Many a time – in fact, so often – we try to see things in black and white. Plain black. And plain white. We support one issue over the other. We choose one thing to the exclusion of the other. Our preference is one over the other. We believe and act as though two seemingly opposite things cannot go together.
But Nature and Life are not like that. Here, everything is balanced and synced up. At an individual level we may think everything has to be one way or the other but that’s often not true. We may want only good things – what we think as ‘good’ – to happen to us all the time or we may desire only favourable outcomes at all times. And that does not happen. Which disheartens us or makes us unhappy.
In Nature, everything goes together, right from the birth and death, victory and defeat, the good and the bad, the profit and loss. This is called samsara, a concept common to all Indian religions which refer to the “cycle of successive existence” or simply the cyclicality of all life and matter.
[Also read by the same author: The pitfalls of the everyday ‘Yes..But’ conversation and how they impact our lives – THE NEWS PORTER]
And yet, we fail to see the very obvious in Nature because we are too busy, lost in our own world. If you walk through a park or a forest, you not only see abundant life all around but also dead and decaying trees, rotting leaves, and gnarled trunks.
Upon closer scrutiny, you discover that perishing leaves and tree trucks not only give birth to new life but are full of life themselves. Microorganisms are at work. Molecules are rearranging themselves. So, death is not to be found anywhere. Rather, we find something taking birth. The life form only metamorphoses. What a caterpillar calls the end of the world, we call a butterfly!
It’s very important to understand and accept that life and death, profit and loss, victory and defeat go hand in hand. When the so-called ‘negative’ things happen, we should not feel sad or low because it means that the good is around the corner. And the goal of life is to live in agreement with the Nature which is about living in harmony with the opposites.
It’s equally important to know that in the cycle of Nature, death, defeat, loss and failure are not seen as ‘negative’. These expressions of judging the natural flow of life are of our egoic mind. Truth is, in Nature, there is only movement, a cyclical movement. Whatever begins, has to end. When someone leaves, it is because someone else is about to arrive. Only if you are brave enough to say Goodbye, you will be rewarded with a new Hello. This is the cycle. Up and down. Up and down. It goes on.
But we have been hardwired to reject the ‘Downs’ of life because it’s uncomfortable and forces us to rewire and reorient ourselves. It asks us to change our perspectives and see things from a different angle.
Another problem is our mind is greatly influenced by our society. Our society has trained our egoic mind to discard what it considers as ‘negative’. Death, Loss, Defeat, Failure are all seen as ‘negative’ by our socially-conditioned mind. But if one is able to break free of this conditioning and stop judging, through acceptance of what is, one has made room for love, for joy, for peace.
Ultimately, the primary cause of our unhappiness is never the situation, but our thoughts about it.
In life too, it’s important to maintain the balance just as we find in the Nature. The first step towards achieving it is by Disidentifying from your Mind. While Mind is a very powerful tool, it is also very limiting because it is only a small part of your consciousness. It is very greatly influenced by our society, the limited information and experience that we have gathered. It is not limitless. But Nature is.
The second step is to Challenge your thoughts – the negative, the limiting and the toxic ones. Look at emotions, situations and relationships in a different way rather than from the preconceived notions and conditioned mind.
Sometimes your drive to find balance in life comes from an overwhelming and painful mental imbalance. Accept the pain, stop resisting the life and its processes and work towards changing your thoughts.
Remember, Beautiful Sunsets need Cloudy Skies.
The main/featured image on top by Bessi from Pixabay has been used for illustrative purposes only
