The Importance of Balance

Yin Yang, Sun and Moon, Day and Night, Good and Evil, Feng Sui, Yoga.

All of these terms are centered around the art of balance. In just about all, spiritual practices the goal is balance, stability, "groundedness", permanence, a solid foundation, a rock of balance.

Now I know what I'm about to say may sound crazy, but the truth is revealed in (at least to me) in the most unexpected and non-traditional ways. On one of my personal retreats, I had just finished sadhana in one of my favorite places, the meditation room. After my session, I was completely relaxed. I wasn't eager to do something else, I wasn't trying to fill my time. I was just enjoying myself in the present moment in that room. When I noticed a millipede or maybe it was a centipede, who knows, crawling on the mat. For some reason, I was amazed. I leaned over and just began watching this creature crawling on the mat.

Let me give a brief description of this mat. The mat was a natural beige color with some sections being a darker beige. The weaving of the mat was in rows. Each row kind of reminds you of little bubbles or bundles and in between them are little ditches. In either case, each row is as straight as can be.

This millipede was just crawling this way and that. It was going down, down, down, then up and then straight, back down and then up. It was hard keeping up with the direction that this creature was going. I was sitting there thinking, "man where are you trying to get to? What are you searching for?" All the while the rows stayed the same, not fluctuating, not moving with the millipede.

Then it made its way off the mat onto the concrete floor. Its movement became even crazier. Now off in the distance was a spider. I was thinking, "surely this spider is going to pounce on the millipede for food or something." As the millipede continued with its crazy movements and unpredictable direction, the spider did not move once.
It stayed in its spot, just as still and calm as it could be. One might have thought it had passed away or perhaps it was even in Samadhi J But it never moved, never followed the millipede or tried to chase it.

Life is the millipede. It is always changing. It will give you times of peace and happiness and constant success. Other times it will take you so far into the darkness, that you feel as though there is no way out. Other times it will leave you stagnant, stuck in the middle of no where.

Your soul is the rows in the mat, the spider that stays grounded, still and calm in their spot.

In life, one must remember the true nature of the soul. Grounded, still and calm no matter the situation, in times of lows AND highs.