Balance
What does it mean to be in balance? Does it mean being perfect? I don’t think so. To be in balance means to be in neutral. No energy is needed to push forward or slow down. Balance is that point between the extremes. I wonder whether too many of us keep striving when we have already glimpsed balance.
An obvious observation is that we are all different. We each have tendencies that push us towards and extreme. Some tend to be too lazy, some too hyper. Some tend to be too detail oriented, some wildly oblivious to detail. Is there a right and wrong? I consider myself an avid yet beginner student of yogic and budhist philosophy. I don’t presume to know a lot, but my sense is that we all strive for balance/equilibrium. In these philosophies, that seems to translate into the present representing the balance point and the future and the past representing the extremes.
It is interesting that I and probably many of you resist with tremendous intensity staying in the present. On some weird level, we want to stay with our thoughts, preconcentions, expectations, and prejudices rather than just experience what is right in front of us. Ironically, the less in balance I feel, the less I realize I need yoga. David Swenson once said, “I have never regretted doing my yoga practice but have often regretted not doing practice.” I also, after 15 years, consider myself a relative beginner yoga practitioner. I am just getting to the point where I really feel the connection with my breath. In those moments of connection I am truly present. I am realizing how powerful and important the sense of hearing is to being present and in balance. I can still check our when I am looking at things but if I tune into all the sounds around me, especially my breath, my mind has difficulty wandering. I stay in balance. The answer to so many issues is to just listen. Listen to the sounds around you. Listen to your breath. Listen, really listen, when someone is talking to you without reacting or anticipating what you are going to say next.
Beryl Bender Birch compares the states of transmitting and receiving in her book Beyond Power Yoga. I will paraphrase here. She says that the act of transmitting is when you are thinking, speaking, acting. When you are transmitting energy, you are using and releasing prana, or life force. When you are in the state of receiving, you are listening, and taking in what is around you without judgment or reaction. Receiving also means recieving prana. Most importantly, she says that you cannot transmit and receive at the same time! You cannot simultaneously think and listen at the same time. I think there is something very powerful there.
I don’t think balance is a state of perfection. I think is is like suspended animation. It is when you experience the present moment and truly understand that that is all there is. You are smack in the middle of the extremes. I know that I am not in the present moment or the state of receiving as much as I would like. It is not always easy or comfortable to get out of old habits and really work at being present. I do love the feeling when I am there. Here is to finding the point between the extremes; no pushing or pulling, just coasting for a while…
Peace,
Mimi
