We meet our fate on the road we take to avoid it.  – Jung

There is such a thing as going too far. We can carry our stance or position to such an extreme we actually turn into the thing we’re rallying so hard against. Jung calls it enaitiodromia. In Eastern philosophy the yin-yang symbol is a picture of this constant transformation from one opposite to the other and it tells a secret truth. In the brightest light there is always a little bit of darkness, just as in the blackest night there is always a ray of light. That’s the design of it, it’s never only one way or one thing. It’s a continuum and the eternal play of energy and opposites and how they fit and come together. And this can really mess with us if we don’t have the right attitude towards it.

So it should come as no surprise that in living our daily lives we become part of this same process as well. There is that old saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions. We try our best but often discover we are wrong about something we’d been so sure about. We need constant reminding that life is not always what it seems, even though that’s the easiest way to understand the chaos of the world. Life is multi-faceted, complicated, makes little rational sense, and is mostly hidden upon first glance. Of course we want to do what’s right, but often believe that what is right for us should be the same for everyone else. We can end up carrying our position too far with too little compassion, often unaware that’s what we are doing, and find ourselves where we said we would never be. Life’s like that sometimes.

It happens everywhere in our private and public lives. Stubbornly clinging to any stance leads to intolerance. That’s the funny thing about life, it shifts beneath our feet before we really have a handle on it and we either choose to shift with it or ignore it until it makes us shift. Just when we think we have life all ironed out it opens up and swallows us whole. Force doesn’t work and perfection doesn’t exist. In the end it’s all about balance and walking that fine line between not pushing and not holding back, this is what lets us open to the moment that actually exists. Ultimately we are left to our own devices to figure out our own internal balance, and this leads inexorably back to the inner work and deciphering what matters and resonates with us.

There is no avoiding it. Just as Jung suggests, we are inevitably drawn to the work that needs to be done on the inside. This is the messy path to wholeness. So the next time you find yourself struggling to do what is prescribed, or forcing things to work out the way you planned, it would be well worth looking at a stranger kind of logic before blindly continuing on with the status quo.

This skillful balance comes when we live from our authentic center.

kb