Balance, 22nd March 2016

What's the origin of the word ? Balance in its lat. origin is spelt bilanx  and bi means two whereas lanx is a scale. The starting point is thus a material good that is weighed and compared…

Question : For what purpose do those goods need to be equal…and what kind of ingredients do we put into the scales ???

In the introduction I referred to the German philosopher Hegel. He spoke about a thesis – antithesis and synthesis….in an itself mobilising system,…also in a self-animated thinking system,…and with this he referred to a new truth which can be reached in the Hegelian dialectic. There is according to Hegel a dualistic system before any development….Is he then overcoming a dualism by reaching out for a new balance ?

Helen wanted to focus on the personal impact that balance has on one’s life. She definitely sees a dualism that describes our lives and confronts oneself with the opposite of the two scales that need to come into balance. If she has too much attention for the inside then she needs more focus on the outside. If there is a mind/heart imbalance she needs to equal it out. She expects balance to not just happen, but to be hand-made. It is about developing our minds,…

Amber states that in his observation balance brings stability and that is a good thing. In some cultures he says there is too much feeling for example,…also violence is a lack of stability. 

Permaculture, he mentions, is a practical counterpart (the other content of the scale for the balance) to the sustainability issue.  At the same time he sees cultural levels of stability.

Helen sees it differently. In her view real stability can be achieved only in oneself. And with that people have different ways of  reaching and aiming for their personal balance. In a democratic election for example one party will never get 100% of all the votes because there will always be different opinions. ( resulting from different personal balances). In other words the social balance or political balance will never be achieved.

Amber has a bright vision of the future in which robots will take over countless tasks in the countryside and people who had been doing that job will be able to do what they like. He clearly sees

technology as an asset that will bring balance. In practical terms this means that spreading technology, the teaching of it, marketing and the communication of it works well in advantage of society and individuals - plus we all acquire different viewpoints.

Now Helen sees balance in everything... – in the lamp -  for instance that is standing next to our launch discussion corner. “If it had not such a balanced structure it would fall over !” she says.

This would suggest that it’s always a question of how much and how far away we are from the circle of definition,…or in other words,…what do we put into the scale of the balance. In this case it is about top part and bottom part of a standing lamp.

At the end of the session they both agree to the fact that balance is a good thing. The ways of getting there – if we talk about personal balance – are experienced by everybody in a different way. Helen believes in a lifelong growing process in which mistakes belong to the development whereas Amber thought that things balance themselves out by itself…