Do you believe Catholics can accept yin yang as art?

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We are a new nonprofit helping intellectual and developmentally disabled young adults. As Founders we wish to give a gift to someone that helped us start the Adult Day Service. We have found a wooden “bandsaw box” with Yin Yang drawers (a work of art). We are a Christian organization, founded by Catholics and will be presenting this at our annual fundraiser.

Is this too controversial in the Catholic Community to even consider? I know it would not be offensive to the recipient, but it could be to our guests at the auction. I would appreciate your opinion.
 
I think it’s a great symbol. Not sure how far it dates back, though.
I have a red and black patch one in my car.
I did take martial arts, at one time,
but it’s more of a gentle reminder - for me - of balance !
I have a rosary in my car too.
I’d be a cool gift - in my eyes !
An ANKH - on the other hand - no !
 
I would not use it. Someone will ask what it means. It is not Christian.
 
I agree with edwest. Ying-Yang has very specific spiritual connotations. It represents the belief that good and evil are balancing forces of the universe. It adheres to the fulty notion that they are both equal, necessary components of a functioning universe.

In reality, we need evil like we need to have our legs and arms cut off. We are infinitely better off without evil. Evil does not balance good, it subverts it, attempts to destroy it, attempts to remove it from the equation. They are not equal, evil is merely the deprivation of good, the lack of it.

Ying-Yang, and everything it represents, is wholly and completely contrary to Christian belief, and should not be promoted, even through something as simple as including it in your art.
 
There is nothing overtly offensive about the symbol. Surely Christians can be sophisticated enough to understand a non-Crhistian symbol without being threatened by it.

My goodness, how would the artwork of the great masters in the Vatican look if all mythology and symbols of the Greek World and the Roman Empire were erased because they are not Christian? I think we’d be left with art that looks like a comic strip.
 
So everything must be explicitly Christian to be appreciated as art? Someone better tell the Vatican they need to get rid of all their Egyptian, Roman, and Greek antiquities.
 
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In addition to what a few others have said, I personally wouldn’t be comfortable with it. At the base of its belief is the thought that from the many combinations of yang and yin everything that is in the world has emerged. I would personally see this as leaving out God as the Creator and originator of all things and at its base very atheistic. To God alone belongs the glory.
 
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I knew it was controversial, but significantly more so than I anticipated. No Yin-Yang for us. Thanks so much for your feedback!!
 
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edwest211 said:
It is not Christian.
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Please.

Surely you know that the traditional two hands joined in prayer is a mudra Christians took from Buddhism.

Do you know that the genuflection we make to Jesus in the tabernacle was taken from the Roman army (who took it from Persian religion I believe) - a formal greeting when coming into the presence of one’s commanding officer or the King.

So I think “not being Christian” really died as a valid argument 1800 years ago.
 
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ProdglArchitect said:
I agree with edwest. Ying-Yang has very specific spiritual connotations. It represents the belief that good and evil are balancing forces of the universe. It adheres to the fulty notion that they are both equal, necessary components of a functioning universe.

In reality, we need evil like we need to have our legs and arms cut off. We are infinitely better off without evil. Evil does not balance good, it subverts it, attempts to destroy it, attempts to remove it from the equation. They are not equal, evil is merely the deprivation of good, the lack of it.

Ying-Yang, and everything it represents, is wholly and completely contrary to Christian belief, and should not be promoted, even through something as simple as including it in your art.
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You don’t really know what you are talking about.

It is simply ancient eastern natural science (like our pre Christian western natural science that held all living things must have souls, the dead dwell under the earth and the gods dwell in outer space).

It is the observation in nature that all things move between two extremes and that the best way to deal with change is to find the natural and harmonious balance between the two not in extreme behaviour.

My brother runs a national Tai Chi club in my country with Chinese and European teachers and members both Catholic and Buddhist and nothing at all. He tires of fundamentalist Protestant Church’s (almost always Baptist) regularly refusing hall hire based on misguided sentiments born of ignorance and 3rd party “research”.

It is disappointing to find similar inability and unwillingness to verify facts and rely on hearsay amongst some intelligent Catholics.
 
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Have you not noticed a similar philosophic idea operating in Genesis 1:1 - that is hardly surprising as both Judaism and Christianity come from an Eastern land where this ancient natural philosophy was an underlying way of thinking even then.
IE Before creation the Spirit hovered over the Deep.

The Deep is not “evil” in the sense that some fundamentalist Christians often assume.

In fact it seems Aquinas himself reflected on whether of not the Deep could be eternal but non existent “Prime Matter” (a bit like a Higgs field).

We might also see the procession between the Persons of the Trinity, as a form of yinyang interplay.
 
