Q: Which pair of opposites do I most need to balance?
This question has at its foundation, the intention of expanding beyond Duality Consciousness.
Duality is often described as two Qualities or States that are opposite to each other.
Dualities exist at all levels of the Personality – physical, emotional and mental. However as our emotions are one of the greatest impediments to Awakening, Enlightenment and Liberation, for the purpose of this Question, we will limit our focus to emotional dualities.
All emotional so-called negative states, have so-called positive opposites, and vice versa. Whenever we strongly manifest one emotion, we will swing like a pendulum, over to its opposite at some later stage. This is the nature of the highs and lows of expressing emotionally, without proper control. While this oscillation in some people can give onlookers whiplash, for a lot of folk, they tend to favour one side more than the other. And as such live extremely unbalanced lives, with much emotional suffering! This limiting pattern is often their line-of-least-resistance, or emotional habitual addiction. However while a person can be frequently hateful or angry, aggressive and domineering, they will eventually flip to withdrawn, self-judging, feeling inept and useless – swinging the pendulum again, and never finding the balanced expression of love, peace and serenity.
What is usually missed by most folk on earth is that the emotions we label as “positive” are at their core just as damaging as the ones we label “negative”. Because they are opposites, if we express one, the other will follow, as certainly as the sun rises each morning!
Examples of Emotional Dualities
Here are some of the common Pairs: happy and sad, agitated and serene, fearful and bold, angry and calm, courageous and scared, excited and depressed, stimulated and lacklustre, desiring and resisting, passive and aggressive, up and down, grasping and aversion, attached and detached, or hateful and loving. (This last duality is synonymous with the mental duality of rejecting and accepting – because it is dependent on strong mental judgements; and also because Capital L Love is not the opposite of Hate, as Love is not an emotion!
People who are attached to and invested in their emotions rarely see the inherent value in the place of balance. They are so addicted to the strong stimulation, negative and positive alike, that they find truly balanced expression akin to being numb. And as such they will spend their entire lives in turbulent instability.
Therefore unless you are a True Seeker, you may find our current Question somewhat distasteful. As it will lead you into places quite alien to your usual nature.
Q: Which pair of opposites do I most need to balance?
To answer our question… The easiest place to start is with the emotions we call “negative”. Reflect and figure out what negative feeling is present when you are most off balance. What is your go to emotion?
Next, consider what its positive opposite might be. This reveals an emotional duality you might consider working on.
Explore if you tend to embody one end of the pair far more than the other.
As you are feeling that emotion, open to its opposite within yourself.
Eg: If you are prone to fear, focus on bold courage. If you are prone to overexcitement, focus on deep stillness.
Lastly, it’s time to meditate or contemplate.
Turn within and consider these further two questions:
Q: What lies at the midway point of this duality? What vast state encompasses and holds both within itself?
The very act of asking these questions has great value in itself, even if you do not get an answer. Sitting and seeking in this manner, opens you to the possibility of living differently. It opens the door to new opportunities, and new ways of being! And might even bring you to the Door to Awakening Itself.
An Additional Benefit: By identifying and balancing this habitual duality, you may find several others within you were actually built upon it, and therefore they also resolve and balance of their own accord!
I wish you every success in this most auspicious self-work!
Azure Seer
PS: You could also ask our Original Question in terms of your Country or of Humanity as a whole – if you are looking for areas for Benevolent Service.
Which pair of opposites does my Country most need to balance?
Which pair of opposites does Humanity most need to balance?
Like all true power questions, this question is expansive in nature, through directing you inwards rather than outwards. It is a question that liberates.
And… this question, like all good questions, is one to sit with. It guides your consciousness into a space of direct experience. It is not intended to be answered intellectually. Keep asking it. Keep seeking that which it focuses your awareness into. Enjoy.