One of the most frequent questions I’m asked at Twitter is the meaning of my avatar. If you’re reading this blog and have no idea what that is, it’s the symbol on the right side of my blog header. Twitter’s 140 character limitation does not allow me to fully explain it. Even when I do it takes about 6 tweets to do so and even then it’s only just the bare basics. By explaining it here I can go into greater detail in what the base symbology is, what it means to me and how and why I designed this customized version. I have not officially studied any Eastern religion or philosophy. The following comes from a base understanding in conjunction with research, observation and meditation.

Essentially it is a triple Yin-Yan. Alternate versions are Ying-Yang, Yin-Yang, and less frequently Ying-Yan. Personally I prefer the smallest version Yin-Yan as it is also the simplest. In numerology, the vowels represent the gender of the word so when you remove them from either Yin-Yan or Ying-Yang you cannot tell which word is being referred to (Yn or Yng). The other versions do not contain this distinction and for me lose the purity of the basic symbology of this ancient Oriental symbol.

When the “i” is added to these letters it becomes feminine and when the “a” is added it becomes masculine. Hence this word and its ensuing symbology represent the ultimate dualities of the feminine and masculine principles. This represents the concept of duality so let’s explore that for a moment. Duality in and of itself appears to be a widely used term. Wikipedia says that Duality may refer to philosophy, logic, psychology, mathematics, science, film, music, and electronics . This implies to me that such broad use would indicate it is foundational so let’s explore its definition.

The definition of duality at dictionary.com is “The quality or character of being twofold; dichotomy” (from The American Heritage Dictionary). The other definition relates to mathematics, “a symmetry within a mathematical system such that a theorem remains valid if certain objects, relations, or operations are interchanged, as the interchange of points and lines in a plane in projective geometry”. The other most commonly recited reference is to quantum mechanics in the “wave-particle duality”.

Now let’s relate this back to Yin-Yan being the ultimate expression of the feminine and masculine principles. Male and female represent the ultimate dichotomy (the division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups) because what appears more mutually exclusive than the female and male bodies? The mathematics application may be more of a stretch for some but for those that study and use energy understand that everybody has within them female and male energies, sort of like the -/+ of electricity which allows it to flow within the body and that these can be exchanged. Thinking is a male oriented energy and emotion is a female oriented energy; the human body contains the capacity for both. It’s the quantum mechanics wave-particle duality that for me gets to the crux of the matter. This was discovered initially with light. One experiment showed that light contained particles such as when someone breaks a beam to open/close a door, trip an alarm, etc. Another experiment demonstrated that light is a wave. What was eventually discovered was that light contained both properties and depending on how you measured it would determine which property would come forth. Therefore light is both wave and particle simultaneously. It is its own dichotomy!!! The same applies to the Yin-Yan principle which is why the two colors are shown slightly intertwined. The black dot on the white side and white dot on the black side represent that one cannot exist without the other as they are just opposites of the same things or as in the wave-particle duality they are their own dichotomy.

This may be hard to see when you only think of the female and male bodies but this symbol represents more than that as it represents the feminine and masculine principles or energies to all things. Without tall there cannot be short. Without dark there cannot be light. Without fat there cannot be skinny. The opposite of one thing must exist in order to even discuss the other. So the dots in the Yin-Yan are there to remind you of this. There is a phrase in the Conversation with God books that states it somewhat eloquently, “In the absence of That Which Is, That Which Is Not, is not.”

Whew!! All of that just to explain my avatar?!? Yes, because it all started with the Yin-Yan plus I so rarely hear anyone talk about it with any real understanding of it. My intention is to assure that you have an understanding of it as close as possible to how I understand it. Many will say it’s Good vs. Evil or Light vs. Dark but it is so much more than that because I have come to see it as a foundational principle in understanding the core of, at the very least, perceived reality. So in actuality, duality only appears mutually exclusive but essentially at the core they are mutually inclusive because true opposites require each other in order to exist. I can only know I’m here because you are there and vice versa. Therefore in order to discuss the concept of space, both here and there must be included in the concept or essentially space, as we know it, cannot exist.