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BlackFriar said:
You don’t really know what you are talking about.

It is simply ancient eastern natural science (like our pre Christian western natural science that held all living things must have souls, the dead dwell under the earth and the gods dwell in outer space).

It is the observation in nature that all things move between two extremes and that the best way to deal with change is to find the natural and harmonious balance between the two not in extreme behaviour.

My brother runs a national Tai Chi club in my country with Chinese and European teachers and members both Catholic and Buddhist and nothing at all. He tires of fundamentalist Protestant Church’s (almost always Baptist) regularly refusing hall hire based on misguided sentiments born of ignorance and 3rd party “research”.

It is disappointing to find similar inability and unwillingness to verify facts and rely on hearsay amongst some intelligent Catholics.
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That’s one interpretation of it, and not one that is shared by everyone. I’ve heard my explanation from as many Buddhist as I’ve heard yours.

This seeking of balance is not limited to the physical occurrences of life, it also addresses the spiritual extremes of good and evil. This position, that there can be balance between the spiritual realities of good and evil (wholeness and lacking, if you prefer), is wholly and completely contrary to Catholic thought. As such, my explanation is just as valid as yours.
 
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BlackFriar said:
The Deep is not “evil” in the sense that fundamentalist, white and less than well educated Christian often assume.
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No one said that the Deep is evil. The deep was non-existence, proto-creation. It is nothingness.

As for Aquinas’ musings, please provide a citation.

Also, the Trinity has nothing to do with Yin-Yang. The Trinity is not a balance of competing forces, it is the perfect wholeness of the singular God. There are no competing parts in it, as there are no competing parts in God. There are no ‘parts’ in God, at least not as we understand the concept of parts.
 
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ProdglArchitect said:
That’s one interpretation of it, and not one that is shared by everyone. I’ve heard my explanation from as many Buddhist as I’ve heard yours.
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Have you actually been to lectures on Buddhism from educated Buddhist teachers proficient in english and english philosophy and thought - rather than relying on the poor understanding of both Buddhism and of the English language by the Buddhist laity you have spoken to. Have you ever spent any time speaking with an educated Buddhist monk?

To simply assert that yinyang refers to good versus evil is so simplistic and naiive an explanation I strongly doubt that the alleged “Buddhists” you have spoken to are proficient in English, know their religion only poorly (which is usually the case because the laity practise more than they understand) or are only casual aquaintenances to you and you have never properly sounded them out on the matter.

Nor do you appear to have even referenced unbiased reference material of your own culture on the matter. The wiki encyclopedia article for example does not mention the word “evil” at all.


So I am sorry, your views here are empty and 3rd hand and not expected of a Christian committed to seeking out the truth not only of his own religion but that of others.
 
I am not claiming that yin-yang only refers to the good versus evil dichotomy. However, given that Buddhism seeks balance between all things, it would have to include the concepts of good and evil.

I don’t generally like Wikipedia articles, they get Christianity wrong so often I can’t imagine they do that great a job when it comes to Buddhism, but from that article:
In Chinese philosophy, yin yang (陰陽 yīnyáng, lit. “dark-bright”, “negative-positive”) describes how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.
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This is a holistic philosophy, applying to most areas of Buddhist though, philosophy, and teaching. As such, this definition and the philosophy behind it would also encompass the concepts of good and evil. Yin-Yang is duality, two competing forces working / existing together. That simply cannot be reconciled with a Catholic world-view. There is no working together between that which is good and that which is less than or contrary to good. There is no balance to be had between lightness and darkness when it comes to spirituality. Darkness is merely the lack of light, not something unto itself.

Also from that article:
For instance, dropping a stone in a calm pool of water will simultaneously raise waves and lower troughs between them, and[citation needed] this alternation of high and low points in the water will radiate outward until the movement dissipates and the pool is calm once more. Yin and yang thus are always opposite and equal qualities.
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(Emphasis mine)

While some Buddhists may chose not to apply this philosophy to the concepts of good and evil, that does not mean that the philosophy of yin-yang would not encompass those ideals. Yin-Yang is about finding the balance between competing opposites, as I have said. I simply chose to use the words good and evil to describe those competing opposites.
 
PA I am not going to dignify your lack of real experience and knowledge of Buddhism by further conversation with you.

Like the many Protestants who accuse Catholics of the strangest beliefs on the basis of 3rd hand info with prejudice making up the difference I see the same happening with your views and Buddhism.

Unlike yourself I have a number of Buddhists married into my family. I regularly go to their temple after Church and converse with the monks there. You really have no experience or idea at all.
God’s peace.
 
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You have yet to actually explained what is wrong with my explanation.

How does yin-yang as a philosophy somehow not apply to the concepts of good and evil?
 
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