Almost everything to me is the balancing point. Otherwise it becomes too much. Even our food needs balancing. Sugar is terrible. [Robert] Thurman’s wife, Nena, told me it is, “poison, poison, poison.” Yes, it’s true, but you cannot completely avoid sugar, as we all know, though we say that white sugar is bad and so on. But without sweet, how can you survive? (audience laughs) That’s the truth, so you need the right balance. I don’t mean you have to eat white sugar, but there is plenty of sugar within every food we eat.
Too much of anything is terrible for your health, even good things. If you have too much of even the most healthy food it is terrible. It won’t work well, honestly. Of course, poisoned food, too much of that is way beyond, right? So balancing that is a perfect thing, for anything, for food, for medicine – particularly for medicine. And for everything.
For example we have to balance our heat. Too hot is not good. You sweat and can’t sleep. If it’s too cold you are shivering. So you need to balance. Wisdom is balancing. And that really not only applies to self and ego, etc, but everywhere and everything. Sex is wonderful, but too much gets you into trouble, right? We all know that. Everything is like that.
So wisdom to me is really balancing. Generosity is wonderful and a must. But if you give away everything, what are you going to eat and wear? So again, balancing. Morality is absolutely necessary and wonderful, but if you have too much, you become quite conservative. Do you want that? Patience is wonderful and a must, particularly if you want to be beautiful or handsome. However, if you are too patient, you don’t even know between good and bad. So you don’t want that. Enthusiasm is important and a must, but if you are overly eager, what happens? You go beyond and in the opposite direction.
So to all of those the wisdom of balancing applies, including meditation and wisdom itself and most important, our everyday life. I am not talking about practice and Dharma. I am talking about our everyday life. The balancing wisdom carries. What is good for you, what is good for everybody? You must maintain it and you must urge others to maintain it the same way, if you care. So that’s what I wanted to talk to you about and looking back on our life, we did not waste the year.
I am glad to know that and looking forward to the next year, if possible, do it even better.
~ Gelek Rimpoche, Jewel Heart Ann Arbor, December 20, 2015
