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surrogates that are capable of action to do their biddingin the world. For this reason, they create Fire and Water,which they conceive through their union.The Universe Suspended Between YinAnd Yang And Composed Of TheFour ElementsWind, Lake, Mountain, and Thunder are quintessentialexamples of phenomena that arise via the interactionof Heaven, Earth, Fire, and Water. Via the union of eachof the trigrams with each other, the 4 become 8. Via thecombination of the 8 with each other, the 8 become the64 hexagrams of the Yi Jing. Via the combination of the64 with each other, Lao Tzu’s "10,000 things” come intobeing.But our interest is in exploring the “mechanics” underlyingthe process – the essential workings by whichHeaven and Earth work to affect and maintain the balanceof Yin and Yang and to nurture and perpetuate life onplanet Earth. To this end, we must understand the roleof the Four Elements.Due to their purity, Heaven and Earth are themselvesinert. They exert a “force” but are incapable of action.Heaven is Yang, Yang, Yang, and Earth is Yin, Yin, Yin,and that’s it. They are like the two poles of a magnet.Heaven and Earth Produce Fire AndWater Via Their UnionFire is Heaven’s agent – Fire is 2/3 Heaven and 1/3Earth. Water is Earth’s agent – Water is 2/3 Earth and1/3 Heaven. Their impurity endows them with theircharacteristic nature and dynamism. For this reasonFire and Water are able to move, adapt, and change. Fireand Water give the tai ji diagram “dynamism.” In a puremeta-physical sense, they are “alive.”Fire’s essential “role” is that of converting Yin (Earth– matter with substance, for example “wood”) intoYang – Heaven, the ethereal, “gas.” It does this throughthe act of “burning”, a process by which the Yin and theYang are “recycled”, Yang ascending to Heaven and Yinreturning to Earth.Water’s role is that of converting Heaven into Earth.This action can be seen in the growth of flora and fauna,which as they grow, amass Earth (elements) and reachtoward Heaven. The process of birth and growth (life aswe know it) depends on Water – specifically “precipitation.”Precipitation brings Yang essence from Heaven,inseminating life with Yang force.The Four Primordial Elements Describe TheWheel Of LifeHeaven and Earth RepresentThe Forces Of Yin And YangBecause of their inertness, they need the “agents” orTogether, the 4 Primordial elements describe thewheel of life, birth (germination), growth, maturation,and death. The cycle applies to flora and fauna alike, bothkingdoms having examples of annuals and perennials.Heaven and Earth manage the planet via their judicioususe of Fire and Water (where “rain” is the form) topromote life and maintain the balance of Yin and Yang,which in the greater scheme of things must remain equal.Because Fire and Water are the meta-physical embodimentsof Yin and Yang they must also ultimately exist22 Summer 2011
in equal measure.With the dawn of humankind’s ability to “makeFire”, Heaven and Earth lost their proprietorship overthe 4 elements, for many thousands of years humankindmaking Fire as we’ve seen fit. But, while we’ve madeFire, we don’t possess the ability to makes its complement,“Water”. While Fire and its fuel – Earth, ultimatelydepend on Water, for practical purposes Water is finite.Fire is not. Consequently, by making Fire humankind hascontributed to the gradual diminishment of Yin (Earth)and the excess of Yang (Heaven).Without Fire civilization as we know it would neverhave gotten off the ground, no metal, no machines, noelectricity – no civilization. Virtually every aspect of civilizedlife literally depends on “electrical energy”, mostof it coming from the “burning of Yin” in one form oranother, thus creating a global Yin deficiency and Yangexcess. This “burning” includes all burning from theflame of a candle to the coal fired power plant.It’s hard for us to comprehend the volume of Earththat has been burned over the millennia. It is estimatedthat in 2007 alone, 7 billion tons of coal were burned, andthis number is increasing rapidly. Annual oil consumption,currently estimated at 1000 barrels per second, hassimilarly mind boggling numbers which are also increasingrapidly.Heaven and Earth have the imperative and the powerto restore Yin by creating Water (rain), which only theycan do. They accomplish this by increasing the amountof Water carried by the clouds. They accomplish this byincreasing the area of the Earth’s surface that is coveredby Water, hence increasing evaporation.They accomplish this by taking Water out of reserve,i.e. glaciers and icecaps, thereby raising sea levelsand expanding the area of the planet covered by Water,increased evaporation resulting in increased water borneby the clouds and increased rainfall upon the land. Undernatural conditions, increased rainfall would result in increasedorganic growth which over time would restoreEarth’s Yin essence, coal, oil, etc., but man is clearing thisnew growth, again for purposes of profit.It is clear that fossil fuels contribute to global warmingbut what of nuclear power? The prevailing viewis that it does not contribute to CO2 production and istherefore without global warming risk. But, in the contextof Yin and Yang, the burning of uranium may be far moredetrimental than coal or oil relative to its contributionto Earth’s Yin deficiency – as uranium is the rarest andmost Yin of Earth’s elements and cannot be refreshedeven via Heaven and Earth’s restorative processes. Thisis because uranium is of cosmic origin and is not createdvia Earthly processes.The proliferation of nuclear power plants during thelatter half of the 20 th century may have something to dowith the steep rise in temperature (a Yang indication) overthe last 50 years as opposed to the last 100 – burning ofuranium may be many times more detrimental in termsof disrupting the balance of Yin and Yang.SummeryThis article offers a hypothesis that man’s “burning”of Earth is creating a global Yin deficiency, and as long asman continues to “burn Earth”, we can expect Heavenand Earth to counter our actions with increasing sealevels, and resultant “rainfall”. This suggests that unless“burning” ceases, sea levels will continue to rise and allof the planet’s ice will be brought to bear on the problem.In 2004, a team of scientists from the US GeologicalSurvey estimated that if all of Earth’s ice were to melt itwould raise sea level by 215 feet or about 65 meters abovetoday’s sea level. This would reduce the land surface areato a mere fraction of what it is today.If correct, mankind must ultimately develop and relyon non-burning forms of energy, which are presently limitedto harnessing the natural phenomena of Water, wind,and solar, Water and wind being in increasing supply asglobal warming continues.Is CO2 then not responsible for global warming? Yes,it is certainly a contributing “pathogen”, one that sciencecan detect and measure – but it may be folly to considerit the problem.Stephen Elliott is a long time student and teacher of Taoistarts. He is the author of Wuji Qi Gong And The Secret OfImmortality and The New Science Of Breath. He resides withhis family in north Texas. To find out more about Stephen,visit www.chiarts.net and www.coherence.comThe Empty Vessel 23
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