Don't confuse symmetry with balance.
~ Tom Robbins
What is good, what is right, what is wholesome? What is awakening, moral wisdom or sanity?
Despite obvious epistemological divergences in how they understand
“mind”, there is significant convergence between the moral, philosophical and psychological
points of view.
Moralists describe goodness, or moral conscience, as a sense
of responsibility that motivates compassionate action. Philosophers and mystics describe awakening as
a quickening of awareness that reveals the nature of experience more clearly. Psychologists describe mental health in terms
of our adaptability, the ability to adapt to our lives and the people in it.
Responsibility, awareness, adaptability. These are qualities that characterize a sound
person, whether from the point of view of morality, psychology or religion.
What do these have in common? They are all interactive and dynamic responses
to our lives and other living beings, orienting us to them in a way that embraces
the human experience more completely.
They enable more balance between us and the world, not as the homeostatic
equilibrium of an autistic monad but as the supple (and subtle) response of a person
in sync with an ever-changing universe.
Integrity (not flawlessness) is the rule, and attunement (not
perfection) is the goal. This is basic
goodness. This is basic sanity: to embrace our world just as it is, without
excluding any of its discomfiting ambiguities or contradictions; so dilemmas
can be resolved without dissolving their complexities; so suffering can dissipate
into a wider embrace of experience that includes both joy and sorrow; so ignorance
and error, while not always overcome, can be transmuted into reflective and
responsible self-awareness.
Evermore in the world is this marvelous balance of beauty and disgust, magnificence and rats.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson