This essay is a near-verbatim adaptation of the live spoken teaching, edited only for continuity and readability.
Let us dive in together. Just taking a few minutes to settle in, to feel our hearts. Namaste, everyone. Welcome! I am so happy to see all of you. I am very excited about today's teaching. It is something that will be integrated with the energetic practice we do, and with the principle of the week. It is something that has brought me a great deal of healing, joy, and peacefulness over the last ten years or so—a principle that I really did not have in abundance when I started, so I am a living example of someone who was able to adopt this principle. It is very powerful.
The principle is yin. Perhaps you have heard this term before—yin and yang, or yang as it is sometimes pronounced. It comes from Taoism. Yin is an energy of emptiness, of formlessness. In yin, we say, "I want nothing, I am everything." It is very much a paradox. By becoming completely empty, we are identifying with that eternal side of ourselves. It is a form of becoming transparent, without any resistance.
"I want nothing, I am everything." Usually in life, we go around saying, "I have these needs, I have this life that I am constantly attending to," but if you could only become nothingness—it is the cessation of thought, the cessation of the center of self—you become everything. So it is very much a paradox. If I become nothing, you become everything in a different way. It is as if the ambient existence becomes your very self when that small self goes away. So infinity becomes yours.
One time, someone said, "You are like a window." There is a joy to it, being like a window, being completely empty. There is nothing that I am or that I am fostering that is able to give any form of resistance. Resistance dissipates spiritual energy, but when you become like water, when you become very empty, you retain your energy and you cultivate your energy. So, to be like water, or like a window without any resistance—these are all involved in the term yin.
There is also the strength of water, the strength of formlessness. We are giving away that rigid form for that formless essence, and in doing so, we become invincible. You cannot cut the ether. You cannot hurt or deform water. These are the principles of becoming nothing in yinness.
I think one really important thing is the issue of fear. What is fear? Fear is usually a thought, it is a response to what is. If the thought of fear stops, we transcend it. In yinness, we become empty, we become nothing. Some of the qualities that you might embody are gentleness, speaking less, moving with stillness, and not really asserting yourself in social situations. You say less, you want less, but it is very genuine, because you find a joy in the freedom, the invincibility, the power, and the energy that comes from this detachment.
When you meditate, you can do a yin meditation. A yin meditation is when you become transparent. It is very different from a meditation where you are generating energy in the chakras—that is very yang. But in a yin meditation, you are becoming empty and going away, and this ambient power of the universe comes through you. It is really lovely. We will work on that when we do our meditation.
Yin connects you to abundance. Because you feel that you are one concurrence of the whole universe. You are the whole universe. How wealthy would you be if you owned the universe? Well, you own the universe because you are it. It is interesting—think of it geometrically. Here is a mathematical metaphor: a circle has a circumference and a center. But if it has no center, in yin, we take the center away. The circle becomes infinite. It is an asymptotic expansion.
This is one of the ways to become enlightened. I remember my teacher once said—because I had a peer who said, "You do not meditate yang." And he said, "Well, Adam, you are doing the right thing, you are meditating yin, that is how you become enlightened." Yang helps you to clear your space. Sometimes yang meditation will clear the space, but once you have cleared it, remain clear. You are eternal perfection—perfection in the formless, in the essence.
Yin is not only a meditation practice; it is also very important in interpersonal relationships. In Yin, you ask for less, you say less, you do not have opinions, you do not have judgments. You genuinely let them go. You do not want them—they are bondage, shackles to freedom. They dissipate your most precious thing—your spiritual energy. This realization is truly profound, because in the world of self-help books and modern psychology, there is an emphasis on the self: the "me, me, me." The focus becomes, "How can I fulfill my purpose, become what I want to become, get what I want?" That is the entire self-help section of the library—it is the whole aisle.
I think that is a little unevolved. Because, really, when you become Yin, you become your truth. You become the integrity of freedom. You see, you respond from nothingness, and therefore you respond from your true self.
These are all things you can practice. To be yin in a situation would be to remain quiet and silent, although I have to be a little yang to share, but then I will be very yin in the meditation. There is that response, that instantaneous response of integrity that happens in yinness, when there is no agenda—only the truth of your heart responding from freedom. These things can be practiced. It is nice as a theory, but really, the key is to practice it.
So next, this is what you can do: when you are out with friends, speak less. When friends are trying to decide where to go to dinner, let them decide. When somebody does not appreciate you, let them do that. You are infinity, you are eternity. Let it all go. Let the universe continue and evolve around you in the space.
Yin is often—I wore pink today on purpose, because pink is a very Yin energy. It is space, it is feminine. Yin is very much the feminine to the yang masculine, but you want to be balanced. One can have issues with not being yang enough, but almost always, in Western society and globally, that is not the issue. The issue is that we need more Yin in the world. More Yin in the world.
What does it look like to not have enough yang? Your ontological axis can become misaligned. I do not think anybody here has experienced that—it is very rare. Your paradigmatic orientation can dissolve. These are different, very esoteric issues that happen with a lack of balance, but I think the balance, in most cases, is to bring some more yin into the equation we are trying to balance here.
Yin cures anxiety; it cures all the dissonance interpersonally, because if you are Yin, nobody can latch on to your nothingness. Nobody can resist your nothingness. And in that nothingness, you become powerful, you become blissful, you become love.
How can you be yin when your mind is so yang? People say, "Stop being fearful," but that is much easier said than done. So, how can you be Yin now? Immediately. The answer is observation. Simply observe your thoughts without responding, without assigning them any value. It is a mirage. It is a mirage that you are creating; it has no reality. Reality is the floor, the sky. And thoughts—but you are not just observing the suchness of the thoughts.
