Equilibrium is a difficult state to achieve. There are so many forces of discombobulation and chaos in and around us, that we are astounded when we see someone who is able to find balance and maintain it for more than a few seconds. But why does it take so much discipline and practice to achieve?

Our bodies are built to stand upright, and our basic symmetry should mean that it is easy to do so, whether on two feet or one, on our hands or our heads. Perhaps it is simply a matter of education: For the masses, who are not taught to live in balance from early childhood, the body and mind lack the conditioning required.

Hatha Yoga teaches that conditioning the body conditions the mind, and vice versa. It is lucky in this age of information that more and more people are able to discover the ideas and principles of balance. As more minds become conditoned towards equilibrium, more bodies will follow, and vice versa.

So, despite the current prevalence of imbalance (in the martial arts world and the world at large) we have more potential than ever before to evolve rapidly into harmony and equilibrium.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 13th, 2009 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Commentary, Discipline. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.