Balance

Over and over you can be sure

There will be sorrow but you will endure

Where there's a flower there's the sun and the rain

Oh and it's wonderful there both one in the same

                                Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain ~ Frankie Beverly & Maze

While reflecting on the past year or so, I have come to realize that life for me has been an equal blend of trials and blessings. Everything in life is in divine order, perfect balance. When life seems out of balance, it's usually our reactions that are actually out of balance.  Some people say life is like a roller coaster, it has it's ups and downs. The crest, or the top of the hill are the ups, and the trough, or the dip, are the downs. But if you've ever ridden a roller coaster, you know that when you dip into those troughs, you never stay there. The ride either takes you back up, on a curve, or evens out. Life is like that too. That's where the balance comes in.

I read, "Krishna Hindus are very conscious of the paradoxes that make up the universe. Siva is simultaneously the creator, maintainer, and destroyer of life. All phenomena is a constant interplay between hot and cold, male and female, light and dark. Vedic medicine teaches that keeping these opposing forces in balance is central to the maintenance of bodily, social, and cosmic well-being."* We see this to be true in everyday life. Too much of anything puts the universe off balance. Imagine a scale. Differing weights make it tip to one side. One might find themselves pleased if the heavier side contained all of the pleasant things of life. But how would we grow, become stronger, smarter, better if we had no reason to try?

When everything seems to be going the way we'd like, we are happy and positive. However, when things aren't going the way we'd hoped, we become sad or angry and negative. This uses a lot of unnecessary energy. It is not really that times are "good" or "bad," rather how we interpret them. If making a lot of money, having a nice car, or being with a beautiful woman is, in your opinion  "good" and will make you happy, then if you should lose it or are unable to attain it, you will interpret that as "bad"  and become unhappy. The key, I am learning, is to feel these feelings of anger, depression, or low self-esteem caused by the so-called "bad" events in life, get to the root causes, but then, ask yourself what you can do to change that. It is often not about changing the situation, rather, how you interpret it and react to it. It is both simple and complex at the same time.

I was watching a video of a talk given at Google by a Buddhist nun (posted below) about being your own therapist. It was very interesting because the concept she spoke of was about achieving balance not by taking the "bad" and "good" with equal acceptance, but by removing the idea of "bad" altogether She said that we are all "good" in the core of our beings and that it is not natural to have any bad qualities or thoughts. We must seek out the causes of our bad feelings or thoughts and change them. We are "mutable" as I said in a previous post. This idea of not being "good enough" is self imposed and derived from some past experience or teachings. Balance comes when we can see ourselves and our lives as good. Pain will come, but suffering is unnecessary. Coming to this mindset takes time and work, and I am still taking the time to do the work myself. What I am noticing is that as I remove each neurosis, and it is neurosis because it is delusional to think that any of us is lesser, in any way, than anyone else, but as I remove this neurosis, joy is present more often.

Back on the roller coaster, think of where the real fun is. Is it at the top teetering for a few seconds knowing the thrill of the drop is coming? Is it the thrill of the drop itself? Or is it the excitement of it all knowing even the drop has something thrilling coming after it? Yes, yes, and yes. It is a ride, and all parts of it together make it thrilling. The top of the hill is only thrilling because of what is coming next. Know that it is all necessary to move forward on this joyful ride, and it is all good. Love and light.