When you come across the word BALANCE and HARMONY in this Work, remember that they are only words. We are conditioned to view words in certain ways and are often not clear about what we are talking about - mostly due to a lack that our words and concepts really have in expressing what can only be directly felt, seen, heard, and experienced.
So - avoid getting hung up on the words. To get a deeper understanding .... about how words and concepts trip people up, please read our text on WORDS AND CONCEPTS ... mental and rational traps (subject of our next blog and an insert on our various pages on the website ... soon to come).
Use your feelings, intuition and allow pictures to form about what you are reading in order to gain a deeper insight. Words alone will keep you in your head rationalizing ... remember, that our Work is experiential and direct ... Philosophy and knowledge are keys - and only a small part of the Work itself. if you engage in the Work and DO it, you then have an opportunity to KNOW it ... there are no
guarantees in true Work of this sort - you WILL, however, get what you will attain through your own efforts and according to your own level of BEING. This is different for everyone; how can it not be? We show you the tools; you Work them!
Healing is very much like this too. This is why people will get various results ... a key part in the healing process is you ... your approach ... your openness ... your level of being ... what you are ready for ... and so on. Engage in the process and take it as far as you possibly can. Make it your lifestyle and priority to see how far you can evolve in this lifetime.
As we Work in this Art, we are taught various principles and philosophical tools - tools which are and have been used by us ... and by others who have walked a similar path before us. While much of what we apply in our lives (and in the Art today) comes from older teachings passed on by others, we also embrace
new discoveries with discernment and wisdom.
This is the way in which arts have grown over many generations. It is vital to hold dearly to what works and continues to work, without discounting growth and evolution within the art and our selves. Having said this, it is clear to me, having walked this path in life for many years, that we have much to learn about applying some very simple things ... not in knowledge, but in true application.
Balance and Harmony are two of these simple things.
In Jin Shin Jyutsu, I've heard it said that some of us are in harmony with our disharmonies. Perhaps others have said this as well. I have certainly SEEN it in real life. This is one of the core practices of the Way of the Art of Kung fu Chi Kung Life System we teach ... a practice of seeing clearly in the mirrors of self-reflection ... how we really are, instead of how we imagine ourselves to be. We can be in harmony with our disharmonies by not being inside of ourselves (when we imagine we are, and think we know what is going on) ... we can be a part of creating havoc in relationships due to our unconscious patterns of reactions, attitudes and behaviours or we may be unaware or ignore the signs that an illness is settling in due to our inability to feel subtle shifts in the various workings of our inner systems ... we have a part in creating imbalance and disharmony inside and out.
Avoid judging yourself or another for these things ... if you were not taught how to do things differently, then embark on a journey to discover how ...
I recall working with a young man in a self-development portion of a program I was working in. I had to call him in to speak with him about his inappropriate behaviour and the effect it was having on the others in the group. He denied his behaviour in the group setting when I attempted to bring it to his attention. I remained firm yet fair in my attempt to have him own up to his behaviour,
as he was in danger of being dismissed from the program. When I told him that it appeared to me that he was carrying a load of baggage and that a core emotional response of his was anger, he tensed up in front of my desk, clenched his fists, banged them on the table and yelled, "I'm NOT angry,'' looking at me in a huff and face turning red. I looked at him in amazement and asked, "Well, what would you call that?"
I remained calm, and spoke to him briefly ... ignoring his anger and focusing on the fact that I knew there were other higher ways of being within him - underlying the outer shell of his anger and inappropriate behaviours. He was later dismissed from the program due to an outburst. After a week or so, he called me to say that he reflected on our discussion. He said I was the first person to ever hold my ground with him. He went on to apologize for his behaviour and owned up to it. He also added that I was correct about the family baggage he had to face if he was to be free from his underlying anger. He finally had an opportunity to do something new.
The point, here, is that since others had not held their ground with him and likely always focused on the anger and not the underlying issue, he had developed a way of harmony with his inner disharmony and emotional/mental imbalance in his approach to everyone. He went unconscious about his anger and his habitual responses to people and his life situation ... no longer feeling it or seeing it until it was reflected to him directly. He suffered immensely as a result ... so obvious to see by most everyone but himself.
We are all like this to various degrees - the 'stuff' within us which we really could Work on to alter our level of Being are rarely things we embrace when they are drawn to our attention. We are in harmony with our various disharmonies and imbalances. We no longer see them, feel them or Know of them ... until something major happens ... like a big shock or illness .... even then, we are lucky if we sustain the awareness of the root of it all.
BALANCE
In the world today, due mostly to our mental/rational conditioning and experiences in school, the word balance might bring up an image of a scale or a measuring tool of some sort. If one Works on oneself and has personally experienced the ebbs and flows of balance in one's life and being, this word would conjure up a different feeling/picture.
