"Balance" implicitly refers to an equalization, an evening out, a middle ground, not more of one or the other but having things be equal. To balance yourself on a beam is to not fall over to the left or right, but to stay in the middle, equally centered.
"an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady." "a condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions."
Source: pixabay
The problem is when simply stating "it's all about balance", it simply means all, everything, to "balance everything". As if "all" things need to be balanced and brought to the middle; not sometimes choosing one over the other; not putting more weight, value or importance in one polarity or the other. Just be "balanced" and follow a "middle-path" towards everything, making them even and equal.
On a scale, you can indeed balance two things equally if they weigh the same, but if they don't weigh the same then the balance shows which one weighs more as a proportion or ratio of the other, and it's not an equal balance. Scales and balancing can show if two things are equally measured, but that's not to say everything should be brought to equal measure.
In life, there are things that matter more, that have more weight, value and importance inherently. Truth and falsity, and right and wrong, are examples of what not to equally balance or go to the middle ground with.
To balance out right and wrong or good and evil in our actions is foolish thinking. It's not always "balance" that is what "it's all about". There can be the dissolution or disintegration of one polarity towards more actualization of the other. The proportion or ratio of right to wrong that we do -- or good to evil that we do -- should not be 1:1, 2:1, or 5:1. The goal is not to have proportions of how much right to wrong we do. The goal is to be at no proportion or ratio, where we don't do wrongs. There is no imaginary "balance sheet" where we can keep doing wrongs to others so long as we do "good" deeds in other parts of our lives...
How to we work towards that goal of removing the wrong or falsity in our lives?
Truth is a synonym for reality and existence, the universe. All that is gets put into the universal grouping concept of "the Truth". Truth and moral truth are one way, non-contradictory, and don't unite with their opposite or falsity or immorality. 1+1=2 can't unite with 1+1=3. It's contradictory.
Similarly, not stealing from some people but stealing from others doesn't make for a real cohesive and united moral way of living, but rather a disunited, disharmonious and contradictory state of being. True moral ways don't unite with false moral ways, as they are incompatible. People who deny the justness or legitimacy of murder, rape, etc. do not want to unite with those who support those wrong-doings.
You don't unite falsity with truth, or obfuscation with clarity. The absence of clarity can tend to create obfuscation of what is really there, and also leads to confusion rather than true understanding. This can lead to chaotic behavior in attempts to make sense of reality while still lacking the clarity to see what is really happening.
For example, due to a lack of understand our world, many people champion centralized authoritarian systems of rulers to rule over everyone else, playing dichotomous games of voting for others to solve our problems for us. When one party doesn't work out for us, the majority votes in the others party, and back and forth we swing in an infinite pendulum, stuck in a false dichotomy for our way of life.
Removing one polarity of falsity we accept or believe to be "true" will provide us with more clarity to see a truth we previously ignored or overlooked. Rather than not being able to see it due accepting falsity, now we can see it. Removing falsity and the negative manifestations of behavior (like immorality) is where the balancing -- of what is more important; of what weights more in our lives; and of what is of greater value -- can happen. So long as falsities, obfuscations or confusions are accepted, they will prevent acceptance of greater truths, clarity and vision of what to do.
We are supposed to apply a "balance" scale measure to our actions and behaviors, not to balance right and wrong action, but to put more weight, value and importance to align ourselves -- to balance ourselves -- with the polarity of truth, good, right, morality, justice, order (Maat), not to blindly "balance" and accept to do right and wrong actions "equally", to speak with truth and falsity "equally", to be "centered" in doing both right and wrong, etc.
Made by @krnel
We can also balance our knowledge of truth and falsity, good and evil, right and wrong. This is to know the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, truth and falsity, so as to not fall for evil, wrong or falsity in our lives and the way we live it. With the knowledge and understanding gained, we can balance ourselves (actions, deeds, desires) against the feather of truth and see if we measure up to various truths (like moral truth), and then change our behavior in accordance to "revive", "rebirth" or "resurrect" ourselves into better versions of who we can be.
In terms of the implicit balance, middle, equal, unity, etc., there are indeed valid aspects of life where this can be applied. We can balance and bring unity to our expressions of consciousness, to balance the "mind and heart" or the "left" and "right-brain"; thought, emotion and action; and the body (action), mind (thought) and "soul" (emotion). There is unity of "dualities" or "opposites" that need to be complements to each other forming a unified whole ("mind/heart", "left/right" brain); and the unity of multiple categories like the trinity of thought, emotion and action that will also complement each other when unified. We unite and are "balanced" based in non-contradiction of our own capacities, where what we think, feel and do is not conflicting or contradicting.
Made by @krnel
It's not a "perfect" or fixed static middle or balance when some opposites are united (like left and right-brain thinking), but a fluctuating dynamic use of the capacities we have within us. Rejecting certain capacities in consciousness -- like someone who is more "left" or "right" brain thinking/being that rejects the opposite -- comes from not understanding who we are.
