I started yoga this week; partly as a new years resolution to get more fit, but also to focus on breathing, to be more stable in myself, to find my inner balance. Have you ever felt like you're feeling up and down? Or like your life is on high one minute and then at an all-time low the next? Balance is one of the key qualities in life, and it has been an important idea throughout history.
Aristotle, one of the big three ancient Greek philosophers alongside Socrates and Plato, was inspired by the concept of balance when writing Nicomachean Ethics, known today as virtue ethics. He proposed the Doctrine of the Mean, in which he discusses that virtue is found in between the vices of deficiency (too little) and excess (too much). It sounds highly sophisticated at first, but all he really meant was that we should strive to maintain balance. Here's some examples:
Vice of Deficiency | Virtue | Vice of Excess |
cowardice | courage | rashness |
too humble | proud | boastful |
shyness | modesty | shameless |
Imagine you're a warrior in battle, you're on the front line, about to charge. If you're too rash you'll run into war thinking you can beat everyone with your bare fists, if you're full of cowardice you'll run the opposite direction, either way you'll get caught. So the best way to approach it is to have the right amount of courage and to have your wits about you.
Now although Aristotle proposed this whole Doctrine of the Mean, he didn't establish it as set rules everyone must follow. Virtue ethics is character-based, he took into account that everyone is different, are on their own path and have their own limitations. How can we have such set rules for how to behave when we're all in different situations? My idea of a balanced diet looks very different to my partner's who is vegetarian. And that's okay.
This way of thinking has also been seen throughout the history of Buddhism, and eastern thought in general. Buddhism, at its core, isn't about following set sacred texts. It's about finding your own path to enlightenment, and you do this by being one with the Middle Way. Siddhartha Gautama, on his journey to enlightenment and becoming the Buddha, was seeking the way through other people. As a young prince, he indulged in wealth and luxuries without having any real knowledge of the outside world. So he went out and followed five ascetics (someone who practises strict self-discipline, usually for spiritual reasons), who told him various different methods of meditation to the point Siddhartha starved himself almost to death. However, he soon came to understand that self-indulgence and self-mortification were two extreme ends of the same stick, and the most sensible way forward was to have balance.
It is interesting to see the striking similarities between Buddhism and Aristotle's ethics in this way. Western ethics over time strayed so far from such a personal, individual-led basis to become more objective (independent of personal interpretations). I believe Siddhartha and Aristotle had it right; one size doesn't fit all.
Balance has also been seen in Taoism, most popularly known through the yin yang symbol, also known as the taijitu symbol.
Watch this short video: Alan Watts Explains What Awakening Means - YouTube
Watts' energy as he explains the meaning of yin yang and its importance in awakening is so captivating, I could listen to his lectures all day!
So I started yoga, as a focal point, to bring me back to earth, to bring me back to balance. While I may appear young, slim and energetic, in reality my knees crunch when I walk up the stairs, I'm out of breath every time I stroll over a bridge and I often seem in a rush to do things. I know I need to work on these things, so I'm following what is right for me, finding my middle way, just as everyone else in the class I'm sure is doing.
Today, when everything is moving forward so quickly, it can be easy to get ahead of yourself. Burnouts are all too common, and success is merely but the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Sometimes I want everything, and I want it all now. It's an easy mindset to fall into. At the same time, though, we should be careful not to try too hard to reach a perfect state of equilibrium at all times. No one's lives are a straightforward path. Find what is right for you at every twist and turn.
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