Bill Burr has a bit in one of his stand-up performances where he talks about his temper and his wife lectures him, saying “I don’t understand where this is coming from. You go from zero to a hundred in like two seconds.”
And he responds, “First of all, I idle at seventy-five, so it’s not zero to a hundred.”
Funny, but very true. We don’t walk around at zero and we don’t walk around at a hundred, but somewhere in between. Seventy-five is high, but a lot of people are idling there right now and I understand.
Pressures of our job, the stress of traffic, the constraints of time and responsibilities and what are we making for dinner: I’m already hungry and by the time we get home and make something, I’ll starve to death! Why is this guy doing thirty in the passing lane!?
Then there’s the present climate of division, anger, hatred, and staying away from each other. You and I could be the next witch burned at the stake for something we don’t even remember saying twenty years ago. We can’t even communicate effectively anymore, for fear of saying something “wrong”.
Our Yin and Yang is out of harmony. And as the concept of Yin and Yang goes, it’s best illustrated by that well known symbol. You know the one. With that in mind, we can see that neither the Yin, nor the Yang ever has more market share than the other.
And the line between them is just an illusion. There is no line that separates the two sides. They flow into and out of each other with a seed of each inside the other in perfect harmony. This is the way of the universe and the natural way of our being.
Neither side represents evil in any way. Both Yin and Yang are good and complimentary of each other. Sometimes we’re more Yang than yin; more masculine than feminine, more aggressive than passive, more hot than cold, more lively than tired, more energetic than calm, and more loud than quiet. The list goes on of course, but we need both sides to navigate life effectively.
Yin and Yang isn’t really about balance. When things are balanced, they may scale each other out, but remain separate. It’s about harmony and this harmony is being disrupted by an outside force. Evil comes from the outside and doesn’t belong within this harmony. Yet it tries incessantly to cause distress, angst, and division through hatred and fear. It wants control through disruption.
But, it can only come from the outside.
“The only thing that stands between us and our wellbeing is a simple fact: we have allowed our thoughts and emotions to take instruction from the outside, rather than within.” – Sadhguru
So what then? What can we do to bring the idle down to around fifty? To give our Yin and Yang a chance to harmonize and flow?
Yin yoga? Yang yoga? Rage, hot, goat, whatever? Sure; whatever. Turn off the outside and go in. What’s really in our heart? Our truth, our values, our way of being. Quiet stillness. Breathe.
Go to a “place” that brings you there.
Photo by Kalen Emsley on Unsplash
I Am No Yogi 