The Work of Holding Opposites

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”.

Learning the art of holding opposites impacts our ability to see—not just our own tendencies, but also the larger vision of others and of God. As we engage the work of holding opposites, we gain practical contemplative skills like widening our lens of perception and deepening our capacity to engage with others and with God.

As we become more comfortable with the oscillating, back-and-forth movement associated with this work, we learn to let go of narrowness, stagnancy, and extremism. When we allow ourselves to let go of the back and forth energy and release into the resolution of the tensions, like a transforming spiral, we dive deeper into the hidden-yet-real layers of life and reality. 

The work of holding the opposites is hard work. Deepening and widening our lens of perception is like excavation. When we carve out more space in our minds and hearts, we expand our conscious awareness, but this increase comes with a cost: the loss of old ways, the effort of making new paths, the messiness of the digging and rebuilding.

The work of whole-making, the price of Wisdom, will exact everything from us. The transformative path insists that we give it our all. The good news is that we do not work alone. The Hand of the Holy One guides us, pursues us, and holds us as we labor in transformation. 

Contemplative Questions

We offer the following questions as prompts to help you reflect on the presence of opposites in your spiritual practice and your life.

• What part of the hard work of holding tensions has proven most challenging for you? (The loss of old ways? The effort of making new paths? The messiness and uncertainty? Something else?)
• How has your journey along this path already transformed you? What change is ongoing? 
• When have you felt the Hand of the Holy One guiding and holding you through this work?