The rising temperature on earth is just one more symptom of this imbalance. Behind it are centuries of restless growth, driven by an aggressive attitute of continuous expansion without limits. The highest expressions of yin, quietness and calmness, have no intrinsic value in this “yangnified” scheme of things which exploits rest merely as a springboard for further growth and expansion thereby slowly using up the ressources of the earth.

We have become disconnected from the earth, says Jane Goddall in one of her latest books, and this disconnection entails losing contact with the fruits, the vegetables and the waters of the earth. How many millions of people all over the world get through the day without consuming any of these vital things coming from the earth? Many of them do not have access to them, but almost as many because they choose not to. Late modern urban life style feeds on fast food, virtual worlds and working long hours. Yet, lately there have been several countermovements in the form of slow food, worlding and de-growth which introduce the features of yin forces into our lives again.

It all comes down to finding the balance between the two major forces in our lives, starting with the earth as the basis for keeping the balance, and the sky as the horizon for our highest aspirations. The problem, which we are facing today, is that we are growing and progressing at an unsustainable pace. We have literally lost touch with the ground, the foundation for further development. We are burning up the material basis of our lives, drying up the land, emptying the ressources and contaminating the atmosphere, yang over yin. The only way back is taking the heat out of the flame, which we have let loose, calming down the accelerated pace of late modern furore and beginning to build our world on a truly sustainable development.

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This analysis is one narrative among many. I must confess that I like it for its simplicity. The real state of affairs is probably much more complex, but what if this complexity came from something really simple? An imbalance between two forces which hardly match and complement each other anymore. On the one hand, we have speed, heat, noise and stress. On the other hand, we have what is hard to find anymore, slowness, coolness, silence and calmness.

The first parameter seems to have got the upper hand in recent history, which is what creates a certain imbalance on earth. Somebody a bit more nostalgic than me might even say that we have lost the balance which preserves life on earth and makes it grow. Is it possible to recover the balance lost, if it is really lost? It would not be enough to balance the two forces; more would be needed, as in the ancient Chinese symbol of balance, yin-yang, in which the two complementary forces are balancing each other – being at the same time inside each other.

Balance comes from within. There is no other way of stopping a fast running frain train slowly and gently but from the inside, with a subtle, intelligent touch, so that what is out of control does not end up becoming completely uncontrollable and destructive, but it can instead become balanced and remain intact. Recovering balance starts with ourselves, it starts inside ourselves, taking it a bit slower and a bit cooler, being a bit more silent and calmer in the middle of late modern furore and frenzy.

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