Yin and Yang (page 4)

LET'S LOOK at what Macrobiotics says about sun and moon, day and night:
  Sun = yang / Moon = yin
  Day = yang / Night = yin

This is correct, except that the definitions of yin and yang are reversed! Sun (yang) is expansive, out-going. Moon (yin) is contractive, receptive (its light is reflected sunlight!). Likewise, day (lit by the sun) is yang, night (lit by the moon) is yin.

Closely related to this are the factors of heat and cold. The expansive, out-going heat of the sun warms the Earth; and things exposed to this warmth relax and expand. At night, under the cold light of the moon, the Earth cools and contracts. But it's not just that simple.

Macrobiotics teaches that heat is contractive and cold is expansive; and that plants grow bigger in a hot climate (or season) because the contractive heat brings about its own opposite -- expansiveness -- in the growth of the environment. In this way, they say, balance is created. Likewise, the expansiveness of a cold climate (or season) produces plants that are more contractive.

This explanation has always seemed questionable to me. It seems a little too simple to account for what's really going on. And I think the desire for simplification has led us off-target.

From our own experience with heat and cold, we know that, when we're hot, we can feel much better by eating something expansive (a slice of watermelon, for example). And, when we're cold, we are naturally drawn to eat dense or contractive things. This tells us that the effect of heat on us must indeed be contractive, and the effect of cold must be expansive. BUT ... this seems to be the case only after a certain point of heat or cold is reached. What about heat or cold of a lesser degree?

Let's say you're living outside, in a mild climate, in the summertime. Maybe it gets cool enough at night that a campfire feels good. The fire (expansive, yang) warms and relaxes and expands you. Then you put out the fire and go to sleep, and the night causes you to cool and contract. The morning sun wakes you, and you sit wrapped in a blanket, all your muscles contracted by the cold, eagerly absorbing the warmth of the sun, gradually relaxing and expanding again.

Within this range of heat and cold, the effects are just what we would expect: Heat (expansive) creates expansion in the things it touches; and cold (contractive) creates contraction in the things it touches. It's only when the heat or cold reaches a certain extreme that the opposite effects are created. First thing in the morning, the warmth of the sun feels good. But, after "baking" for a few hours in the sun of mid-day, we may feel literally "cooked" -- then it's watermelon time!

Speaking of cooking -- heat and cold work the same way in the kitchen. If we put rice in a pan of water and add heat, the rice will absorb the water and expand (becoming more yang). Then, if we keep heating until the water is all cooked out of the rice, the rice shrinks and becomes more yin again. The longer we keep heating, the drier and harder and more contracted (more yin) the rice becomes. This is an example of extreme yang (heat) creating a yin condition.

The other side of this coin is freezing foods. Up to a certain point, the addition of cold makes things contract (becoming more yin). The cold in your refrigerator, for example, keeps foods from spoiling; holds them together more tightly; slows down their biological process of expansion and decomposition. But, if you put those foods in the freezer instead, the extreme cold will do just the opposite! Freezing causes expansion and dis-integration, by turning the water in the foods to ice. When the water freezes, it expands and ruptures the cells of the food. And, when we eat that food, even after cooking, the expansive, dis-integrative effect of the freezing is still present.

So ... what do we have so far?
  Yang = expansive / Yin = contractive
  Heaven = yang / Earth = yin
  Male = yang / Female = yin
  Sun = yang / Moon = yin
  Day = yang / Night = yin
  Summer = yang / Winter = yin
  Heat = yang / Cold = yin
    (but the extremes of heat and cold create the opposite effects)

From here on, in the world according to Macrobiotics, we can pretty much just replace the word "yin" with "yang" everywhere, and the word "yang" with yin." The only exception that comes to mind right now is with the element of Time. Macrobiotics says Time is contractive (which it calls yang) -- but the subject of Time is more complex than that. Let's not even go into that here! Just remember, Yang is expansive, Yin is contractive (which is opposite the Macrobiotic perception). Therefore, sugar is the most yang food (not the most yin), and salt is the most yin (not the most yang)....

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