A few months ago I was in a very relaxed mental state when I started contemplating the relationship between my inner and outer life. I became aware that I am very happy with the balance that I have found between my spiritual and material life. I asked myself if there is a way in which I can make it clear to other what this balance is that I have found. I then had a visual insight into the meaning of the yin-yang symbol, which I would like to share with you now.
I’ll use the relationship between our personal and professional lives to explain my understanding of the yin-yang symbol. There is a natural relationship between the personal and professional aspects of our life: through our experiences in personal life we grow and shape ourselves, and we use whatever we have gained from those experiences in our professional life. Sometimes we do this consciously and sometimes unconsciously, for example when we make decisions at work or talking to our colleagues. In the same way, we also use what we have gained from our professional life in our personal life.
As you know the yin-yang symbol is composed of two colours, usually black and white. Let’s say that our personal life is represented by the colour white and our professional life by the colour black. The balance that most of us have is as follows: we often think about work when at home and we quite regularly think about home when we are at work. One common expression of this is what I call “midnight-worry”; when we are at home, ready to sleep, and all kinds of thoughts and worries of both home and work come rushing in the moment we close our eyes. This ‘disorganised’ state of mind could be visualised something like this:
That figure does not look nice to me. When I look at the picture, I feel disturbed inside. It will make it easier to understand the article if you identify what you are feeling when you see the figure above before you continue to read.
If you feel disturbed like me, you might look for a way to organise the picture so that you do not feel that. One attempt might be to do this:
The meaning of this picture is that the relationship between our personal and professional life is severed. There is a sort of a ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’-like touch to this idea: you are one thing here and something completely different there. I believe that that is an unnatural state of being. I feel slight anxiety when I look at this picture, because the two aspects (white and black) seem to oppose each other rather than support each other.
Now observe the yin-yang symbol:
This is where I experience harmony. The beauty of the yin-yang symbol is that the two aspects are not opposing each other, but supporting each other. That support is indicated by the ‘fish eye’ (small black circle in the white area, small white circle in the black area). At the same time, the two aspects retain their individuality, which is expressed by them having their own space.
This is what a harmonious balance between personal and professional life could be like as well. Work can support our personal life, because it has the ability to, amongst other things, give financial stability. Personal life can support our working life, because it can give rest, clarity and inspiration which is needed to do the work well. It’s nearly impossible to do your work well with a disturbed mind, and it’s very hard to be relaxed and happy when you are fighting for your basic needs.
My insight is that the yin-yang symbol gives a clear direction on how to balance the so-called opposites of life. A good understanding of the yin-yang symbol can make it easy to understand how to balance your time in fulfilling spiritual and existential needs; how to be both an individual and a partner in a committed relationship; how to find a right balance between taking a break and doing efforts; etc.
All these ‘opposites’ are there in support of each other, and both aspects can be enjoyed in their own right.
幾個月前，我處在一個非常放鬆的心理狀態中，開始思考內在與外在生活之間的關係。我發現自己對於目前在靈修以及物質生活之間的平衡，感到很滿意。我問自己，有什麼方法，可以讓他人也清楚了解我所獲得的平衡狀態。後來，我對於陰陽符號有了進一步的理解，在這裡我想和大家分享這份觀察心得。我會運用我們在個人以及職業生活之間的關係，加以解釋我對陰陽符號的理解。在我們生命中的個人以及職場生活間，存在著一層自然的關係：透過個人生活的經驗，我們成長而成為現在的我們，而我們將這當中獲得的經驗，加以運用於工作上。我們時而有意識地、時而無意識地這麼做，例如在工作上做決定或者和同事談話時。同樣地，我們也將在工作上獲得的經驗，運用於個人生活之中。
如你所知，陰陽符號是由兩個顏色組成，通常是黑色與白色。假設我們的個人生活是以白色為代表，而工作職場生活則以黑色為代表。我們大部分人的個人與職場生活之間的平衡狀態是如此：當我們工作時，腦袋裡想著家裡的事情；當我們在家時，卻經常想著工作的事情。有一個很常見的狀況，我稱之為午夜憂慮。我們在家準備要上床睡覺時，突然間所有有關個人和工作的思緒以及憂慮，就在我們閉上眼那一瞬間襲捲而來。這種雜亂無章的心靈狀態，可以用以下的圖象代表：
那幅圖象，在我看來並不那麼好看。當我看著這幅圖象時，我的內心感到不安。在你繼續往下閱讀之前，如果你可以先辨明當你看著以上的圖象時的感受，那麼你將更容易理解這篇文章。
如果你和我一樣感到不安，也許你可以試著找找看重新組織這幅圖象的方法，好讓自己不會感到不安，例如以下的方法：
這幅圖象意謂著，我們的個人與職場生活是完全切割的，這樣的想法彷彿是變身怪醫一般：在這裡你是這個樣子，到了那裡你又是另一個完全不同的樣子。我相信這並非生命的自然狀態。當我看著這幅圖象時，我感到些微焦慮，我看到黑與白這兩個層面似乎完全地彼此對立，而無法互相支持。
現在，讓我們看看陰陽符號：
在這裡，我感受到和諧。陰陽符號的美妙之處在於，黑與色兩方並非彼此對立，而是互相支撐。這份支持表現在兩方的｢魚眼｣(在白色區域裡的黑色小點，以及在黑色區域裡的白色小點)。同時，這兩個層面仍保有各自的獨立性，這表現在它們各自擁有的空間當中。
這正是個人與職場生活之間和諧平衡的樣貌。職場生活可以支持個人生活，例如它可以給予我們經濟上的穩定。個人生活可以支持職場生活，因為它可以提供工作所需要的休息、清明和啟發。當你心思不安時，幾乎不可能有好的工作表現，而當你必須為了基本生存需求而掙扎時，也很難感到放鬆、快樂。
我對於陰陽符號的觀察，提供我們一個清楚的方向，教我們如何在所謂彼此對立的生活之間尋得平衡。對於陰陽符號的理解，可以使得我們更容易瞭解如何在滿足靈性以及生存需求之間找到平衡；如何成為一個獨立個體，但同時成為一段認真關係中的伴侶；以及如何在休息和努力付出乲間找到最佳平衡。
這些彼此對立的事情，其實可以互相支持，而兩方都有箇中樂趣，值得被發掘。
