When talking about certain subjects, you often get people to tout this motto that "it's all about balance". Is it really "all" about balance? No, not really, and certainly not the way some people think about it.
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I see this used as an answer-all to justify a certain way of living, to validate certain behavior. It's as if blind ignorant balance has become some universal "truth" that can be positioned to explain how we should live or how things should be no matter what the subject. Have you noticed this?
Instead of actually thinking about a subject, topic or argument to determine what is correct, right, or true, or what is good or moral... touting the blind adherence to a concept of balance can be used instead. This is the delusion of balance being able to answer everything as some convenient solution to not bother having to really think deeper and understand if something is right or not. Just say it's all about balance, you gotta balance everything, etc.
This delusion of blind balance is often spouted by New Ager or pseudo-"spiritual" types who just get infatuated with the concept of balance and use it whenever they please to sound "enlightened".
Some people seem to have an issue with judgment, to discern things as one way or another. So they just prefer to pick the middle point between two issues and just say "balance is key" to avoid having to do thinking and understand an issue properly. Truth doesn't matter... just pick the middle point between what is true and false and call it the "right" answer based on blind balance... lol.
This can play out in moral arguments where they don't want to see the moral core of the issue, instead preferring to tout the whole blind balance position. We have to make sure we are "balanced!" Who cares about choosing the truth over falsity, right over wrong, moral over immoral, good over evil...
Why bother trying to perceive things accurately, to understand and navigate our way through reality and life with an accurate understanding to embody values we say (or pretend) we want to uphold. It's much easier to lie to ourselves that something isn't one way or another because we don't want to think about it honestly and have to make a hard choice, to pick a side based on principles.
Do we say we live one way, in harmony with a certain principle or value, but live another way? Being logical is to recognize contradictions, in order to bring things back to the balance of truth, in equilibrium, congruent and consistent. If someone says they are X, but they do Y, and being X means negating doing Y, then they are a living contradiction, living in contradiction.
When it comes to personal involvement in things, it's much easier to ignore, avoid, deny and reject our participation in wrongdoings. Let's excuse and justify wrongs into fabricated imaginary "rights" to live in balance between two opposing points...
That's not to say there isn't anytime to say balance is needed. There are plenty of time that balance applies. It can be about balancing water intake with food, with doing exercising our bodies along with our minds, with doing this or that in our personal lives, etc. There are many other valid examples that I can't think of.
The balance we need to recognize the most is about what we embody, what we are aligned to, in harmony with, united with, and in balance with. Are we and our lives in balance, harmony and equilibrium with truth? With what is right? With what is good? With what is moral?
That is what the ancient Egyptian Hall of Judgment weighing of the "heart" (consciousness) through the scales of Maat represent. It's about us being in balance with the feather of truth (morality, justice, etc.) or not. That's a unifying goal, purpose, objective and meaning of life that we all have in common, regardless of our own individual personal life goals.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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Side note: Why am I seeing people here and on other krnel articles mention Steemit writers' money/popularity agenda? The internet is full of marketing and poor ulterior motives. Did you just wake up to this 25 year old internet phenomena? Either you like an article or you don't, and explain why, but I find these comments on here both distracting to the subject at hand and hard to follow since people don't check their writing for readability. That's high school English 101.
As for balance; so many immature people couldn't even wrap their minds around most of these ideas presented by krnel, unless you catch these people behind their keyboards while they are doing it; which I have, and gotten blasted rudely because people can't take constructive criticism or handle being corrected to think deeper than their narrow-minded perspectives (their emotionalisms of being "offended" means more to them than treating others with some decorum and respect). They have been selfish in believing they are "perfect" and "special" just the way they are, or the only living people (except they can't actually function giving some common courtesy to others), and we should all accept their flawed thinking. That is immature thinking. As the author states, imbalanced for the truth.
I see problems in catch-phrases, while people don't stop to question if these phrases are true or how they are true. They assume they are true and try to make them fit, instead of looking at the bigger picture and all sides to determine the truth. As I say, they are taking 3 lefts to make a right turn. Here's a catch phrase that fits: When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me.
Thanks for sharing this, Kris. These articles are short and simple enough for anyone who failed to have or listen to the wisdom of their elders. Too bad they wouldn't know wisdom if it bit them in the nose, regardless if it's said smooth as silk or harsh as sandpaper.
Indeed. You know what you're talking about ;) I checked your profile, nothing there. Why don't you write on Steem? And, how do you know my name? :P Are you from facebook? Thanks for the poignant comment, very well said.
Ooh controversy! :)
Balance, to me, is accurately defined as 'no part or aspect is overpowering any other part or aspect'.
