Everything in life requires balance. Whether it is running, emotions, or your checkbook. There are many different aspects of your life that require balance: yin vs. yang, inhale vs exhale, movement vs stillness, good vs evil, or zen vs pachamama. Many gurus of the past realized that if you went to extremes one way or the other, that you were not in balance with life. Lao Tsu wrote that “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” This is balancing loving with being loved. A different wise king mentioned not to be overly righteous or overly wicked. But the wise man will walk hand in hand with both the righteous and unrighteous.
The story “The Fiddler on the Roof” is about a Jewish family living in Russia. They were going through turmoil trying to hold onto jewish traditions trying to fit into a more modern culture in the world. The father tried to keep his traditions firmly with his family from the pull of modern thinking that was being thrust upon his children and wife by their neighbors as Russia was entering its modern age. The story begins with a fiddler playing a violin atop a steep roof. As the fiddler playing a violin from a steep roof of a house, if he does not keep balance, he will fall off. Likewise in life, if you do not keep your balance you will not be able to fulfill your goals or passion.
In our everyday life, we have to deal with things that we learned in school, church, and with our family. We have to balance all of these things with science and education. If you are stuck in tradition or the old ways, you will never go anywhere or learn anything new. This would be like medical doctors not accepting the newfound knowledge that childbirth fever is caused by doctors not washing their hands in between patients. Because the doctors refused to accept this new information this caused thousands of patients to lose their lives. Only when the older doctors died off and the younger doctors took over did the hospitals make the change. Can you afford to lose lives, money, and time because you are not willing to make a change?
If you ignore tradition, you can easily be swayed by every idea or opinion that shows up in your life. If you are distracted by every new idea and thought that comes along this can cause you to lose your ability to focus and accomplish a specific task or goal that you are doing. This is why long distance runners are hesitant to change equipment, diet, or training. If they are wrong in anything that they do, they risk all the gains that they have with years of work with such a mistake by following the latest fad which may not work for them. They usually wait for something that is tried and true before they trust that it will work for themselves.
Farmers will also be slow to make changes. They will wait to see someone else that is more daring to try things because they are not willing to risk their farm, their family, or their future on some harebrained scheme. All of the facts given by science mean nothing to them until they see results.
Science is always trying to prove itself wrong and religion is always trying to prove itself right. There is a time and a place for everything in life. In religion a story (a theory) is created to explain how things function. Religions explain why people die, what happens after death, and why some people seem to have everything and others nothing. Once religion comes up with a story or a theory, it will take hundreds to thousands of years to prove that this story is correct. After many years with many failed trials they will readjust the story to fit the current situation. Because religion is slow to make changes, this provides stability for people so that they feel like their life has meaning and purpose.
Science comes up with an idea (or theory) of why things work the way that they do. Then they attack this from all sides until it no longer stands. When they do this they come up with a new theory or idea, which is then attacked from all sides until it no longer stands. This allows for new innovation and new ideas to come into play quite quickly. This is why technology is growing at such a fast rate. The problem is if society grows too fast it will become unstable with unwanted consequences. If it grows too slowly, it becomes stagnant, and you will end up back in the dark ages.
In order for society to remain healthy, it needs to remain in balance. On one hand you look for tradition and on the other you look with eager anticipation for change.
We can look at the story of the Buddha and the conclusions that he came to in life. Born into an imperial family, all of the money, and the highest status that people of his time had, he became curious what life was like outside the palace. Before he was about to be crowned prince he escaped the palace to live simply like the rest of the peasants in his kingdom. Broke, hungry, and in the rain under a Bodhi tree the Buddha received his “divine wisdom”. This was to keep life in balance.
On one hand if the Buddha was living lavishly he wouldn’t be in touch with the people of his kingdom. On the other hand if he went to the other extreme and chose to live with as much suffering as possible, then he would risk his life or debilitating illnesses, and no longer be able to help people in his kingdom. The Buddha through his enlightenment realized that he needed to become in balance. All sages that have passed the test of time have discovered the same message that it is important to live our lives in balance.
The point of yoga is to help you acquire balance in life. Balance between spirituality and physical needs. A balance between teaching and learning. A balance between taking things for yourself and giving them away. A balance between time spent with yourself and others.
Yoga postures help you balance your body. This is to help you see the need for you to balance your mind also. Everything that you do in your mind, affects your body. Everything that you do with your mind, affects your body. Everything that you do with your body, affects the mind. All emotions affect your thinking. All thinking affects your emotions. If your mind, body, and spirit are not in balance this is called disease.
Kaivala Yoga helps you bring your life into balance. To bring your life into balance you will need to understand what your passion is, you need to understand who your tribe is, and you need to understand what your goals are in life. To fulfill these goals you need to have balance between your mental powers, your physical powers, and your emotional powers. You are great and wonderful. Thank you for going through this journey with us!