Balance is a great word to describe a way of life that is healthy and goes with the flow of natural forces. Everything is constantly changing, nothing stays the same for long. Alan Watts suggests that the best way to handle this situation is to dive right in and enjoy the dance; moving with the constant changes while staying happy, healthy and centered.
Just as the theory of balance doesn’t help you ride a skateboard where you have to jump on and feel your way through, spiritual practice should not be overly intellectual, but instead the lived experience of must be timeless truths, which requires that you practice not just understanding, not just contemplation.
Physical balance
Balance isn’t just for skateboards; in yoga, learning to stand in mountain pose is crucial, that is, learning to stand upright with perfect symmetry and balance. Also in Tai Chi, the graceful flow of movement begins with the ability to find balance in a standing position. Likewise, good meditation starts with finding the perfect balance of a good meditation posture. For 6 tips for the perfect meditation posture, click here
To find your center in meditation, you should be not too far forward or back, not too far to the left or right. To get a sense of this center of balance, after you sit down, gently move your upper body back and forth and from front to back until you are sitting right in that spot in the middle. This is also a great way to relax and release tension. As you get used to this, you will get a feel for your center and after a few seconds of gently rocking your body you will automatically relax your center of gravity.
The perfect posture reflects the state of mind you are trying to accommodate during meditation: alert relaxation. You sit upright, which is alert and you feel comfortable in your center of gravity, relaxed or effortless.
Emotional balance
One of the main things that throws our minds out of balance is attachment to some people and aversion to others. This is based on the mistaken assumption that some people bring you happiness and others bring you suffering, instead of realizing that happiness comes from your state of mind and attitude towards others and not from others themselves.
This is why in Buddhist meditation, after you have found your attitude, you first establish your motivation to be kind to all sentient beings and to help all sentient beings to be free from suffering and find happiness. This is often done in the form of a prayer called the Four Immeasurable Truths. I can testify that this prayer helps tremendously to quiet your mind and put you in the most positive and loving state possible for meditation. It is not possible to fully relax and find balance when you hold a grudge against someone. Forgiveness allows you to find the peace you deserve.
Before the four immeasurable prayers comes the recognition that all sentient beings want happiness and all want to avoid suffering, and it is in this fundamental truth that we are all the same. Yes, we are all the same. Because you feel and realize this deep in your bones, a natural urge to help others arises and this is the beginning of love and compassion and also your own inner peace.
The four immeasurable things you should recite before every meditation session are simply:
- May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering
- May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness
- May all beings treat each other equally and fairly, without prejudice
- & May all beings find the highest happiness of enlightenment as soon as possible
Mental balance
The perfect mind balance we are all looking for during meditation is relaxed alertness. This is a balance between deep relaxation and perfect concentration. Athletes have described this state as one in which they see clearly and are highly alert, but feel no pressure, a sense of timelessness and ease. Athletes find this balance by discovering the stillness in movement.
It is something that must be experienced through practice and not just understood intellectually. The traditional way to train in this state of mind is to be able to become aware through introspection whether you are too excited, too dull or sleepy. Anyone who has meditated before has experienced these overly extreme forms of meditation: falling asleep or simply being too excited to put your thoughts aside.
The cure for being too dull and sleepy or too excited and agitated is alertness and relaxation respectively. If you fall asleep or drift into an empty dullness, you should warn yourself, wake up, straighten your posture, even open your eyes a little and stare at the ground, or in extreme cases, get up and walk attentively for a few minutes. before returning to a sitting position.
If you are overexcited, following every thought and overexcited about things, even excited when meditating, the remedy is to relax yourself. Breathe deeply and slowly, consciously lower and relax your shoulders, relax other parts of the body, including facial muscles, and refocus on your object, whether it is your breathing, body sensations, or a mantra. Refocus, let go and relax.
The perfect balance is relaxed but not sleepy, alert but not tense. By becoming our own meditation guide, we realize which remedy to apply and when. The key is not to overdo it, adjust yourself and then refocus on your meditation and let go.
Join the dance
Adjusting yourself too much can also be a problem, causing you to become extremely out of balance. Ultimately, we need to settle into our meditation and simply accept who we are in that moment. Finding balance here is not trying to add anything extra, but also not taking anything away, this is the perfect state of acceptance of what is happening.
We often hear about detachment and witnessing in meditative practice, but joining in the dance fully embodies the present moment and not just standing back and looking at it. Zen Master Suzuki suggests owning everything in the now as if it were your own. Not in a possessive or limiting way, but as a total embodiment of the now, a total acceptance that you are everything. When you deny nothing, you can find your balance in the center of the reality of the moment.
There is no easy way to describe this state; in fact, it is the highest state of meditation called Samadhi meditation, which becomes one with everything. The little ego that separates you from the world dissolves and reveals a flow of oneness. There’s no stopping this flow, jump right in and join the dance. See things as they are, not as you would like them to be and adjust yourself to find balance.
In reality, you are not as separated from the world as your senses might assume. You are the earth, the water and the air, you are the fire of motivation and the flow of the wind. By accepting everything as yourself you become sensitive to the world, you become sensitive to extremes and you can easily adapt yourself skillfully within the constant dance of the elements to effortlessly find your balance.
Written by Chad Foreman
Chad Foreman is the founder of The Way of Meditation and has been teaching meditation since 2003, determined to bring authentic meditation practices into the lives of millions of people in the modern world. Chad is a former Buddhist monk who lived in a retreat hut for six years and studied and practiced meditation full-time. He now has over twenty years of experience teaching meditation. Chad likes regularly
Meditation retreats on the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Online meditation coachingprovides three online programs – The 21 Day Meditation Challenge to gradually guide people from the basic principles of mindfulness and relaxation to profound states of consciousness.
Breathwork to help manage stress and go deeper into meditation and
The bliss of inner fire This is a Buddhist tantric method to clear energy blockages and connect with the clear light of bliss. You can also get Chad’s free ebook now Insights on the go.