In one of our uses of the word in this Art we teach, we use the word balance similar to the definition in the Oxford Dictionary (2005) as a noun meaning mental and emotional stability: the way to some kind of peace and personal balance. Is this attainable? It is, indeed - it is an inner condition with outer benefits and is attainable to all who wish to experience it for themselves. Is this balance a rigid state? Of coarse not! Nothing in life is static - all is dynamic and changing ... moving all the time ... altering even as we speak. This balance we refer to is the Art of Being and moving with what is and moving in balance inside/out while doing so.
The Oxford also mentions a balanced approach as meaning an adjective which describes something that takes everything into account. This is what our holistic and spiritual perspective does, as we are multi-faceted beings.
In an electric circuit, the Oxford also describes balance as showing symmetry with respect to a reference point - usually ground. We apply this principle to ourselves in a similar way. Our practices assist us in working to gain symmetry between our upper and lower, front and back, left and right sides and parts of our body/being on all levels. These symmetries, or lack of, relate to energetic imbalances ... remembering that we are energy first and that our physical form is but a reflection of energies moving. There are many considerations in root causes of imbalance of energies: physical accidents/traumas, environment and conditioning, improper diet, our lifestyle ... mental/emotional patterns ... many things can impact our energy and form.
In Art, the Oxford goes on, balance refers to the harmony of design and proportion. I like to refer to the work of Masaro Emoto and his crystals when I speak of this and how it relates to our Art. When we Work to gain balance, we become aware of subtle shifts of energy over time ... differences in feeling
and texture inside of ourselves. This leaks out to the outer, and we sparkle in our own unique way when balanced. Every one of us has a natural beauty and vitality that emanates when we are feeling balanced and in harmony inside and out. We can also read imbalances in the eyes, skin, posture, tone of voice and other outward manifestations.
In Masaro's work with crystals, he would notice that certain words, tones and music affected crystal structures ... the ones considered the most beautiful were crystals with balance and symmetry to them ... clarity of form and structure. This is a great analogy for us when we consider our Work and how we too can and do create ourselves by what we are exposed to on the inside and out ... by what we allow inside and around us. Masaro's crystals, exposed to harsh tones, certain types of music and negative words, lacked symmetry, clarity and balance.
To assist you with a picture, hold the image of a crystal in mind ... How might we be like a crystal? After all, we are made up of mostly water. Water forms crystals. Water has been shown to have memory and the capacity to hold information - like crystals - which is why they are used in computer technology ... among other applications we have found for them. Imagine what you feel like when you are in a state of balance ... imagine what you feel like when you have what you may call one of your `off days' ... this gives you an idea of the ebb and flow of balance within you. You have the ability to develop the sensitivity, observation and reflection skills necessary to determine what throws you off. You can also learn tools which can assist you to regain balance when you are impacted/affected by various things which do cause a disturbance in your inner/outer flows of energy.
HARMONY
The Oxford definition of this word as a noun, means the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole. It also refers to being in agreement or concord.
In our Work, we mean the unification of the Body, Mind and Spirit as One unit and in agreement within the person so as not to create disharmony or fragmentation ... division between the parts of us that pull us in different directions ... us wanting different things in different moments as opposing parts of us come forward ... flip-flopping in decisions... regrets, disappointments... unsatisfied and unhappy states... mental and emotional upheavals caused by unconsciously prolonged negative inner states. When we are in harmony, all the parts of our physical body work together as a unit and we are well ... symptom-free, have energy and are vibrant.
I like the analogy of music, which states that harmony is produced when notes are played at the same time and have a pleasing effect on our system as a whole. We can learn to create this inner harmony.
Musical harmony is a great analogy to our inner harmony as a person (our energetics) ... when all of us works in sync, a beautiful sound unique to who we really are is heard, seen and felt ... like a truly harmonious symphony of players of various instruments. Harmonious music is healing - music ... sound ... rhythm ... vibration ... light ... energy .... like you ... like me.
HARMONY AND BALANCE IS ATTAINABLE
In summary, though Harmony and Balance are not permanent rigid states, they are none-the-less true attainable inner states which when mastered lead us to living life without getting stuck for long periods of time in the negativity; strain; harmful stress; striving; illness; mental/emotional labels and ups and downs; dramas involving energy loss; chaos; confusion etc. etc.
When mastered, harmony and balance are states we attain quite easily if/when we are temporarily affected by something. Our tools are refined to the point that the extreme fluctuations experienced by most people are no longer part of our experience.
These are just words. Once experienced, you will KNOW this and BE this yourself ... regardless of what anyone says. So remember that the philosophy and knowledge we share is only a small part of this Path of Study ... the real Work is in the doing of it.
