greater the perverse incentives.

Collectivism is tribalism, and leads to competition not cooperation. This demonstrates the contrary nature of Yin: She is the opposite of what she appears to be. She's an illusion, a reflection of something else. She promises cooperation, but delivers coercion.

The Yang Mind And Individualism

Yang individualism results in cooperation because as independent individuals, not needing anything from each other, they are able to genuinely and openly cooperate. With no power offered or sought, no undeclared agendas, people are free to cooperate as a free-choice, as equals, without any form of compulsion.

Under the Yin dynamic there are winners and losers, it's a "zero-sum game". The group as a whole does not benefit, only select individuals benefit at the expense of others. I might argue that it is in fact a Lose-Lose scenario where followers lose their freedom, and leaders lose their humanity.

Under the Yang dynamic, everyone wins... It's Win-Win.

E.g. Free-market capitalism is individualist - Yang - and allows free-exchange where both parties can walk away from a contract feeling happy with the result.

The free-market is based on the principle of independent individuals' free-will to choose, and so is more Yang than a managed-economy. That means it's more active, fair and abundant (all Yang qualities).

The Yang mind is concerned with individual rights & freedom, equality of justice, and meritocracy. It considers others to be equals, and desires to protect them.

The Yang mind is the Order which brings the Chaos of the Yin mind into balance. The reason the world is in a bad way is because of the lack of Yang-minded individuals, the lack of adults. The world is a bit like 'Lord of the Flies' at the moment: A bunch of kids who know nothing trying to organise a community, and avoid cannibalism.

Yin, Yang and the Political Spectrum

People talk of the Left & Right of politics, but what they're really referring to are the Yin and Yang minds. These two world-views are the bedrock of all politics, which is why understanding the Dao is so pertinent to reality, and not just of academic interest.

Things are essentially this simple. While there are many archetypes & personality types, the bottom line is people are either selfish, or altruistic, child or parent.

Selfish people have all the Yin qualities: They're emotional, unrealistic, intolerant, illogical, self-centered, ignorant, lazy and entitled etc. Altrusitic people have all the Yang qualities: They're humble, realistic, tolerant, logical, good-listeners, thoughtful, diligent workers.

You can see this dynamic in action, in the politics of the USA, where the left is currently demanding open borders & reparations. Pretending to have compassion for the poor, but really just using them as pawns in a power-game. I.e. the opposite of what it says on the tin.

Maybe I'll do a post specifically on this topic sometime...

The Minds of the Four Elements

Another way of looking at it is as follows... Note: Element means 'god-mind' (el-ment).

Each of the FAWE has a mind of it's own, with it's own character. The Yin & Yang minds are made up of three each. They have 2 elements in common, and 2 unique ones:

Element		Mind	Yin-Mind	Yang-Mind	Notes
	Fire (++)	Spiritual	✖	✔	No part of Fire is Yin, so the Yin-mind does not have Fire/Will. The Fire-Mind is the mind of desire/intent/will/direction. The spiritual-mind: concerned with intent/purpose/meaning.
	Air (+-)	Intellectual	✔	✔	Air/Law is the center of the Yang-Mind - it's focus. The Air-Mind handles plans/designs. It's the intellectual-mind. The intellectual-mind: concerned with thoughts, concepts, possibilities, and the future.
	Water (-+)	Emotional	✔	✔	Water/Emotion/Motion is the center of the Yin-Mind - it's focus. The Water-mind handles emotions, people, work and events. The emotional-mind: concerned with feelings, emotion, and the past.
	Earth (--)	Survival	✔	✖	No part of Earth is Yang, so the Yang-mind lacks this part. The Earth-mind is concerned with physical reality: What is my environment, and what do I need? It's the animal-mind of natural urges and physical needs: Food, air, drink, warmth etc. It's a passive/reactive/instinctive mind that does no processing, it just contains state-information. The survival-mind: concerned with physical survival.

Yin Loves, and Hates, Yang

We should consider the dynamic between the two minds. What do they think of each other?

The Yang parent-mind is forgiving and understanding, generous, grateful etc. It understands the Yin-mind, because it sees it's immaturity and nescience. Yang understands Yin, and forgives.

