A pregnant state of tension is the ground or context for life, the force that keeps the universal cycles evolving. Tension motivates the causal world and frames all relationships.

"The primal powers (yin and yang) never come to a standstill. The reason is that between the two primal powers there arises again and again a state of tension, a potential that keeps the powers in motion and causes them to unite, whereby they are constantly regenerated...if this state of tension, this potential, were to cease, there would no longer be a criterion for life--life could no longer express itself."--The I Ching (Book of Changes) translated by Richard Wilhelm.

As a spring inside a clock uses tension to express time in space, life relies on the potential energy of strife. The point of life is not to struggle to end tension or conflict. The point is to use the pre-existent tension (interplay of yin and yang) and life's conflict to intensify the light within, adapting courageously to the obstacles that collectively define, refine, and polish our lives. There will always be conflict (gravity is one permanent opponent) but fear or anxiety is optional. If we can encounter inevitable conflict as a call to adventure, then we're empowered to positively influence the entire energy field. But we're programmed genetically and psychologically to recognize conflict and change fearfully rather than challenging, and the internal system (ego, adrenaline etc.) that exists for that purpose can't tell the difference between threat to your life and common embarrassement.

As in all things there's a constantly changing point of balance or symmetry between too much and too little. Excess in any thing causes stress and, conversely, insufficiency is a condition of stagnation or atrophy. Stimulation is necessary for growth and learning, but as soon as stimulation passes exhileration and becomes stress (the point at which negative systems are activated and learning is prohibited) degeneration occurs.

Copyright 2004 by Jack Livingston