If you observe yourself, if you observe your feelings in your body, they slow down. That wheel of angular momentum that is turning with such ferocity will slow on its own. You cannot slow it by force. Because your will perpetuates what you are. You are that wheel, as the thinker. But if you simply observe, the wheel loses its angular momentum. You enter into that state. Ultimately, eventually you will get there.
There is an urgency, though. Think of it as—see, this is a little yana practice right now, where through understanding, we are saying, "Wait a second, I have been doing this self-help thing this whole time, and maybe it has been sabotaging me." So, consider that. Maybe it has not really been helping you; maybe it has been hurting you. These are all things we have to consider on an individual basis, of course.
I am thinking about Gandhi. Gandhi was the film study for the week. It is actually perfectly aligned. In the Tao, there is a line: "That which has no substance can enter where there is no space." That is what Gandhi did. When he brought his Yin orientation into these very Yang rooms of the British Empire, he was so diffuse, he just moved right through. He moved nations with his yinness. And in Yin, there is truth, too. The movie of the week is Gandhi from 1982. I highly recommend that film. If you have not watched it, you should watch it five times. It is a really beautiful story about someone who is applying these principles.
Let us talk about mathematical study. When you do mathematics with a yin energy, it is a completely different experience. That means I am in stillness. I am not thinking hard; I am thinking softly. How often do people say, "Think softly, you will get further"? Think softly. Let the math happen organically. Let it reveal its next step. Get out of the way and let math do its thing. This is something I have used for some of my favorite insights. It will help you retain and improve your state of mind while you are doing math, instead of dissipating energy through thinking hard and straining yourself in resistance.
Creativity, famously, is something that arises from that yin state. It is not something you go think hard about and then generate. My true self will channel the divine, and I will be creative. Flow state is cultivated through yin practice. It is not about compromising your integrity. At all. You have to really look at the nuances here, because it can be a little risky if you are thinking, "Okay, well, I am going to let everybody walk all over me." That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about letting go. Letting things flow. Moving into a state of acceptance. Navigating through life like water through a riverbed, right? That is a very different orientation.
What you get is that dimension of spiritual power. I think this is maybe something that some people are unaware of. You can accumulate spiritual power inside of you. We have to plug up the holes—the things that cause us to lose it. You meditate, you generate the power. But if you live your life without dissipating your power, you will get a lot of it. It is that power you feel when you are flying. It goes really high, right? You get high on yinness, truly. That is what we are doing.
Practical applications for interpersonal situations are to speak less, not talk about yourself, listen, and be agreeable through your spaciousness. Move like water. Walk slowly, act softly. Facilitate rather than direct. Hold your energy in. You know, it is the opposite of a really loud person at a bar. You are holding your energy in. Just think of the classic Taoist master—of course, they are very yin.
Now, let us do some actual energy meditation here. See if you can invoke yin. Again, by bringing attention to the heart. Softening your energy field. You may notice that, naturally, we are not in a yin state. Our nervous system is in a resistance state. There is a process of disarming, diffusing that resistance. If you are up for it, I also recommend we do an open-eye meditation this time. You gaze at the computer, looking broadly. We want to invoke the light. Gazing helps us to invoke the light.
Scan your body. Allow yourself—intend yourself—to release any form of resistance. And spine, softening. All your muscles, softening your energetic field. You just do your best. Observe the judgments, and become absorbed in the unknown. Unknowingness. The cessation of thought.
It is good to bring your attention to your heart to make sure you are learning. Emanating from the heart. Not in a yang way, but with the heart puzzle, the mentalities. Activate it, and clear it. You can do that by putting your hands there. Try to become transparent. Stop asserting your physicality. Explore what that means. Stop asserting.
If it is not working for you, you can also focus on me. There is a sort of empathic transmission. I can intuitively tell—feeling activates that same energetic formation. Formless. All of space and time exists with that. Meta-dimensional moment of eternity. Everything is always in the here and the now. And yourself—merge into that unchanging essence.
If you begin to see the light, the luminosity, in your yinness, let it wash you away. Become the ether. Process. And to intend. Emptiness. Spaciousness. Especially in the head and the nervous system. Your field, your body, is transparent. And if you begin to see the light, allow its brightness to wash you away. That is a very yin decision and action, energetically. You find that everything is perfect, and always was, and always will be. In the essence.
By observing yourself as you are—just to know. That knowledge empowers you. You feel you need to be empowered. So, from this yin state, we are very pliable, very malleable. It is a good opportunity to really bring your attention, now that we have been meditating for a bit, to the Paramount Energetic Center—the heart chakra. Bring your attention to your heart chakra. And just from this freedom, from this openness, feel the warmth there. Feel the vitality there. Know that you are perceiving from the heart—not simply from the eyes or the frontal lobe of the brain, but from the heart. Let that be you.
I am heart. That is my center. That is the very meaning of art. So, just let your kundalini and your qi attend to that vortex, the faculty known as Anahata, the heart center. The middle of the Dantien might be a more appropriate term, since we are speaking in the context of Yin, the Taoist paradigm.
When you are ready, we can come out of this meditation together. That was a good one for me. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.
The principle of the week—last week we practiced mindfulness—let that also be yin. Practice yinness. When you are driving, begin. When you are talking, when you are with friends, when you are meditating, just practice yinness. Discover what that means for yourself.
Namaste, everybody, thank you. Boom.