The Taoist Yin Yang Symbol

[Hakuin Suso]

Physicists tell us all matter is made of atomic particles that can be
broken down into subatomic components that aren’t particles at all but
waves formed out of collapsed quantum fields that exist everywhere in
unbroken unity. They debate the role of the observer in collapsing
those fields because it implies consciousness is at the very core of
today’s physics; a notion many cannot accept because they see
consciousness as arising out of matter, dependent upon yet isolated
from matter. In effect, modern physics views consciousness the same
way the old physics viewed the atom, as individual units or
particles. But just as the particle model gave way to quantum fields
so, too, must consciousness come to be known as a field that exists
everywhere in unbroken unity.

A model that may assist in understanding the role of consciousness in
collapsing quantum fields may be found in the Taoist Yin Yang Symbol.
This symbol consists of a circle containing two teardrop shapes, one
black and one white, with a small circle of it’s opposite’s color in
each teardrop. Let’s consider this symbol on three levels.

The first level is the microscopic and for our purpose let’s say the
Yin Yang Symbol represents a physicist attempting to measure a
particle’s position and momentum. The Heisenberg Uncertainty
Principle tells us that only one of position or momentum can be
measured exactly at any given time, so let’s say the physicist is
trying to the measure the exact position of a particle.

In our usage of the Yin Yang symbol the white teardrop represents the
consciousness of the physicist while the black teardrop is the quantum
field of the particle to be measured in its unmeasured or full, non-
collapsed and formless state. The measurement will be represented by
the white dot inside the black teardrop. In our example, once the
measurement takes place there will arise simultaneously with the
measurement of position, i.e., the white dot, a corresponding black
dot in the white teardrop that represents the unknown momentum of the
particle.

In this representation we see the physicist’s measurement of the
quantum field to find position manifesting as consciousness of an
object, i.e., the white dot in the black teardrop. However, we also
see that same measurement creating a definite lack of awareness or
knowledge of the particle’s momentum that is represented by the black
dot in the white teardrop. To the physicist then, as with the Taoist,
knowing and not knowing arise together.


As used here, the second level of the Yin Yang symbol is the
macroscopic or the very large. On this level, the white teardrop does
not represent an individual’s consciousness but the Subjective pole of
Consciousness and the black teardrop represents the Objective pole of
Consciousness. On the macroscopic scale the entire universe is
represented by the white dot in the black teardrop, while the black
dot in the white teardrop is what can’t be known or made manifest as a
result of the present shape of the universe. Put another way, like a
quantum field that holds an infinite number of possible combinations
of a particles position and momentum, the universe contains an
infinite number of possibilities. But like a quantum field, when one
possibility is actualized it negates other possible outcomes. The
black circle in the white teardrop represents these negations.

What we see at the macroscopic level is the vastness and depth of
Consciousness that can manifest an entire universe and still not be
contained by it. But more importantly, we see that the universe did
not come into being without consciousness. It exists simultaneously
with consciousness. The subjective and the objective arise together.


The third level of the Yin Yang symbol is the level between the
macroscopic and the microscopic or the universe as experienced on a
daily basis by multiple observers. These multiple observers could be
said to exist on the terminator, or the line dividing the white
teardrop from the black teardrop of the symbol.

It’s important to note that this line is imaginary but for our purpose
let’s say it’s actually a thin membrane with multiple pin-sized
holes. Each pin-sized hole represents an individual observer with the
shape and direction it’s aiming at through the membrane being a
particular viewpoint. Sticking with our previous example, let’s say
each viewpoint represents an individual physicist and further add that
each can be augmented with particular apparatus to make precise
measurements of the objects of consciousness.

Physicists who do not accept the role of the observer, or
consciousness, in collapsing quantum fields hold that to accept it
leaves open the question of which observer in a group of observers
actually collapses a field into a particular state. This is
demonstrated in the Schrodinger Cat scenario.

In the Schrodinger Cat scenario, a cat concealed in a box may be dead
or it may be alive, but until someone opens the box and observes the
cat it is said to be in a “superposition” of being both alive and
dead. But which observer actually collapses the superposition into
one of its two possible states. Is it the one who opens the box? One
who is watching the box being opened? Or can it be the cat itself
that was the observer inside the box?

Physicists have no universally accepted answer to the Schrodinger Cat
scenario however in this presentation of the Yin Yang symbol it is
clear there really is only one observer, one Consciousness. The light
of Subjective pole of Consciousness shining through the imaginary line
between the two poles is perceived from the objective side as
individual observers. But what we think are individual and separate
points of awareness in the membrane observing the objective pole of
consciousness in fact are “rays” of awareness emanating from the same
subjective pole of consciousness. The “I” in any observer is,
ultimately, the same “I” in all observers.

In our example physicists studying the subatomic world through various
measuring instruments need not ask which of them collapsed the quantum
field or which observation resulted in Schrodinger’s cat being either
dead or alive. The question, “Which observer collapsed the
superposition?” is based upon the false assumption that observers are
separate. But observers are not separate. They are ultimately the
same observing consciousness that entangles their seemingly separate
existences such that whatever one correctly measures or observes in
the world, is immediately recognized by all others making the same
measurement or observation regardless of separation in time or space.