As my awareness continued to expand, so did my grasp of it from which duality moved into triality which by the way is only used in mathematics. The spiritual use of this term is called trinity and again I saw this as a base fundamental for all expressions of life. I’m just going to jump to the end with this; essentially the triality is the duality expressed. Remember that technically I said that true opposites are mutually inclusive. Their extreme purity requires at least the concept of the opposite to be always prevalent. If I’m standing in pitch blackness to the point I cannot see my hand in front of me, I only know that because I have an awareness of “lightness”, even though there is no light currently available. Therefore Life Expressed is an interplay of opposites. Using the symbology of the traditional Yin-Yan, then this would equate to Black, White, and Grey being the combination of the two representing the interplay between these opposite colors.

Once I fully realized this, the traditional Yin-Yan was no longer sufficient as an individual symbol that expressed my understanding of the base elements of perceived reality. My original concept was to just add another “comma” so to speak to the traditional Yin-Yan intertwined “commas”. Many years ago, long before programs like Photo Shop, etc were readily available, I worked with clip art in order to create various symbolic expressions of what I was coming to understand about life, the universe, and everything (an homage to Douglas Adams). I eventually purchased a library of 250,000 images and one day while going through the religious section looking for some symbols, I stumbled across exactly what I was looking for except it had way too much other stuff in it.  I broke it apart and started to assemble my triple Yin-Yan but as creative inspiration would have it I couldn’t just stop at the three “commas”. First I had the white and black dots in their respective traditional places but how should I express that in the grey area? Then it hit me. For the dots in the black and white areas I put the traditional Yin-Yan without the dots, just as black/white “commas” but then in the grey area I put the full blown traditional Yin-Yan symbol.

The final symbology was that although white requires black in order to exist, it can deny that existence or even doesn’t have to know about it, but that doesn’t stop the fact that it’s opposite must still exit. The grey area has the full blown Yin-Yan with the dots because it is the interplay of these polar and apparent mutually exclusive opposites but at the same time is the blending of them and therefore must have an awareness of them on some level. So this in essence then better symbolizes Life Expressed and the variances that ensue because of their extreme variations in this interplay which would be expressed as multitudinous versions or expressions of grey while at the same time never forgetting what drives it all forward in the first place; the mutually inclusive polarities.

BE THE MIRACLE!!!

Addendum (3-Dec-2009): While browsing for various Yin-Yan images I happened to stumble upon a triple version and found out it is called Yin-Yang Yuan. The basic explanation I found at Sequoia Ministry which referred to it as the Triality Symbol and represents the Feminine, Masculine, and “basically the Void, the Unseen, or the Nothing-There in which the elements of yin and yang play out their constant drama”. This is in essence what I had said but used the word “interplay” instead of Void. Void seems so mysterious and removed from perceived reality making it almost untouchable or out of immediate grasp. From my observations as an energy intuitive, it is everywhere but you have to be able to sense energy first. So for those who haven’t learned how to do this, then it would end up in the realm of the mysterious and appear to be a void as in unexplicable. Sequoia Ministry also says, it “has been used as a Transgender symbol to indicate three sexes.” See the full Sequoia Ministry explanation here. This is also substantiated when doing a search for Yin-Yang Yuan images, the majority of which refer on some level to transgender.

