Tuesday 27 November 2007

Sameer's thoughts on Balance


On my way back from office, I've experienced several incidents where the cars right behind me or the ones coming from the opposite side would have their lights set at high beam, blinding me and probably many other drivers. Countless times, I've thought of giving such people a piece of my angry mind. There are many such examples in our daily lives where anger seems to want to take charge over us. Some people give in to this feeling, while others simply want to be the better person and just let it go. I talk about this incident here to stress the importance of balance. 'Always ignoring' or 'always getting' angry are both wrong choices to make.

Taking the side of the apparent positive, at first, seems to be the right choice. That is a debatable concept in my opinion. For extremism in any shape or form is something to avoid. It is the art of balance that helps us to lead a steady life. Balancing one's work and play, one's love and hate, one's anger and kindness, one's heaven and earth, one's dark and light. For only God knows what's best for us. We just have to try and find the middle road.

The concept of balance is in everything. That is also why it has been stressed as such in our religion as well. Everything in this life has a negative counterpart. This is described in Chinese philosophy as Ying and Yang

I just found a very interesting article googling about these thoughts of mine :). It's not a short article but if someone is interested in the concept of Yin and Yang with respect to Islam, one must read this.

~Sameer Aziz Mirza

3 comments:

Syra said...

Love n Hate are extremes, they induce madness.Hard to strike a balance when the nature is extreme.What say?

Sameer said...

It's so interesting to think about the concept of extremes. It's not necessarily the opposite ends of a line. The extremes can be something like the yin and yang figure. Following each other, being extremes and yet being related closely.

About the symbol. Here's a brief explanation:

"There are four (4) elements to the Symbol:
The outer circle, which represents Wu Chi (the Beginning, the Void from which the Universe evolved).
The Yin and Yang Fish Tails; Yin is full (dark), Yang is empty, (light)
The separation of Yin and Yang, heaven and earth, mind and body, with no shades of gray, with all being shades of gray.
The Fish Eyes. Yin has an un-shaded circle and Yang has a shaded circle, both are placed the respective center of the Fish Head (large portion) and represent the shades of gray which permeate all things."

taken from http://www.yangchengfu.org/yin_yang_symbol.html

Syra said...

Yupe.Interesting.If you think deeply, Islam is about a peaceful balance.