Judgements are thoughtforms that rigidly define that 'x is y' - or 'dogs are scary'. The problem with judgements is that the are outside of time and are essentially guesses which often take on the appearance of fact. There's nothing wrong with simply accepting that we don't know and then remaining open to learning more.
The vague denials you are pointing to are very common in society on Earth, yes - not just among 'spiritual people' but among 'scientists' and many types of people - it's just that the form the denial has taken often has us denying it's presence.
Enlightenment is 'understanding', so inherently it comes with truth - the two go 'hand in hand'. But clearly too we can hold misunderstanding and judge that it is actually correct understanding.
Having deliberately aimed to not judge at all, I have found this approach to not only be helpful but actually to be necessary when problem solving, including when writing computer code. Why do I need to waste my energy in guessing? I don't usually.
Ironically, the delusional version of balance you are pointing to is actually based on judgements, such as the judgement that "deep thinking isn't necessary if we just have balance".
Denial is at the core of all dysfunction and we probably all have some of that going on - the key is to intend to identify our denials and heal/balance/evolve to clear them and align more completely with actual truth.
Judgment is synonymous with evaluation, diagnosis, discernment. You judge every single day of your life. Everyone does. This is another thing that gets misrepresented ;)
Actually, it is possible to carefully pick through and understand all thoughtforms being held, removing/clearing/releasing all judgements. I have consciously and knowingly released 1000s over the last 15 years since I started. Releasing judgements frees up energy and creates space for change. The example of scary dogs is a clear one. The judgement is that 'Dogs are scary' when in fact the truth is that 'i once felt fear when a dog jumped at me' - you can see how the two thought structures could be judged to mean the same thing, but in fact they do not. the judgement 'dogs are scary' takes an experience and packages it into a blanket statement which applies to every other dog and possible interaction with dogs - which is a misrepresentation of the truth since many interactions with dogs do not involve fear. If i hold the idea that 'dogs are scary' then I may create false feelings of fear when around dogs that makes me edgy and nervous in their presence. By releasing the judgement through identifying the denial that the judgement introduces, I can then experience reality as it is, rather than as I project it to be erroneously.
Judging that 'everyone judges every day' is a sure way to miss the details here - neither of us has met all of the billions of people or knows what they think and do every day. ;)
From a good book on this subject:
Putting something in a dictionary does not make it the most accurate understanding regarding the concept being defined.
Indeed, so it's not really the concept of balance which is at fault. Balance in one sense is universal fact, that is equilibrium. All systems "balance" towards it.
We're not buddies, but this site is so bad these days, it almost kind of breaks my heart that it's not even your stuff that's trending - over the stuff that actually is.
Nothing intellectual goes anywhere anymore.
If / when @krnel trends it could ignite a certain forgotten animosity so I'm sure he's happy to fly under the radar for now 😅
Even though I don't see most posts as particularly interesting beyond tired moral arguments and axe grinding, this kind of stuff being discussed is far far more preferable to what's there now, I can agree to that.
Yeah, but compare that to amateur level photography, posts about Steemit and STEEM, and now there's that weird dude with his guitar and those blank eyes staring into the abyss. That's the trending page every single day. The guitar dude is new, though. But even he posts the same post every time.
Yeah, I'd take @krnel.
You have to take a balanced approach to balance.
LOL indeed, that's what I've been told I did on facebook:
I'm specifically referring to blind balance applied without proper evaluation.
The nature is constantly seeking a balance, but human finds it boring so we're constantly mess it up :)
Sure there is a lot of balance applied in natural laws, but not everything in our lives operates in blind terms of analogies to balance in nature ;)
No, not everything, at least not when you look from our perspective. Take a large step back, look at thousands or millions of years and it'd be easy to notice how nature seeks equlibrium. It's just a higher level of abstraction.
And that's what the whole morality is, just as subjective. Doing good for one is causing pain in another. Saving human lives good? Well, not if you ask some species which got distinct because of human domination.
You value human life above all other species because your point of view is not objective. You're looking from your subjective perspective to create a moral code deciding what's good or what's bad.
Your post is very useful, Thanks for your share.
The purpose of the we navigate to the good things in life.
Well, there is no doubt that balance is the key to successful life.
balance in the expenses, balance in the relations.
But sometimes you just think positive and let the time to take action.
"The balance we need to recognize the most is about what we embody, what we are aligned to, in harmony with, united with, and in balance with. Are we and our lives in balance, harmony and equilibrium with truth? With what is right? With what is good? With what is moral?"
This pretty much sums it up for me, great article!
I wrote about balance too a little while ago, I'll link to it if you'd like to check it out.
https://steemit.com/life/@fruitarianism/how-do-we-stay-balanced-in-life