Looking Back to 2005: Out of Balance

Out of Balance
Original post date: March 14, 2005

Most people will agree that something is amiss in our world. One of the ways people try to explain societal problems is through the use of buzzwords. Two that have been very prevalent over the past decade are “family values” and “terrorism”. Others believe the problem has more to do with the “gay agenda” or “secular” forces.

As a Taoist, I don’t get caught up in the buzzwords of the day. From my vantage point, humanity has always suffered from the same problem – We’re out of balance.

We always seem to be tilting too far in one direction or the other, both collectively and individually. We either behave too rationally or too emotionally.

The secret of life is both unimaginably simple and yet amazingly difficult. That secret is balance.

We see this principle at work everywhere around us. Our bodies balance a complex matrix of chemicals and processes which allow us to breath, eat, move, think and sleep. If a particular chemical or process becomes out of balance, we don’t feel as well as we might. Sometimes, it even causes our bodies to die.

The natural world is all about balance. If a certain animal species becomes too numerous, its numbers are pared back through disease, reduced birth rates, predators or climate change and this is done, by the way, without the need for human planning and strategizing.

The chief problem for humans (with our over-thinking minds) is that it is so difficult for us to understand where the midpoint is for anything at any given time. Our world is not static – it’s constantly changing moment by moment. Consequently, in light of any particular circumstance or situation, what may achieve balance right now may become out of balance two seconds or two minutes later.

This singular fact drives us absolutely bonkers. We like hard and fast rules. We like standards that are permanent, in nature. This desire of ours helps to explain the popularity of religion.

Most established religions promote a “code of conduct”. These codes contain rules, procedures, rituals and creeds that somebody formulated long ago. People like to follow these standards because a) They don’t have to spend the time creating them themselves and b) They offer a sense of permanency and rigidity in an impermanent and fluid world.

Yet, despite the steadfast observance of these artificial edifices of proper standards, all of the people who adhere to such beliefs nonetheless find they suffer from the very same kinds of imbalance as the rest of us. It would seem that all their devotion and faith still doesn’t get them where they crave to be – in balance.

I’m not here to offer a roadmap to where balance is for any given person in any given situation. In fact, the wise person knows that there is NO roadmap. Finding AND achieving balance is a moment to moment endeavor. And, just because a certain action causes me to be in balance at this singular point in time, this doesn’t mean that if you replicate my action it will put you in balance OR if I replicate the same action tomorrow I will still be in balance.

Balance is elusive. We can only hope to find it, IF we ACTIVELY look for it. Even when we look for it, it can still prove elusive, but, at least, we’re on the right track.

Ignore balance AND balance will ignore you.

To read the intro to this retrospective series of posts, go here.