In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (also yin-yang or yin yang, 陰陽 yīnyáng "dark—bright") describe how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.
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Ida & Pingala, Black & White, Male & Female, Love & Hate, Life & Death, Rich & Poor, Happy & Sad, Success & Failure. These are all extremes and opposites of one another. What I am realizing is that we need to find the middle, find the Gray in-between the Black and White, allow for the masculine to show if you're feminine and visa versa. We often tend to pick one of these extremes and then try to maintain that level. For instance we all want happiness, and we try to create a happy existence, often these periods are followed by long periods of sadness sometimes even depression. That's because you can't have one without the other, they are two sums of one whole. When you love another, it's okay to also hate them from time to time; arguably it renews and refreshes the love that you have for another. I'm starting to discover how vital balance is. I've always believed in balance, but I never really quite understood the impact or implications when we live in extremes. For purposes of explaining the above, lets use a scale, 1 = low, 10 = high. If you receive amazing news, generally you'd consider yourself to feel around 7 - 10. When you receive sad or upsetting news, then perhaps you're down towards 1 - 3. My suggestion and conclusion from the past three months of travel and reading different pieces of literature, is to meet in the middle. That's not to say you're constantly living at 5, and things are 'dull' or even 'boring'. No, I am suggesting that if you recognize that duality exists and accept the 'oneness' of things, then you are accepting of the extremes, and the mean value rises from 5, towards 6 or 7. If you're not following along with my statements above, just bear with me for the next few paragraphs until you can understand my realization. I'll need to walk you through my day in order for it to all make sense. (Hopefully).
Today was the worst I've felt in India so far and go figure, it was Valentine's Day - which is not usually a day I single out as the one day to show your love, but we'll go with that theory for purposes of rationalizing the day of events.
I managed to get stung by a bee - let's call that a love bite. I also got very dizzy from the extreme heat - let's choose to call this enlightenment. I enjoyed a fantastic treat of cacao bliss balls - easy this translates to divine chocolate. I fell asleep to the documentary of Pattabhi Jois - Soothing music for the soul. I woke in a hot sweat, completely soaked - let's consider this the same as getting a detox treatment at the spa. The Migraine headache that woke me - a state of mediation. Missing yoga practice - the Valentine's Day hangover. This got me thinking, about our state of mind when we experience those days where we feel like the world is against us, when everything happens is a negative event. I've been fortunate that along my journey I've only had a few days that truly had me down and out, but everyday I've been a little sad, or homesick and missing those I love, or missing my routine, or heck even things as trivial as my favorite foods. I've had digestive issues, migraine heads, sore muscles, daily fatigue, irritably, fear, even anger. For the most part, my journey has been smooth sailing. But as I stated in an earlier post, travel can't all be rainbows and puppy dogs and it's not, because life is not. We need those moments that cause pain and anger, that bring us back to reality, that truly ground us. As difficult as those moments are, they are fleeting, and a normal or neutral state returns as quickly as these bad moments appear, likewise, when we have moments of extreme happiness, those too don't last forever. So, generally speaking my journey has been around a 7 most days. I've definitely experienced complete elation, but also extreme sadness. I'm not suggesting I've got things figured out, but I'm learning to recognize the moments in life. Osho states, as soon as you think you've got it figured out you don't, and I agree, I'm far from figuring out things, but I'd like to think I have a new awareness that perhaps was absent before.
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Having eaten some toast and peanut butter the gals and I decided to head to Ashwem Beach for a day of lemon sodas and the sand. We got dropped off at Palm Grove, which is a little resort right on the water. I enjoyed two lemon sodas, which are seltzer waters with fresh lemon and a sprinkle of sea salt! So delicious. I sat for a while in the shade and read my latest book, The Book of Nothing by Hsin Hsin Ming; more on this later. I was surprised to see that all of the beach was clean. ZERO trash! I couldn't believe my eyes, I mean PV is clean and no trash, but the roads leading to PV are highly littered, in fact thus far everywhere I've been has had trash. One of the girls was telling us that her friend is a veterinarian, and when she arrives in India she'll mostly be performing operations on cows, as they've swallowed plastic bottles, containers, etc. These items get caught in the throat or stomach and cause severe complications for the animals and often death. So unbelievably sad to hear these stories, but having lived in the country for almost a month, I can see how this is possible. In Gokalum I witnessed this daily, the animals were eating the trash to find even the littlest scrap of food.
As Katie said to me before I left Mystic school, "you can't change India". That's not to say that change can't happen, but it's interesting to connect the dots along my journey. In The Book of Nothing, it discusses how the Eastern world is different than the Western world. I'll summarize with the interpretation that the East is concerned with the internal spiritual experiences, and the external environment doesn't matter. On the flip side, the West is focused on the external environment, and lack the internal experiences. If you follow that logic then it would explain why in India there is rubbish that litters the streets. India is starting to realize they're neglecting Mother Earth or Gaia and it has to be cleaned up, but like all change, this cannot happen overnight, and as a cultural shift it is slow. Many still believe that internal is the only thing important, and do not believe that the outward matters. Westerns are often turning to the East to learn about the spiritual or inner wisdom. As a large majority of the population has focused on material things, they've learned that power and wealth do not equal happiness. Therefore, you find many from the West turning to the teachings from the East to learn how to reconnect and find that inner spritualism.
As the novel states:
"Just be in the middle ... if you are exactly in the middle you transcend the world". When you choose the extreme, you will fail in both. Extremes are always dangerous and they never fulfill."
Balance folks, that's what it's all about. Which is ironic because the Baghava Gita spoke about this neutral zone. Furthermore, Eckart Tolle, spoke about this exact message in A New Earth: "A wise man's 'maybe' signifies a refusal to judge anything that happens. Instead of judging what is, he accepts it and so enters into conscious alignment with the higher order".
My point being is that, when we live so far in one extreme, our entire balance is thrown off. I'm still working on finding the right balance, but I encourage all of you to take a look around and perhaps when you find yourself really down and out, change your mindset. Tell yourself this moment is fleeting, surround yourself with things that help you find the middle. That's enough rambling for the day. Xx