“Everything in life… has to have balance.”
THE MIDDLE WAY
Buddha lived a life of luxury and prosperity as a young boy and had little clue about the Law of Balance. Born as a prince, he enjoyed the amenities of living in a castle with more than enough to eat, enjoy, and live. He thought everyone was living like him.
One day, he left the safety of his castle. He was devastated when he found out that most people live in poverty, barely getting enough food, not to mention any luxury. In an instant, he decided to lay down his crown as a prince and became an ascetic living in extreme poverty and deprivation.
Eventually, he realized that neither path of extremes leads to enlightenment, which brought him to teach “the middle way”. This concept advocates for bringing balance into all areas of life. Balance is the key to living a joyful life.
THE LAW OF BALANCE IS INEVITABLE
Even though we often do not see it and experience everything out of balance, there is always a natural equilibrium. The universe is a fine-tuned conscious being that is inevitably balancing itself constantly. A tangible example is our blood pH level. It must stay in a very narrow range; otherwise, we die quickly. No matter what we expose our body to through food or other influences in a healthy body, the blood pH level stays within its boundaries. If not, serious health problems arise quickly.
Balance is the interplay of opposites, the narrow point between two extremes. It is closely related to the universal Law of Polarity and the Law of Rhythm. The former states that everything has its opposite, and thus, we find balance in the middle. The latter explains that by going to one extreme, the pendulum eventually swings to the other, creating life’s rhythms.
Often, we need to explore the extremes to find our balance. It is not the easiest but most direct way to explore the Law of Balance.
When someone finds their balance and maintains this equilibrium, we experience them as extremely centered no matter the outer circumstances. By consciously exploring our habits and behaviors, we can note where our imbalances are. For example, a typical new-age phenomenon is overworking, balanced by burnout. Like everything in life, keeping the balance is a lifelong effort. However, being aware of this law supports us in becoming conscious of our imbalances. As a result, we can apply countermeasures to drop into the equilibrium. Furthermore, this centeredness allows us to become a pillar or example for others in finding balance. Remember, the external imbalance only reflects what is going on inside.
Finding our balance is one of the main benefits of the Alchemical Transformation process. By shedding old layers of conditioning, surfacing subconscious patterns, and filtering out our True Essence, we reach a state of balance we can return to quickly after exploring extremes. During this process, centeredness and equanimity become deeply ingrained qualities of who we are.
