There are many ways to sustain a sense of balance in a world of duality and anger.
Personal Balance is about the three-dimensional relationship between mind, body and spirit. It is not about right or wrong, but about noticing if you are heavy in one area and offering nourishment to any area that needs more of your energy. If you find yourself busy most of the time, you may be dominant in masculine and find meditation and aimless time in nature to be your balancing point. If you are mellow and relaxed, you may be centered in a more feminine nature and getting out of your comfort zone and moving may create balance. As a Westerner, I imagine many fall within the masculine category. Our culture tends to be heavy on the macho side and less comfortable with the essence of femininity, hence our reliance on science. We fear the feminine, the unknown, the language of spirituality. Wisdom is made of the balance (or as we call it in the western world, health) of these energies.
Physical Balance is about being in harmony with the environment. Native traditions believed that the body manifested illness when we acted against nature (and, you could say, acting against yourself), and it is definitely possible to find a connection with the way we live in relationship to the natural world and the host of diseases we find in the Western world. These peoples lived in harmony with their land in order to manifest health in their bodies and communities. They honored the sun which gives energy to all living beings on earth, which is why we are happier and healthier in nature and the fresher our food the more connected we are to that energy.
Cultural Balance is about making space for other perspectives and ways of living. Each side of the equation is lacking fulfillment; Perhaps the way healers and seekers talk about energy is subtle and difficult to understand. But science can understand that the life missing from cadavers is…energy. What scientists talk about typically fails to include our relationship with the things we study…our proactive relationship with the world allows us to cause, create, and share our own reality. Neither one is right in totality, but in balance they create the key to fulfillment. And, of course, there are many spiritual scientists and many scientific healers. They just tend not to hold power and media might. We need a third cultural story that balances these philosophies.
Global Balance is about valuing the web of connection among all living beings. Humans get sustained energy from those things we truly desire from life: eating well, moving, personal fulfillment, peace of mind, financial stability, contentment, relief from fear and anxiety, love, freedom, self-control, wisdom, happiness, health. Note that none of these come from anything of a material nature. We get short bursts of energy from drugs, alcohol, anger, war, sleep, fat, harm, inappropriate sex . The nature of this energy is to contract and take. These offer us glimpses of the energy we desire, yet they do not get us the fulfillment we seek. These are universal human desires, and they are the light that drives both scientific and spiritual endeavors. The nature of this energy is to expand, share and give. We have more in common than we once thought. There is a universality underneath all ways of living and being. This energy drives humankind towards different modes of expression, all in the hopes of the same intention.
See also: Why can’t science and spirituality just get along?