Of course certain people may have more propensity or aptitude at using certain functionality of consciousness. We have similar or different personality types compared to others, but we all have a near infinite potential within us. We all have consciousness that has the same capabilities at the core, but we all grow up different, engage in things differently, and gain different knowledge and experiences to shape us into who we are and what consciousness functionalities we develop more of.
Some of these capacities in consciousness within us need to be used and developed for greater harmonious unity within ourselves. It leads to creating and manifesting actions in the world that better reflect an understanding of what shouldn't be created into existence, like wrong-actions that may seem right. Being more emotional and denying logical critical processing can lead people to be manipulated more easily and believe something wrong is "right"; while being more logical and denying the significance of emotional salience and feeling harms/wrongs can lead to justifying wrongs and manipulating people. In either case, wrong-actions result from not being a more fully developed being that uses complimentary capacities to navigate life.
We balance our modalities of consciousness -- "left-right" brain, "mind-heart", thought-emotion-action -- in order to be unified in ourselves, and this allows us to be more balanced and aligned with truth, right, good, etc. That's how we get in an "upright" position of "balance".
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
If you appreciate and value the content, please consider: Upvoting, Sharing or Reblogging below.
me for more content to come!
My goal is to share knowledge, truth and moral understanding in order to help change the world for the better. If you appreciate and value what I do, please consider supporting me as a Steem Witness by voting for me at the bottom of the Witness page.
Unbelievable - I just had this very conversation. Way t’ be for bringing this to the fore.
And really, there is no balance between good and evil - only full good, less good, or no good. Evil is not a thing unto itself; it’s the absence of good to some degree. Just as with light, the absence of which is called darkness. A “balance” between good and evil is just a half-assed failure to faithfully uphold the good.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Right-e-o ;)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Awesome post... You are totally right, it's not about balancing to the middle, it's about leveling off the negative with the positive and utilizing all of your resources to achieve greatness and freedom!
I have taken to calling this unity within ones self of thought, feelings and actions'Cognitive Concurrence'.
Thanks @krnel!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Exactly. We need to polarize one way, truth is one way ;)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Truth is really vital when we need balance in life and most of the time we say to ourselves that we are in more balanced state. But, actually many fall for falsity and they do wrong but still they think as they are doing the balancing work.
Right is right and false is false and there is no Situational Right and Situational False, and we have to stand with right and truth and truth is forgiveness, and doing one side good and other side wrong is not balance it will merely called as pretending.
Many take the meaning of Balancing in wrong way means, sometimes they think that we have to completely change ourselves according to the situation and then we will be called as balanced and more adaptive but we have to understand that, if you are adaptive towards truth then it's the true way to achieve the balance but falsity is giving up the balance in life.
So, people who understand the truth they never do wrong doings and they will find the balance in spreading love, peace, brotherhood and forgiveness and this way they earn the balanced phase in life.
Thanks for sharing this post with us and wishing you an great day. Stay blessed. 🙂
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Adapt sometimes, but not always. Keep principles of truth, not sacrificing them to be "balanced" ;)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Absolutely true. 🙂
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
@krnel The most powerful thing in the god created universe is our own mind!! Whatever we thank that we will become. And good and evil are just the outcome of thought process of our mind.
And nature is unbiased when it comes to karma!! Whatever we do that will be come back to us. If we do good deeds then good fortunes will come back and vice versa:)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Natural karma is just if you act within the laws of nature, like gravity. Don't walk off a cliff if you don't want to be hurt. In human behavior of interaction, only others can apply karmic consequences, it doesn't happen on it's own.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
@krnel I totally agree with u:) human is the only creature made by almighty who has the ability to think!! So we are responsible for our own karma!! Rest all creatures can't be judged by their good or bad karma.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
@krnel thanks for encouraging:)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Didn't expect to see Maat being mentioned in here. Aside from shitty movies and children card games (and Smite), egyptian gods do not get a lot of recognition.
You should have mentioned the monster Ammit as well, just for fun.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I mentioned the beast in other works, but not by name ;)
https://steemit.com/philosophy/@krnel/morality-maat-and-magic
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thoth I know too.
Thanks to a certain MOBA he should have experience a sudden surge in popularity.
Almost every religion or mythology has some version of the afterlife going for it.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Good discussion; more people need to understand that there are things that do not balance at all. The talking heads want us to believe it’s all about balance but killing isn’t something that’s balanced at all. They purport it by making one group seem evil for fighting back against disrupters and then we have to kill them in order to bring balance back. Load of crap!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Interesting. Though, I still consider the Golden Mean ideal, b/c I think Good and Evil cannot be balanced except in opposition since they themselves describe the arrangement of systems where Good is a positive and Evil a negative balance; and I for one believe it not worth living if there were not Evil.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
It is logically impossible that there is no evil. Good and evil are complementary counterparts like the left and the right (sides), there can't be one without the other. If you remove the left side, how will the right be the right? The same goes for good and evil, because in order for you to notice what is good and what is evil you must judge, and so that you can see the "good" in someone, then inevitably you must be able to see the "evil", because it is the absence of the good.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
No, you only need to understand what evil is, that's why the balance is between knowledge of good and evil. You don't need to do evil tings to learn what evil is. It doesn't need to exist for good to exist.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
The question is, can we understand evil without having ever lived it?
