Awakening to Wholeness is a series of prompts, reflections, and teachings about how holding the tension of opposites can help us to heal division and experience wholeness. If you feel moved to share your own reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
The practice of holding the tensions found within opposites is an invitation to wholeness. When we recognize a pair of opposites and get to know the flavor and texture of each pole, we perceive more fullness. What better way to come to know “hot” than by having an experience of “cold!”
This practice of holding opposites stretches us: it encourages us to widen our lens of reality and broaden our perspective. In this way, we become familiar with the “breadth” aspect of contemplation as expansion.
Yet holding the tension of opposites can also have detriments. The most common temptation while holding opposites is to get stuck on one side. Whether due to a desire for comfort, clarity, or security, we are easily lured into staying on one side of the tension, rather than oscillating back and forth.
In this posture, we can get stuck in the extremes of dualisms: either-or, all-or-nothing perspectives. Far too many societal “isms” reflect this stagnant posture. In the practice of holding opposites, it’s best to keep moving. Shake things up a bit!
Then, when things get shaken up enough and the momentum tips, we fall into a resolution of tensions, best depicted by the shape of the spiral. A new, third force emerges.
Two powerful sets of three are past-present-future and head-heart-senses. When we observe the personal dynamics of these two sets at work in our daily lives, we engage in the hard-yet-fruitful inner work of transformation.
EHoP invites you to engage in this transformative inner work of holding opposites, for the benefit of the world and the common good!
Contemplative Questions
We intend for these teachings to be not only conceptual, but also practical. We offer the following questions as prompts to help you reflect on the presence of opposites in your spiritual practice and your life.
- What are the foundational “sets of opposites” that have transformed your life?
- Who are the people, where are the places, what are the memories that have informed your experiences of holding the tensions of opposites?
- Over the years, what practices have you committed to in order to engage the inner work of transformation?
Join the conversation!
If you feel moved to share your reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
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