Chance and Balance1

East and West

Olof G. Lidin

 

Introduction

 

It is said that "A big book is a big evil" (G. E. Lessing). And "what is said simply is heard." With these statements in mind I have attempted to write shortly and succinctly about truths which have been on my mind for decades. It has been my conviction, at least since the early 1960s, that Man need not ask about who he is and about his selfhood. He has his ineffable personality and his supranatural nature and feeling and thinking link the two. The meaning of life and happiness is found immediately in the Whole that comprises the All. The goal is the demystification of metaphysical thought. All is natural in both what is seen and what is unseen and the complete life is a union of the two.

 

Prologue

 

The 130 short chapters contain one message: how to live the inner-outer oneness of life and be happy. The discourse is not academic, but given an easy-to-read and short form. About half a century ago it dawned on me that all life, not least human life, is a line beginning and ending in the inner after a span of outer life. All along the line is Chance and Balance, and intuition connects the two with the Eternal. One can be suspicious about feelings and inspiration, but when one's inner dictations have been fulfilled over a fifty-year period, one is convinced that there is a spiritual other world more real than the terrestrial world, that the Eternal directs and leads and that its Will can be trusted. Intuitive experience becomes spiritual guidance in life. The vision of a timeless and changeless reality breeds pure feeling, joy and happiness. Critics are apt to call this intuitive life escapism, self-deception and wishful thinking. It is to consider the unseen order and inner union as not real but should we not trust our deepest and innermost instincts and allow daily life be the litmus test whether it is truth or fancy? One must trust one's intuition and seek truth, and then adjust oneself to the rich life we are born for morally, practically, emotionally and religiously.

 

If you experience the inward light over a fifty-year period and can conclude that this light has given your life direction and a rich life, more abundant than can be imagined. You know that the visions have not been just fantasy. It is feeling of harmony with all reality, standing eye to eye with the Eternal. It is PRIVATE JOY that, in the end, cannot be put into words. Best not to question it - just to live it!

 

It is recognized that the inward happiness has been the goal of man's endeavours in all ages. A rich literature over the ages bear witness to this. The aim of religion and philosophy is the life of happiness. The same can be said about much modern literature. The sources are therefore innumberable and it seems somewhat overbearing to produce another book on the subject. Only a new approach can vindicate the project and this work is such an attempt. Today's literature have in common that they both begin and end in this world while they are few that begin and end on the absolute other side aiming at the happy life on this side.

 

Part I: ONENESS

 

1. Look up, feel in and be happy! Seize the Chance!

 

What does one see all around oneself? Chance and Balance. Nature is full of it. You are full of it. Looking up into the network of branches of a tree, one sees how Chance has created a system in Balance. When one looks inward one senses the presence of a system striving for Balance. There is a Will pulsing throughout the Whole, and it can be designated Chance, and throughout the Whole there is Meaning and Purpose. The sum of all things is the ever-shifting Balance. Together they form the Cosmic Order. The Eternal2 directs Chance and shapes Balance in the grand cosmic evolution. Hence, Chance and Balance form the two poles of the universal on-going process of becoming. "Whether or not this process has been divinely planned is a metaphysical question outside the scope of this work."3

 

Just as a coin needs its flipside, the Temporal cannot do without the Eternal; and the Eternal cannot do without the Temporal. The natural and material reality is the “stuff”. It requires the precious spark of Chance to acquire the form of a man, a woman or, for that matter, any other thing. Living in the world of sense impressions, we touch the manifold forms into which it has transformed. We see and hear, smell and taste – and feel. Now, most of our senses are directed outwards, and we therefore comprehend the external equilibrium of things. We see a tree and hear a song, we smell a cheese and taste a cake. We feel more, however, when the senses are still. We feel whether soul and body are in or out of balance. We feel the unity, the Grand Balance of the totality, and apprehend the shattering experience of oneness in the universe as a whole.4

 

As Marcus Aurelius says, "Look within; within is the fountain of all good."5