Take a look around; do you think things are balanced in our
world?
Balance, now here is a topic that has been hounding me since the
day I was born. An understanding of balance seems to be a very
important idea when it comes to living a happy, 'balanced' life
here on Earth. It has come to my attention that the Universe and
everything within it is governed by the principle of evenness
between positive and negative energies. Both in the realms of
spirituality and science there have been many people over the
years who have been discussing the concept that all things in
Nature have a natural inclination to find a balanced state of
being.
After any chemical reaction between atoms, (which of course all
matter that exists is mad up of), the protons and electrons move
into a position where their energies are of equal value. As far
as I know all religions and belief systems held by human beings
state that to find enlightenment or peace one has to experience
all the necessary feelings and emotions integral to living a
full life. This means that one has to experience both suffering
and joy to truly gain knowledge about what it means to be alive.
If you run from your feelings, you are not walking the 'middle
path' and therefore you're destined to have an imbalance in
terms of gaining wisdom and happiness.
Let's look at a few occurrences that happen regularly in the
life of our Universe. How about the process of a star exploding
out in space? One might believe that this happening is a
negative one, especially if it is our Sun that we are talking
about, as this will mean the end of life on our world. But what
happens when a star explodes? It has been understood that energy
cannot be created or destroyed, it can only move from one place
to another. Therefore, once our Sun explodes, hopefully many
billion years from now, the energy will travel out into space
only to conglomerate and converge once again to form new stars
and subsequent life. Even if the energy of our Sun just
dissipates back into the general energy of space we can perceive
this as a balanced equation in the respect that it is that exact
space that our Sun evolved from in the first place.
What about a romantic relationship? For a friendship to work
properly between two parties the amount of energy or effort in
terms of love and attention must be equal. If it is otherwise,
one person will undoubtedly feel as though they are being
neglected, or that they are giving too much and so feel
depleted. How about a business deal? Either companies or people
have to come away from the trade feeling that they have gained
at least the equal amount of value as they have given away.
Now let us look at one of the hardest situations to perceive as
being balanced: the tragedy. Let's say someone you know and love
dearly dies suddenly in a car accident. I am very sorry to
imagine this scenario but we have to be aware that driving is
one of the most dangerous pastimes in contemporary society.
First of all there is the grief and suffering that comes with
the loss of this intimate connection in the physical world.
However, the experience can also be looked at in a positive
light for many reasons. We learn so much about life and
ourselves from tragedy. We learn about how much we truly loved
that person when we look back in retrospect at all the good
times you had together. We become stronger individuals after the
period of suffering passes so that if another crisis presents
itself on our path we might just be the only one who can act in
that intense moment. We also learn one of the most important
rules in our reality here in the Universe, that everything
(including ourselves) is temporary.
The Universe will always exist, but all within it is in
constant flux. This is another paradox of balance that rings
true: temporary existence within permanent existence. If you
look at anything long enough you will see that there are always
multiple ways of perceiving it. However, once you've judged or
assessed that item or concept, you will find that the opposite
belief or perspective can also be seen as true. Most probably
someone will point it out to you whether you like it or not.
Let's take this article itself as example. I might see it as
something very relevant and important. I might believe that it
is a good representation of my views on reality and be happy
that I have been given the opportunity to share them with
whichever of my fellow beings wishes to read my ideas. However,
someone else may perceive this article as a total waist of time,
a blast of hot air from some nobody who believes that they know
something. The funny thing is that that person may also be the
voice of my own shadow-side that lives within. That is what I
mean about balance: it is everywhere.