Happiness and Balance

Happiness and Balance

Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.  ~ Thomas Merton

Balance is a concept we will come back to time and time again on this blog.   Even in attaining happiness, everything has to be done in it’s measure, all aspects of your life must be balanced.  This is something we all understand intellectually but often fail to achieve in our life.  Of course I’m being a little hypocritical as I’m writing this after coming home from working an eleven hour day.  So I return to my reading for the day, and share my daily meditation with you courtesy of Deng Ming-Dao.  Have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

Balance

Summer withered grass to flaxen yellow,
Scorched leaves to brittle paper,
Dried lakes to cracked clay.

Chill autumn brought little relief-
But with the early gentle rains,
The earth’s fissure softened
And desiccated plans began to dissolve.
Slowly, balance comes once again.

Many cultures describe old people as having seen many winters.  These elders have seen many cycles come and go, and their wisdom comes from long observation of life’s rising and falling.  If we have a long-range view, then we realize that equilibrium comes in the course of nature’s progression.  Nature does not achieve balance by keeping to one level.  Rather, elements and seasons alternate with one another in succession.  Balance, as defined by Tao, is not stasis but a dynamic process of many overlapping alternations; even if some phases seem wildly excessive, they are balanced by others.

Everything has its place.  Everything has its season.  As events turn, balance is to know what is here, what is coming and how to be in perfect harmony with it.  Then one attains a state of sublimity that cannot be challenged.

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