haha zen tripout, eh? I think my zen teacher would have slapped me if I had asked this and told me to go meditate more and stop asking pointless questions. :P

My answer, though: Nothing exists without the opposite. Without yin there is no yang. Hot is not cold; cold is not hot. But that doesn't quite get at it, it only hints at it. Objectively there is no way to explain an experience; it has to be experienced to be understood. The tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao and all that. It gives you a hint, puts you on the right path, but you can't know... until you know. haha you know? Ok enlightenment is too big, let's take something closer to home that we can both relate to: swimming. You can read a book on how to swim, you can understand the laws of water, you can know everything there is to know about swimming, but you can't experience what it is to swim until you actually jump in the water and actually do it (or sink—whichever). You don't know it until... you know it.

So how to describe cold? Impossible. We can only give someone hints. Not hot. And those hints can give them an idea. But they can't really know what cold is until they feel it.

Now back to my beer