“Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance.” Plutarch

My guru Karl Hammerschlag recently told a story of parking his car at a health club. He happened to see another man with a handicapped placard parking in the handicapped spot. However, this man seemed perfectly fine and proceeded to enter the health club and run on the treadmill. So Hammerschlag confronted the man about taking advantage of the system. It was a silly incident but very symbolic. Hammerschlag summed it up perfectly, “It has become virtually un-American not to try to get away with as much as you can and, if you get caught, to blame it on someone else. We need to stop gaming the system by lying our way out of our own responsibility, because this bullshit is disabling us economically and spiritually.”

I believe we all try to beat the system. Whether it’s not paying a parking ticket, or evading speed traps with radar detectors, or illegally attaining a handicapped placard, it has become ingrained in our psyche to trump the law. But as the system implodes before our very eyes, what can we learn? The Chinese call it yin and yang, and until recently, it was not something many Americans (myself included) cared to acknowledge. But as all of the ancient Eastern cultures will tell you, it’s the way of the universe. Frank Zappa said, “In the fight between you and the universe, back the universe.”

It’s becoming oh so clear that the dangerous highs of sub-prime mortgages and big credit card bills (YANG) inevitably lead to the cavernous lows of foreclosure and debt (YIN). Clearly we are all learning our financial lessons. What comes up must come down. But here are a few examples of how yin and yang apply to other aspects of life:

1. Pleasure and Pain

“We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.” -Alan Watts

The yogis calls this emotional strength or the capacity to feel emotion and sensation with grace. Often when we feel sadness, heartbreak, loss, or pain, we want to avoid it. Such is the value of an ancient Eastern spiritual practice like Tai Chi or yoga which teaches the skills and techniques by which to face pain courageously. Should you wish a life of pleasure, be aware next time you’re feeling the blues. Sit with it. Breathe. Relax. And it will pass faster and purify your heart. But resist, fight, or avoid…and it will only strike deeper and bruise harder.

2. Fear and Courage

“If you don’t have fear, you cannot know courage.” –Cayetano Rivera Ordoñez, Spanish bullfighter

This past Sunday, I was watching 60 Minutes which featured a story on bullfighting. I thought I was dealing with some major fear given the state of the economy. But these bullfighters are inches from an angry bull seething for the chance to kill. Much despised by animal lovers, bullfighting is the ultimate metaphor for a human’s relationship to fear. For the person willing to stare fear in the eyes, she will forever taste the glory of courage. But to run from the bull, you enliven its fury. As Ann Landers said, “If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity, it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life, and when it comes, hold your head high. Look it squarely in the eye, and say, I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.”

3. Sorrow and Joy

“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?” Kahlil Gibran

We all have sorrowful days, months, even years. But know that you are only creating space to contain the full breadth of joy. For one who feels little emotion, it might seem that she is lucky and has it easy in life. Such an emotionless person always seems to be balanced. Here’s the way I see it. “Emotionless” is much like communism, a system of “balance” for all. In a communist society, nobody can have too much, and nobody can have too little. But go to Cuba, a stunningly beautiful country, and see that the people are driving dilapidated cars and living off government rations. Clearly, the communist system ultimately strangles the culture. When you resist the natural cycles and rhythms of emotion, your soul is gasping to breathe. Open your heart and allow life to come and go, and rise and fall. As George Bernard Shaw said, “Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.”

• Little Boxes Devendra Banhart
• My Sisters And Brothers Jerry Garcia Band
• Waiting in Vain Lee Ritenour
• Deadweight Beck
• Badfish Sublime
• Walking on the Moon The Police
• Do What You Want to Do Michna
• Caminando Por la Calle Gipsy Kings
• Rainbow G. Love & Jack Johnson
• Kentucky Woman Neil Diamond
• Pictures of You The Cure
• Tuesday’s Dead Cat Stevens
• Pocohantas Neil Young
• Sing for You Tracy Chapman