Yin is in two minds. I.e. the opposite. The mind of the child does not understand the parent. The child is proud, and deluded in it's own abilities. The child thinks it understands, even though it doesn't. Children naturally push their boundaries, attempting to understand the law. If you say no to a child, you have to mean it. It's natural and good for children to be inquisitive, cheeky, and testing because that's how they learn to be adults, and it's how you learn to be proper selfless parent, and express unconditional love.

The Yin-mind loves being provided for by Yang, but hates not being Yang. Yang is One, Yin is Many: So Yin is in a state of confusion and split-personality, and has two conflicting minds. Yin feels controlled and restrained, but needs the direction of Yang, and would be lost without it.

Yin wants to be independent like Yang, just as the child yearns to grow up, but lacks the ability and is impatient. Over-confident in abilities, Yin feels unfairly held-back from the high-status she deserves.

Yin wants to be Yang seems to be the archetype from which we get the story of Lucifer wanting to be God, or the Gnostic Sophia wanting to create something without her 'male-consort'. It's the story of the child who wants to be grown-up before his time, of taking fruit before it's ripe. It's the tale of the Wizard's Apprentice who wanted to be like the Wizard, and ended creating 'hell'.

In real life, you have to watch & control your children because their natural tendency is to push boundaries. If firm boundaries aren't set, expect trouble. How might the problems of the world today be a representation of this archetype, and the failure to restrain the Yin-mind, do you think?

This relationship/archetype is not always expressed in such benign realities as the cheeky-child. Sometimes this is expressed as an extreme cold rage & hatred that can destroy whole worlds. "Hell hath no fury like a (Yin-mind) scorned".

Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation's final law
Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek'd against his creed
Alfred Lord Tennyson's In Memoriam A. H. H., 1850

Mind Depends on Relationship

Real people & animals of all ages have a mixture of the two-minds described. The mind-set depends on the relationship. A child is not a child to his friends, for example... Relationships between two individuals can vary with time & situation too.

Humans have the choice of which mind to employ in most relationships. We have free-will to choose to be selfish or altrusitic.

Parent and Child

The parent-child relationship frames the concept of 'evil' in the light of immaturity, fearfulness, and nescience (absence of knowledge), and it's crucial to view Yin with compassion & love, in order to understand the Dao properly... Yin should be judged generously, as one would a small child, to see that evil is merely an indirect good.

Although Yin has all the negative characteristics, and can be viewed as 'evil' from a certain persepctive, there could be no existence without Her. Yin is necessary, and the evil she is the archetype of is, at a higher-level of reality, actually good. Note that from the List of Yin/Yang characteristics that Yin is evil, and illusion, thus, according to the Dao, evil is an illusion.

Yin Becomes Yang

The human child is born selfish, with the default Yin-mind of nature. When they grow up and have their own children, the roles are reversed, and they become the provider. The natural course of a human's life is to change from Yin to Yang.

The human has the ability to grow out of the Yin-mind entirely, and this is the 'Great-Work', and corresponds to the 'Mashka' stage in the Four Aims of Hinduism.

A human who has developed fully, into a healthy adult, operates under the adult Yang-mind. One who fails to develop, and remains immature, operates (predominantly) under the childish Yin-mind.

Yin Refuses To Become Yang: 'Peter Pan'

If "Yin Becomes Yang Too Soon" is the archetype of 'Lucifer' / 'Sophia', then what's the opposite?

The 'Peter Pan' archetype is of the child who refuses to grow up. He rejects the responsibilities, cares and duties of adulthood, because he thinks that it'll take all of the magic out of life, and his spirit will die. He thinks the adult world is full of drudgery and boring work, he clings to the fairy-tale life of fiction, imagination and play, because it makes him feel good.

Thus Peter Pan, like Lucifer, is going against the natural-order of things, and choosing to ignore God. In doing so he ultimately would never take any responsibility, have or raise children, and would become an unfulfilled and lonely adult, who still acts like a child. He would miss-out on the real magic in life, which is to have your own children. Instead of his life being a triumph, it is a failure.

Peter Pan could be that lonely childless alcoholic in his 50's who lurks in your local pub, tells crass and tasteless jokes, and is just painfully immature and un-self-realised.

There's plenty more that could be said about this subject. These archetypes play out in real-life countless times, in different settings, with different actors all reading from the same script. Living creatures bring the super-reality of these archetypes into action, by symbolising them in flesh.

We are the actors on a stage, spouting lines from scripts created by the gods themselves, in plays that have been replayed a trillion times...

"All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
Shakespeare: 'As You Like It'