On the Notion of Balance

There is man, there is woman,

There is spring, there is winter,

There is light, there is darkness,

There is evil, and there is good.

Everything in this world seems to rest on a balance of perfect opposites. I would go so far as to venture that nothing can actually exist without its complete opposite existing as well.

So what does that tell us? I'll tell you what it shows us, shall I? It means that striving for one extreme or another in bound to end in defeat because for one extreme to exist, the exact opposite of it must necessarily exist to allow for both's existence. That's part of the Balance of everything that exists.

The problem was never about ridding the world of evil, or anything at all for that matter. All that occurs, all that can be seen or experienced, belongs to a spectrum or other made up of at least two core extremes.

As such, those who act 'badly' (corrupted, perverted, heartless, cruel, you name it) are but mere vectors that slide too close to one extremity of the Good-Bad spectrum - whose definition, by the way, depends mostly on an individual, a group, or a society's perspective at a certain time and place, so that what they deem good or bad today may well be different tomorrow.

The problem was always about the lack of striking a balance between all core extremes. Strike the perfect balance and harmony can develop. Slide too far off one extreme, and chaos is the norm.

I suppose the way nature works provides the best observing ground for this line of thoughts. By observing what we call the 'blind' justice of nature, we can note the fine balance that exists, involving just the right amount of every extreme. But I should really say 'the perfect amount of middleground between each extreme that exists'. Because nature is essencially perfectly wired to strike a perfect balance between opposites, it isn't too surprising to see how it managed to ensure a constant cycle of life like clockwork for so long.

Humans have been observing this clockwork orchestra displaying a mastery of the notion of perfect balance for thousands of years. Most of them are still stuck wasting their braincells on 'how to rid the world' of such things as poverty, hunger, pain, unfairness, war... whatever.

If you are one of those striving to get rid of whatever extreme that exists, or even whatever occurrence that seems so 'unfair' to you, then you have still much to reflect on. You are simply unable to see past your own subjectivity, and therefore failing to see truly in the greatest depth.


This whole existence is about striking a balance. Some choose to call it wrongly a compromise, but I see it as a choice to stand on that fine line that spawns a sense of equilibrium. Everything about this world, this reality, rests on a basis of opposites… Thriving toward one opposite is pointless. But what does the world (its people) keep doing? They keep running after one opposite to the next. They seek to attain ‘happiness’, ‘peace’, ‘freedom’, ‘justice’ etc… and they fail to take into account that to have such notions as happiness, peace, freedom and justice, the exact opposite needs to exist to an extend even to just be aware of what any of these notions are actually about.

So why don’t you keep running after one mere extreme… that way you will make sure to have blinded yourself from the bigger picture.

There can be NO sense of happiness, peace, freedom or justice without a taste of their opposites.

If one declares that they have never felt contentment or ‘happiness’, then they have not tasted enough of its opposite notion, for if they had, they would by now be able to appreciate a great part of the spectrum Pain-Contentment/Joy.

If one declares that they have never felt or witnessed a sense of justice, then they have not suffered enough injustice in their lives to be able to appreciate the spectrum Justice-Injustice.

If one declares that they have not yet experienced a sense of peace, then they have not lived through enough struggles, perhaps war (inner and/or outward) to be able to appreciate the spectrum Peace-Destruction.

If one doesn’t know or understand the true meaning of freedom, then they have never felt a prisoner in the first place and are therefore unable to distinguish the difference between freedom and slavery.

Don’t be put off by my clumsy choices of words… beyond their weakness lies the true beginning of deep understanding of everything this world is about.