Wikipedia Commons appears to have this image in non traditional colors from 2006. This image is also used in an article titled “The Yin-Yang-Yuan Triality” by Bob Jacobson published on April 28, 2007 at iThou.org. Bob states that he found it on Google images and a fellow member’s inquiry to its meaning prompted him to investigate it further. He lists the source as Wikipedia Commons and the creator as Paradox saying it was inspired by the creator’s transgender identity of which Bob says is not his take on the meaning of this symbol (This may be the origin of its current popular use as a transgender symbol). Bob then goes on with definitions eventually coming to the same conclusion as Sequoia Ministry using basically the same words indicating that both may are using external references as the source of the meaning and not so much from their own internal wisdom. At the end of his response, Bob states he didn’t know anything about “the pretty picture I put on my profile”. Somehow it spoke to him and from there he sought out its meaning when asked to explain it. To me this indicates that the true nature of the Yin-Yang Yuan is inherently at our core as the foundation of perceived reality.

There is also a site called UNITI (United National Initiative Towards Improvement) which uses it’s own version of this symbol of which they put a variation in the grey area. They give a small explanation of what it means but for me it’s more like when I hear others say what the traditional Yin-Yan means which is correct but from my experience there’s so much more to it. They then have their own customized version as their insignia which you can find here.

Yin-Yang Yuan @ Google Images
Yin-Yang Yuan @ Wikipedia Commons

You can be assured that by coming here you will be constantly challenged in how you look at life and your role in it. The result of this is can be that I run the risk of losing you as a reader, so the question I ask of you before proceeding any further is Are You a Seeker of Truth? If so, then as a Seeker of Truth it is imperative that you be diligently prepared to have your Belief Systems obliterated on a regular basis. The payoff for this is the continually unfolding connection to The Infinite in ways you could have never conceived of.

If you are not a Seeker of Truth, then your time here will be limited….or will it? In other words, why did you come here in the first place? Perhaps forces outside of you have guided you here as one of the next steps in your evolution. I’m saying this because of one VERY important fact; THERE ARE NO COINICIDENCES!!! Look at it this way, a coincidence is a co-incident as in a shared incident, so then who is sharing the incident with you? A better way of looking at it is a co-created incident and then again, who co-created it with you?

Going back to the theme of the Spirituality behind 9/11, if The Collective in that single incident turned to The Divine (or whatever you choose to call it) for answers to “How could this happen?”, how would you know that it responded? My response to that question would be the yearning for more which may in turn start as the feeling of emptiness in your life’s direction. Who are you? Where are you going? What’s life about anyway? That in turn would then put you into the energy of seeking for answers. So again I ask you “Are you a seeker of Truth?”

Do I have all the answers? Humility dictates that I respond with “No” and the reason for that is as soon as I think I have a handle on it all, it’s only a matter of time before it expands again. This is an evolving process that never ceases, so to say that I have all the answers is a fallacy because if that was the case then the evolution would cease because there would be nothing more to learn. To date, that has not happened and I don’t ever expect it to happen? Why? It’s a thing called “Root Assumptions” meaning that I am living in what appears to be a Finite Universe. I see and experience beginnings, middles, and ends yet I’m seeking to understand my connection to The Infinite which has no beginnings, middles or ends, hence so do my discoveries.

I am just a Seeker of Truth, nothing more, nothing less. So all I’m doing here is sharing with you what I’ve learned so far.

As a Seeker of Truth you must be prepared that when presented with Truth that is outside of the current belief structure you have aligned yourself to, that it will be extremely easy to pass it off as entirely untrue at which time your Seeking will at least be disengaged if not halted completely. I know this to be true because it has happened to me countless times. I react to something I read or learn about with “No f***ing way!!!” only to eventually discover some time later, the potential possibilities that lie in this newly discovered Truth.

I’ve also witnessed people who seek truth to a point and then their deeply held beliefs become a barrier to further expansion at which time their growth ceases. This is the risk that all Truth Seekers must be willing to take on. I can tell you from my personal experience that there is more to this reality that you live in than you could ever have imagined and the only thing that is currently stopping you from experiencing it are deeply held beliefs that say “This cannot be!”. If you remove this from your vocabulary then be prepared to uncover entirely new ways of perceiving existence which WILL eventually lead you to learning to see the Oneness in All Things.