If someone has never lived evil, then he can't know it, therefore evil does not exist for him, but neither does good, because there is no possible comparison. You can not know which is the left side if you do not know which is the right side, the same goes for good and evil.
On the other hand, if we have lived evil, and therefore we know it, and use our knowledge to do good and avoid evil (which I believe is what you mean), then this means in the first instance that we are capable to do evil.
If we are capable of doing evil we can not be perfect, because the perfect being is the one who is totally good, and someone who is totally good could not under any circumstance commit an evil act, because it is totally good. If we are not perfect we can not be totally good, and therefore the evil will always exist, sometimes to a greater extent and sometimes to a lesser extent, but it will always exist, because we are imperfect.
On the other hand, we are not totally imperfect either, because if we were we would be incapable of doing good under any circumstance. In such a way that the man, not being totally good (perfect) nor totally bad (imperfect) coexists balancing between good and evil.
Thus, everything in the world has an opposite but complementary counterpart, without which it can not exist.
I'm not saying we should do or look for evil, of course not, just the opposite. More I am aware, or I think, that you will never reach an extreme point where everything is good and there is no evil, or on the contrary everything is bad and good does not exist, because it is, again, logically impossible.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
That I find utterly realistic. Yes, humankind will never reach an overall good or bad state once and for all.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Curated for #informationwar (by @wakeupnd)
Our purpose is to encourage posts discussing Information War, Propaganda, Disinformation and other false narratives. We currently have over 7,500 Steem Power and 20+ people following the curation trail to support our mission.
Join our discord and chat with 200+ fellow Informationwar Activists.
Connect with fellow Informationwar writers in our Roll Call! InformationWar - Contributing Writers/Supporters: Roll Call Pt 8
Ways you can help the @informationwar
Also, check out our meme contest:
https://steemit.com/informationwar/@informationwar/memewar-contest-expose-the-msm-s-lies-on-president-trump-s-immigration-policy
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Even though I understand what you mean, I cannot see what in your particular case and notion would be true when you face a situation where you've got to decide what to do. Do you have an example?
Normally, a balanced state of mind is attributed to a behavior the majority of people around can go with. I start to lose my balance when I act and think destructive and constantly irritate, hurt and aggravate the system I live in. The more the surrounding people cannot cope with that, the more they - and as a consequence myself - get the feeling that I am out of balance.
Let's say I start to eat less, go out less, interact less, neglect my friendships and work, than people usually say: He/she is not in balance any more.
So, it's a not a theoretical but a practical issue, no?
Being in balance per se is a positive connoted expression - I never heard someone saying "He's out of balance" and meaning it in a healthy way. Indeed, I find it quite helpful to express something complicated in short form. I can deliberately choose if I take on that "it's all about balance" and use it for me in a way which supports my actions and omissions.
... To whom and what in particular do you refer in your writing?
"Truth" is highly subjective, isn't it? One can have high ideals and even make vows to never hurt the universal ethics, but to investigate that this is always followed by me I need events where I encounter what was hurt by me.
I assume that neither you nor I are free of wrong decisions and behaviour.
As far as the world consists of very different people and cultures and belief systems would you say that "your truth" is not always corresponding to the truths of others? What would be your answer once you face a situation where you've got to decide what is best for all involved parties?
I had recently a case in the institution I work for, where a freshly immigrated couple wanted to make sure that the pregnant woman should only give birth to her baby when no males are involved - it was also a demand by the husband. As there are also working males in maternity hospitals in my country and cannot be sent away, what would be a solution which points to the least painful outcome for the involved?
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Very good points.
To say that we need (balance in all things) is to suggest that every thought, philosophy,and action are equally valuable and beneficial, if we can "just balance them out."
Imagine someone suggesting that:
If we just balance out the proper amount of theft with benevolence...
If we just balance out the correct amount of rape with consensual sex...
If we can only get a proper balance of disease with our physical health...
If we can just balance out the left wing right wing politics we can fly straight... (wait, somebody actually told me that once)... I'll give them this much the two political parties are equally invalid, and imaginary in their actual usefulness as a force of good!
Great write up, good wisdom and insights.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Your post makes a lot of sense, and covers some important topics. It seems really great. In some situations, of course balance makes sense. But I agree with you that it is not good to just throw balance everywhere. Thanks for posting this.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit