It has been said that when it comes to personal and spiritual growth our most productive time is spent in the place in which we are tugged and pulled at from opposing directions. Trying to make sense of two seemingly incompatible truths makes our minds feel stretched and compressed simultaneously. I am not speaking of the middle ground or moderation or fence sitting. It is not about two wolves inside us, well, it is partially. The Eastern philosophy of dualism is closer yet. This is about coming to terms with the paradoxes of life and humanity. This post is an attempt of a description of how the space between opposing truths is where true self-awareness and growth are manifest in its most complete form.
In the late 1970s, archeologists (Freeman and Echegaray) were working a paleolithic site in northern Spain. They unearthed arrangements of columns with several layers of bone, red ochre, burnt plant material. The site looked to be a shrine of some kind, perhaps mankind’s oldest. Later on and deeper in the cave they unearthed a crudely sculpted stone face pictured below. Here is the archeologists’ description:
“The proper right side of the face is that of an adult male human, with moustache and beard. The proper left side is a large carnivore with oblique eye. . . The chin is triangular, and a sharply pointed tooth or fang projects above he mouth. On the muzzle there are three subparallel lines of black spots suggesting the bases of whiskers or vibrissae, a characteristic feature of felids. Taken as a hole theses features represent a large cat probably a lion or leopard. Both existed near El Juyo in Magdalenian times.”
Pfeiffer in his book, “The Creative Explosion” comments on these findings:
“The face was placed at such an angle that people coming in at the entrance more that 20 feet away saw only its right side, the human side. To see the feline side they had to come up close and, more than that examine the image by the light of a lamp or torch. So our analysis must take into account a dualism, a double theme. the face had a public and a private aspect, perhaps indicting ‘an exoteric meaning accessible to all who entered the cave and an occult, esoteric significance known only to those had been shown its mysteries.’ There are other dualisms, other mysteries, beyond that. The face is half human and half beast, suggesting a Jekyll-Hyde version of human nature. . .It seems that the habit of dividing the world into opposite or opposing forces existed among prehistoric people and, again, we see a continuity between their way of thinking and ours.”
Fast Forward 10,000 years to the Egyptian hieroglyph below.
The “Aker Lions” image is a common theme seen in ancient Egyptian art. It depicts lions facing opposite directions, with one lion facing west symbolizing yesterday and the other lion facing east symbolizing tomorrow. The sundisk on the lions’ flanks is representative of the “higher self” and is perfectly balanced between the opposing lions. and sitting directly on top of the Ankh which symbolizes life. This image in its whole form is commonly referred to as the present now or “Eternal Now.” It is also the hieroglyphic sign for horizon, which is the meeting point for two other opposites, earth and sky.
Fast forward, again, to ancient Greece where Aristotle and the Pythagoreans describe the table of opposites. Much has been written about these opposites and it would be of some benefit to ponder each one. The philosophical debates on the One and the Many have been going on for millennia.
As a Latter-Day Saint I have been taught about competing truths throughout my life; justice and mercy, faith and learning, body and spirit, work and grace, diligence and rest. These principles tug at us from different directions. The answer is found in the Divine. The ways in which we handle opposites is telling. Most people just don’t think about it very much. Others find ways to bring them together. In the case of religious teachings, convergence comes through the reconciling Atonement of Jesus Christ. The moment of convergence is where we see the enlightenment we strive for. Other opposing forces I have pondered include: words and actions, nomadic and sedentary, creator and destroyer, chaos and order, public and private, ascension and descension, to name a few.
I will use ascension and descension as an example. This includes other opposites such as highs and lows, success and failure, or victory and defeat. A frequent thing we do as a family is something called “rose and thorn” where each family member takes a turn telling something good and bad that has happened. It is a fun exercise and helps us understand what going on in our kids’ lives and how they perceive it. Similarly, a good friend of mine was explaining to me why he thought wrestling a good sport for him growing up. “In wrestling you either win or lose, but you do it alone.” He had learned how to handle himself in winning situations and losing situations. He says there are important lessons in both instances and winning or losing as a team buffers it, makes it less poignant. Staying in one of these poles at all times can limit our growth. It may sound great to always be ascending but I don’t think that is what this life is all about. A friend of mine came from a good family, inherited a successful business from his father, is wealthy, and has a beautiful family. He is a gregarious extrovert, tall, and a natural athlete. Our friendship was good, but I always felt things just a little bit off or incomplete. We were chatting one day and he described one of the greatest hardships of his life was when he didn’t make the junior high basketball team. Later on his wife fell extremely ill and nearly died. She pulled through, but it was touch and go for a moment. I think it was the hardest thing he had ever had to go through and it took months to get things back to normal for his family. Next time I saw him he seemed a different person. He had experienced something difficult and had overcome it. He was more complete, more whole in a way. It is hard to put into words but it seemed that his gregariousness had been substituted for gravitas. Although to be always winning sounds great it may not be the best for character development. We all probably know someone like this. Likewise the opposite is probably worse. The ne’er do well Eeyore caricature is more common in my experience. We all probably know someone stuck in this mode too. It should be in our best interest to help these people experience some success. I should also state that this is different than clinical depression. This is more of a sackcloth and ashes experience. It is having hardships, sometimes extreme ones.
The lessons learned from winning or losing often occur when in the middle of these events. When we are flying high in the sky it is too easy and we may be having too much fun to pay attention. When in the depths of the underworld this is often an opportunity for us to develop our character and increase our acquaintance with God, but the struggle itself often requires so much energy and focus that thinking about anything else is impractical or even impossible. The “A-Ha” moment comes at the convergence. This is particularly true when seeing that first bit of light on the horizon after the dark night.
“The Mill” by Rembrandt
The final image I will share is a modern example of art. I see a moment of opposites: earth and sky, storm and calm, night and day. The space in-between may seem narrow or brief, but nestle yourself in the middle, push outwards and give yourself some elbow room.