Secrets of Mind and Reality - MindReality.com

Yin and Yang are both part of the one Tao. Good cannot exist without bad. Light cannot exist without darkness. Left makes no sense without right. Yin and Yang struggle to control one another and at the same time nurture each other. They help to define each other and therefore cannot exist without the other. When the forces of yin and yang are in balance we experience health and prosperity – life flourishes. When yin and yang are imbalanced there is confusion and anxiety – life ends.

The natural tendency of energy is to disperse. Unless prevented from doing so, energy will always move from being concentrated and localized to more spread out. This is a proven and undeniable law of the universe and applies to every living system, including us. We begin our lives with a certain amount of energy. Over time our cells begin to age and eventually we die. But if the law of increasing entropy is true, why is there so much abundant life everywhere we look. How does life flourish in spite of entropy?
[hidepost]
An open system is any structure that gives out energy (yang) and receives energy (yin). Human life is also an open system. An open system is able to grow by dispersing entropy (negative energy) that is harmful to it. Therefore life does not grow in spite of entropy but rather because of entropy. It is precisely because a system must disperse entropy in order to survive that forces it to grow. As a system re-organizes at a higher level it increases in its ability to handle the entropy that it couldn’t handle previously.

This explanation is consistent with the Taoist understanding of life and the natural balance that exists between opposites. Life and the tendency for life to break down are two sides of the same coin. Life and death, order and disorder cannot exist without their opposite. It’s precisely because our environment continually challenges us that we’re forced to reorganize at a higher level. This is good news! If you’ve experienced suffering – get excited! Suffering creates the drive we need to re-organize at a higher level so we can easily handle what we couldn’t cope with before. If we didn’t have negative energy and entropy to deal with, there would be no need for us to develop and grow.

The survival of a system depends on its threshold for dissipating entropy. The higher the threshold the more entropy a system can handle. When its threshold is exceeded, the system reaches the bifurcation point. This is the “point of overwhelm” or the “moment of truth” where the system either descends further into chaos (and manifests a disease for example) or becomes more ordered (moving toward better health for example).

When a system reorganizes at a higher level, the new structure can always handle and dissipate the entropy that previously overwhelmed it. At some level there is always a choice about which way the change will go. By choosing to develop our energy we’re choosing more order. Practicing the active exercises removes blockages and improves the flow of internal energy helping us to dissipate negative energy more efficiently. Over time we raise our threshold, becoming calmer, healthier and happier. Situations that used to stress and disturb us no longer do.
[/hidepost]