The Many Meanings of Balance. ~ Dieter Luske

Via elephant journal
on Apr 29, 2012
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Be in balance; it’s such a nice statement, and it can be as general or as specific as one likes.

I personally like the many meanings and concepts of balance but would like to elevate it to a philosophy based on balance concepts. We all know what it means, if someone tells us; “you need more balance”; we may have overdone something, have become too one-sided or fallen of the cliff altogether. Still nothing specific here, all rather general terms meaning something is out of balance.

The general balance concept relates to everything; some simple examples are:

Diet—one cannot live by bread alone.

Exercise—don’t do too much and burn out, but do something.

Work—allow for time out and fun, and so on. To see balance as a philosophy however, one has to dig deeper, and find some specific meanings and how to use this knowledge.

Balance as Philosophy; or, the Five Concepts of Balance:

1. Balance Concept: One by itself can not exist (we need two to tango)

Balance is of the uppermost importance, because we do live on a planet where we need at least two to exist. There needs to be two of everything, two sides of a coin, yin and yang, plus and minus, negative and positive. One by itself cannot exist; therefore to be in balance one needs the second part to be in balance with.

This principle of balance is demonstrated in the male and female princian important relationship principle.

The whole significant of that statement may just pass us by, but on reflection we know that the natural consequence of balance is that both parts and sides are equal.

2. Balance Concept: Equality

Equality has nothing to do with being the same. Picture a set of scales: on one side put 500 grams of apples on the other 500grams of pears, maybe you have a preference for one or the other, but to be in balance each is the same. Everything that comes in a plural version is therefore equal, male and female are equal, different but equal.

A physical example is “polarity”, as the positive and negative poles of a battery, would you say that one pole is better than the other? Would it be possible, just to have the positive pole? Sure, you can have it but it doesn’t do anything, to actually produce the energy, which we need so much of, we need both.

3. Balance Concept: Energy Creation

If something is in balance, like the positive and negative pole of a battery, energy is created. This opens up a “new” concept of balance. For starters, if a man and a woman are living in balance, they will create energy, which means, they can achieve more together than they could have achieved as individuals.

This energy sometimes is extended into synergy, where the sum of the whole far outweighs that of the individual. However, if one of the couple is perceiving the other as not being an equal, no or less energy is created, down to the point, where by fighting or point scoring against each other, no energy is created at all and the outcome is zero. Can the plurality and balance be applied to our political system?

The mis-interpretation of the word opposition as opposing has created problems. Instead of just being the opposite side of the equation the political concept of opposition has created a vacuum in energy output for most political endeavours. This could be the reason why little progress is made. Political parties keep themselves busy by putting each other down, not a productive endeavour for a country.

The idea that one party is better or knows better than any other is based on ideology. Party political reasons are the main driving force, which keeps defending a righteous ideology. A truly inspiring and working well party system instead could create synergy, resulting in a truly inspiring outcome.

4. Balance Concept: Right or Wrong

Most of our decisions are based on right or wrong, again a balance principle. In reality there is no right and wrong, as we perceive it. Balance is always created by having two sides, therefore the term wrong as we see it, simply means it is part of the balance and it is needed as much as the right side. Right and wrong are equals as much as male and female or positive and negative are equals.

This may create an outcry, “surely, to kill someone is wrong”, and .. yes, it is, and we should by now understand that and stop it”. With other words, we still didn’t get the message: To live in balance we do something, which may be wrong, than we correct it, which may be right. We have now created balance, which has created energy to move on, and that specific item, “killing”, should be way beyond us. It should be absolutely obvious that killing is out; it should have become what is called a truth, a universal value truth, where everyone agrees too.

That’s what an universal value is, something we all have learnt to be true or working best for the human race and therefore it is an agreed universal value truth.

5. Balance Concept: Breaking Point

Now we come to another principle of balance, which often is overlooked.

Not everything can be balanced, if either side becomes too extreme, the counter weight would break the balance altogether. Hence the phrase “it has reached breaking point”. There is only so much, which can be balanced. That is not to say that everything is lost, it simply means it has to be brought closer again—baby steps have to be made, slowly, surely reaching out to each other in order to come to the point where balance is possible once again. Ideologies in any form are counterproductive.

The problem is not the ideology, which can be seen simply as an idea, the problem is that people become self-righteous and defend their ideology to the death because it would be simply too hard to admit being wrong. Therefore most ideologies are based on proving someone else’s ideology wrong. Interestingly, different ideologies could support a perfect balance. The differences could be seen as enriching rather than as a threat to one’s own truth. Here’s a simple demonstration of being right and insisting on being right, therefore being righteous, therefore not being in balance:

Tyy to walk only with your right leg. The left leg stands still as you take the right leg forward, again and again until finally, you realise you are walking in circles.

Lets not do that.

Dieter Luske. Owner & Editor of, health and lifestyle directory. Author of “ Do you believe in you? “ and for articles on Holistic Medicine & Sustainable Lifestyle Strategies, Supportive Marketing, Art & Music and Social Consciousness. Drawing on over 30 years experience as a business owner and holistic practitioner has melted my knowledge of different healing modalities and lifestyle philosophies into one unique down to earth health and lifestyle approach, resulting in successful strategies and attitudes to support a peaceful planet.



Editor: Tanya L. Markul

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7 Responses to “The Many Meanings of Balance. ~ Dieter Luske”

  1. Tanya Lee Markul says:

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