keeping our balance

Suzuki Roshi said that our practice is constantly losing our balance against a background of perfect balance. That is what re-pose is about, to lose our balance constantly, but to return to some upright, dignified posture.

And this is true in our life…. We have this background of perfect balance in nature and life around us, and we also live in the modern world which provides us with so much opportunity to lose our balance – to be distracted, to strive, to seek pleasure, all these things we crave or try to avoid – us being human. We tend to seek out things to make us happy or get rid of things that we things we think are stopping us from being happy. We get caught up in the external goings on in the world and forget we have everything we need inside us – we have this perfect balance in and around us that we can tap into.

It’s no wonder we are so off kilter so often, so out of balance. And sometimes we don’t even notice how far off centre we are because we get so used to living like this, we ignore it…. Until the time comes that we just don’t feel right… we know there’s something we’re missing…or perhaps we find ourselves unwell as a result of being so far off balance, before we realise.

One way we can keep ourselves a little more balanced is through self-care practices – yoga, meditation, walks, some space to just be, with ourselves or with nature. These practices provide a way to come back towards balance. To come home to ourselves – get back in touch with our physical bodies, our minds and our Self.

When we are in balance, we are content with our situation… appreciating and respecting ourselves just the way we are.

Self-enquiry – is there an aspect of my life which needs to be reined in a little, to come back into balance?