Taoism and Its Relationship to Yin and Yang

Chi essentially is the energy that flows through and around all things. There are types of Chi, which can be called upon, dependent on what you are using it for, including the chi of life and the yuan chi—the primordial creation chi. Eastern medical practitioners use the chi of their patients, as well as their own, to treat all types of ailments, such as arthritis, tumors and all manners of aches and pains. As chi moves through the body, it often becomes blocked in various areas. If those blocked areas can be identified, either by the physician or the patient, the blockage can be addressed and hopefully removed so that the natural flow of chi can be reestablished. As Eastern traditional practitioners feel that balance is essential for complete health, including physical and spiritual, they address all aspects of patients’ lives in order to better treat their patients’ ailments. They feel that if their patients can locate the center of themselves where their chi sits, which in most is in the pelvic area, that they can then begin to move their chi and unblock the affected areas of their bodies where they may have pain or illness. They do this based on the principle of yin and yang, which is the male and female, the light and dark, the complete balance of all things in the universe. Just as the universe itself was born into being from yuan chi surrounded by chaos and then morphed into the perfect balance of yin and yang, we are born as balanced creatures and over time lose our balanced state, which causes our pains and illnesses. If these can be rebalanced, we can become whole again, an equal part of good and evil, male and female. This type of practice of balance in our lives can be seen as a gateway to health, increasing longevity and quality of life in ways we in Western society do not seem to understand. In Poem 1, heaven and earth are described in the same way, as one begins where the other ends. In addition, the representation of the core and the surface are