When people think of Yin and Yang, the image of two koi fish, one black, one white, comes to mind. But what is the Buddhist concept that the koi symbolize? Why are they so well-known and significant? 

There are many different interpretations of what each fish symbolizes, but the overall idea is that the black koi, the yin, is associated with masculine energy; everything negative, hardship, cold. On the other hand, the white fish yang symbolizes feminine power that is warm, soft, and positive. 

Not so complicated, right? Wrong, both the yin and yang have a circle within them called taijitu. Yin has a white taijitu, and yang has a black one; this is because they are meant to explain balance. Light exists within the dark, and dark exists within the light. Just as they say that opposites attract, opposites live in harmony in the case of yin and yang. 

If a person were to look at the spinning image without knowing what they represent, they might say that it seems like the fish are trying to eat one another in a never-ending battle. But that is not necessarily true because though it looks like they are trying to destroy each other, they are not fighting but instead dancing. 

Yin and yang explain a lesson that many Americans have yet to learn and understand. As Alan Watts explains, if they were indeed fighting, “if that is the situation, then of course life is fundamentally nothing but a grim contest.” But if one fish wins the contest, for example, the white fish wins over the dark one, the white one would disappear as well because it was only there “in relation to the dark.” 

So the moral of the story; life is not a contest! We all go through our lives chasing the light, living for those moments where we feel on top of the world. But what we often fail to realize is that what makes those moments so beautiful is knowing that they don’t last forever. As human beings, we compete for more than we know; In our schools, jobs, and income; but for what reason? To be better than the person next to you? Let’s say you succeed; what more do you have to make you feel content? Do you truly know who you are, or are you simply a reflection of those around you? 

Regardless of what you are going through today, whether Yin or Yang, enjoy, accept and appreciate every second of it. You never know what day, what minute, what second will be your last; why waste it by competing and stressing over matters that are not very important. Eventually, each of us will die; it is the one thing that doesn’t matter who you are or where you are from; in the end, we are all equal in our mortality. When it is our time to depart, you do not leave with anyone or anything. Anything materialistic that you have accomplished in your life is not coming with you. All you have is you and your thoughts and memories; you might as well make them worth it.