Living A Balanced, Spiritual Life

“No discussion of living life as a spiritual path is complete without addressing one of the deepest of all spiritual teachings, the Tao.  It discusses that which is very difficult to discuss, that which Lao-tzu called ‘the Tao‘ (pronounced: dow).  Literally translated, this means ‘the Way.’  It is a treatise on the balance of the yin and the yang, the feminine and the masculine, the dark and the light.  If you want to understand the Tao, you must take it very slowly and keep it very simple.  Otherwise, you may miss it, though it is right in front of you.

Somewhere in between, you passed over the Tao.  Is it good to fast periodically?

Yes.  Is it good to never eat? No.

The pendulum can swing all the way from gorging yourself to death, to starving yourself to death.  Those are the two

extremes of the pendulum: the yin and the yang, expansion and contraction, nondoing and doing.  Everything has two extremes.

Everything has gradations of this pendulum swing.  If you go to the extremes, you cannot survive.  That’s how extreme the extremes are.  For example, do you like hot weather?  How about 6,000 degrees F?  You’d be instantly vaporized.  Do you like cold weather?  How about absolute zero?  The molecules of your body would never move again.

So where is the Tao?  The Tao is in the middle.  It’s the place where there is no energy pushing in either direction.  The pendulum has been permitted to come to balance concerning food, relationships, sex, money, doing, not-doing, and everything else.  Everything has its yin and yang.  The Way is the place in which these forces balance quietly.  And indeed, unless you go out of the Way, they will tend to stay in peaceful harmony.

If you want to understand the Tao, you must take a closer look at what lies between the two extremes.  This is because neither extreme can last.  How longcan a pendulum stay at one of its outermost positions?  It can only remain there for a moment.  How long can a pendulum stay at rest?  It can remain there forever because there are no forces moving it out of balance.  That is the Tao. It is the center.  But that does not mean that it stays static and fixed.  As you center by not participating in the swings, the energies will naturally find their balance.

You will become much clearer because so much energy is flowing up in you.  The experience of being present in each moment will become your natural state.  You won’t be fixated on certain things or caught up in thoughts about the opposites.  As you get clearer, life’s events will actually seem to unfold in slow motion.  Once this happens, events will no longer seem confusing or overwhelming, no matter what they are.

All the great teachings reveal the way of the center, the way of balance.  Constantly look to see if that’s where you are living or if you are lost in the extremes.  The extremes create their opposites, the wise avoid them.  Find the balance in the center and you will live in harmony.”

The Untethered Soul – The Journey Beyond Yourself, Michael A. Singer, pgs. 165 – 172.