The most important lesson to learn about this is that Truth is a choice. Truth is actually contained in the Soul but too often is impeded by deeply held and protected personal beliefs. This can then create the challenge of choosing Truth a difficult one when deeply held beliefs are directing your actions. When seeking it on the deepest of levels it becomes the most extreme use of Free Will but in turn frees your mind to perceive The Divine in ways that were previously believed to be unimaginable.

I mentioned in the Spirituality behind 9/11 Part 1 about the ego. On one hand it is your greatest tool for the discovery and unfolding of your Soul’s overall purpose because without it there is no purpose yet on the other hand it is your biggest obstruction to change. This is evidenced by the phrase, “The Truth will set you free.” Nothing will obstruct that Truth more than the ego because the closer you come to the Absoluteness of Truth, the more the ego will dissipate which in turn threatens its existence. If you were to become this Absoluteness of Truth in its entirety, the ego would be obliterated. Fortunately for the ego that will not occur as long as you remain in this corporeal body living in this physical reality. Because you and the ego are intimately connected to the point where you believe it is you and it believes that you are it, it will actually fight for its right to survive and do whatever it can to impede your quest for Truth. Over time I will go into this more and more, but for now, one of its main purposes is as “The Great Focuser” with beliefs being its primary tool for accomplishing this task.

This brief discussion of the ego is starting to get deeper than it needs to be so I’m going to leave it at this for now. I bring it up here in order to allow you to understand that as much as you seek the truth will be as much as you resist it. At first that will not seem like the case especially if you’ve been asking a lot of questions already and that is because at the onset the ego will not feel threatened. As more and more Truth becomes ingrained into your Beingness your thoughts will begin to separate and at that point the ego will become exposed and at that point it will become, “Let the games begin!”

I know this is confusing so here is an example of this. I define Judgment as “The Unwillingness to Accept Another Unconditionally”. So let’s say you take on this idea and you do your absolute best to not judge others and it seems to be working. Then one day your walking down the street and you see an absolute stranger and you hear very clearly in your mind, “Look at that fat pig!”. You are aghast at this thought. How could you be taking on the idea of not judging others and this just comes out of nowhere? This is the indication that your ego thoughts are separating from your other thoughts. What you will find is that not only does this happen more often than you will ever admit to anyone, but that you will also find yourself getting caught in mental traps that you “buy” into over and over. These are the games of the ego. There’s a lot more to this and will be addressed at another time if for no other reason than I’m now into my third page and it’s time to wrap this up.

In regard to all of this, the most important thing to remember is that the ego is essentially powerless and is the root of an essence that everyone contains called “The Nothing and Nobody”. Now you may react to this stating that this is not you, that you are somebody etc. This “Nothing and Nobody” cleverly manifests itself in a wide variety of ways. For some it’s very obvious because they belittle themselves having no real confidence in themselves. In others it manifests in the exact opposite as it should in this world of Duality and all points in between. So it’s there whether you see it or not, whether you acknowledge it or not, whether you like it or not. Essentially it’s part of what I call “The Blueprint for the Human Soul”.

Although the ego is essentially powerless, it at the same time is the Master of Illusion and knows everyone of your weaknesses and will use them in order to maintain “The Power of Its Powerlessness”. This is why I originally said it was your biggest inhibitor to Truth. The deeper you delve into Truth the more it will challenge you because its acceptance will always require you to let go of your beliefs which you use to define who you think (believe) yourself to be which then puts you into the very scary place of redefining yourself. The most important thing to remember is that it’s just going to be a newer and bigger you. To this day I’m still me but the difference from 15+ years ago is that I have a lot less emotional garbage which has resulted in a much wider view of Who I Am and the world I live in knowing full well that this view will most certainly change again. It’s been a wonderful adventure that I’ve had to at times literally kick, cry, and scream my way through and I wouldn’t trade it for anything but more of it!!!

BE THE MIRACLE!