ACCEPTANCE – this is the fine art of surrendering or letting go. It is not the same as the female YIN which is about receiving/taking in. It is a balance point between the female YIN and the assertive male YANG principles.

SUFFERING & MARTYRDOM – the YIN of SUFFERING and the YANG of MARTYRDOM. The root of suffering is ‘holding on / grasping’. YIN yields and accepts SUFFERING. When there is conflict in your life, that conflict gets its hooks on you, and you suffer. That suffering can be physical, emotional, or egoic and comes about because whatever hooks us it is that is causing the suffering. We can be hooked on things that give us pleasure or things that give us displeasure or pain. Either way, it is difficult to ‘let go’. That catalyst can evoke feelings of anger, resentment, lust, desire, passion, or righteous indignation. It also inspires you to take action to remedy the situation because you desire a state of peace. That leads to YANG responses such as REBELLION or MARTYRDOM, which typically only increases the level of suffering.

REBELLION, REJECTION, AND TOLERANCE – REBELLION is where we are acting in opposition to or finding an alternative to the catalyst that causes you to suffer and is action that often creates conflict with people that do not share your position/point of view. In time, you begin to recognize the futility of resistance and realize that it is not worth the suffering. That softens to plain old REJECTION. In rejection you are not languishing in the taking up of arms against a perceived slight or action, but rather taking a mental rejection of all that surrounds the catalyst giving you pain. TOLERANCE is where you take the level of REJECTION to a higher level. A softening of this level moves one into a position of TOLERANCE (a YIN response) which essentially says that a person is willing to tolerate beliefs and begins to accept the conflict as part of the way things are, but a certain level of resentment still lingers.

ADOPTION/EMBRACING, CELEBRATION, AND PROMOTION – these levels run parallel to those of tolerance, rejection and rebellion. It can be evangelizing or proselytizing or ‘sharing’ beliefs with others. A journey towards promotion begins with ADOPTION/EMBRACING. Embracing and adoption tend to be more about internal versus external energy leading to celebration or promotion. CELEBRATION moves into PROMOTION which usually becomes proselytizing and when energized with righteous indignation it may become MARTYRDOM.

THE ARC OF SUFFERING TO MARTYRDOM – I see this as a continuum that is hinged around ACCEPTANCE. Acceptance is neither about pros or cons but rather about resting within a conflict and not taking a ‘side’ and thus not being captured or entangled by whatever the illusion may be. It is about a non-dual approach to living. If you are on either side of the hinge point you are becoming more and more entangled and experiencing a more dualistic perspective. I tend to think of it more and more as a state of unconditional love. ACCEPTANCE/UKETAMO embodies and holds both the YIN and the YANG of the arc of SUFFERING through MARTYRDOM. I believe the difference between the energies of SUFFERING and MARTYRDOM is minuscule and can be thought of as mirror images of the same energy.