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The Perplexity of Balance. A Brief, Nuanced Look at Aspects of Ourself, and a World We'd Rather Turn Away From | Read Time: 16 min
Reader discretion: Essay touches on difficult topics regarding violent crimes
Coming to terms with the mere existence of violence is a journey. It’s a brutal mark on the human experience. Worse than accepting violence’s place in our reality, is to bear its place within ourselves. While we don’t have to like it, we can’t cower, can’t turn our heads and ignore it. To embrace it may seem unimaginable, but doing so is paramount on the path of our own evolution.
Accepting the unsightly or ghastly aspects of oneself, and each other is the cornerstone of Shadow Work. Introduced by Carl Jung1, the Shadow is an idea as old as consciousness is itself, touched on by every story and spiritual belief worth its salt. The Shadow, an integral part of the Yin Yang, a mirror, a metaphor, our untamed, animalistic nature, a catalyst for transcendent change. Like our inevitable death sentence, its acceptance leads to life lived at its fullest, to salvation. It’s the parts of our personality, our soul, our society, our very self, that we’d rather tuck away, that we shame in others. The Shadow is not something to be broken, or worked, rather, worked with. It exists in everything, everyone. We all carry aspects of the monster. Tame the monster within. Tame it with grace.
It is the wolf’s jaw in our golden retrievers. The tiger fangs in our tabby cats. We accept the shadows in our pets. Love them for it. Feel safe at night with our dog on guard in our home, while our cats rat the house from intruders in the walls. We nurture our little beasts, feed them with love, security, and compassion. Keep them content and placid, until the other side of their nature needs to come to the surface for our benefit.
Yet we fail to do the same for ourselves, or each other. We shame. Sometimes, rightly so. For to lose control, to succumb to our shadow, and let it cover our light, whether or not it is intentional, is wrong, a failure of character, a sin to our society, to ourselves. The fault of which is our lack of balance, discipline, knowledge of self, and nurture. Our hubris blinds and misleads us into believing it is our intellect that pacifies our animals, rather than our heart. We ignore their lessons.
We don’t seek to rectify balance at the source. Honesty, harmony, patience, and nurture. We try to bend, to break one another, make our opposition yield rather than find communal wins. Too much order stirs the storm of chaos.
Rare are occasions where violence is necessary under ideal circumstances, times of peace, or abundance. While intuitively we shy from our shadows, Jung proposed the opposite. To welcome them for strength, to temper them with understanding. As much as we should lean to the positive and peaceful, endeavour to embrace and create change with our words, the monster still has its place and deserves our gratitude. We see it in play, acted on the stage. In contests and sport. Controlled violence, be it boxing, or martial arts. We honour the monsters of our champions. In the ring we see the balance, on the street we see it falter. We balance ourselves with our workouts, feeding our monster’s strength, and ego.
Some pacifists cower from even the idea of harming insects. Buddhists for example, see mosquitoes, spiders and such, as potential incarnates, and reincarnations of loved ones2 Their concern of harm does not come from fear, but respect. The thought follows that if you maim, or kill any living creature, you won’t achieve karmic balance, live a bad life, and come back as a lower level being. Such as the bug that you may have considered ending. Some hold the belief that the only way to Nirvana, to escape the Wheel of Dharma is to live a pure life. Much like the Catholics and Christians believe in escaping this Earthly plane to the heavens through a good and sinless life. It’s not hard to see the parallels between sins, and good deeds to karmic balances and debts.
This is where i push back, and exclaim “You’re welcome,” with joy as i end the lives of flies and mosquitoes. (Not only some of the greatest irritants, but spreaders of disease, and itch. i would never harm a spider). While the mosquitos may feast, there is no need for their poison. Without it, how terrible would it be to lose a thimble of blood, over nothing? What evolutionary purpose could there be but to beg for our wrath3? Creatures that, aside from their importance in the certain ecosystem’s food chains, do nothing more than harm and annoy us. It’s hard not to project the belief that they are living a miserable existence. Nothing kind would choose such an incarnate, and if they are deemed to serve a lifetime in that form, it must be some form of punishment. By ending that term with a swift palm we may alleviate their meta-suffering by taking on the karmic debt on their behalf. The intention, served with reluctance, with the goal of liberation, kindness, could be considered an act of cleansing action, not barbaric malicion.
Intention matters. Tough decisions, moral strain in the effort of compassion, generosity through sacrifice, and mental strife is indeed a loud indication of the righteous path. Difficult acts and decisions like euthanizing our animals, and those in agony. Mercy kills, the shadow side of love, served with a heavy hand of grief. It takes great bravery to put down an animal that you love, to ease its suffering at the price of your own. To unburden the pains of another, without resentment, or alternative motive, may be one of the greatest acts one can perform in their lifetime. Without a doubt an addition to positive karma, despite the grotesque, and complicated nature of the act.
The equation seems simple. Helping innocents good, harming innocents bad. The measure, while flexible, is sound. Is one transferring their own suffering onto someone else, or trying to defend themselves, and others? Revisiting Buddhism we see the importance of martial arts in secular life4. In the same way that the wise prepare their homes for rain, winds, and winter, the noble minded tune their bodies. They sacrifice comfort and ease for rigorous training, to defend themselves, and others, from the beasts in the wild, and in the hearts of men. This practice symbolizes everything. Self sacrifice, intention, decisiveness, for the greater good. It is better to be a warrior in a garden, then a gardener in a war.
There’s a meditation practice originating in Myanmar called Vipassana that brings peace and mental vigour. The deeper you go into the process the more clues of karmic clinginess surface. Be it anger, sorrow, unresolved nor remembered traumas, or even joyful thoughts, all rise, intended for release. Good or bad Karma, the true path is seeing the irrelevance of the labels, embracing, accepting, and releasing of both. The work of a lifetime. Liberating ourselves as we burn away these karmic, for lack of better word, cancers.
Cancer is a good measure, and metaphor, for antagonistic occurrences that require immediate removal. The suffering of the body caused by waiting outweighs the suffering of the soul by action. The difficulty of the surgical “violence,” (in the lowest definition of the word), fear, injury, rehabilitation, and extended healing. There is great sorrow in removing a part of ourselves that has turned against the Self. However, inaction can kill the whole system. It is violence with the hope of healing. One of our greatest, and most difficult task of this lifetime is trying to cleanse ourselves, and grow to a fuller human being. A process of removing our own ugliness, striving to tame our “false positives.”
In conversations regarding violence, Cancer can be a dangerous word. A label that has been bastardized by evils of the past. By those that organized genocides, to rally followers into committing heinous acts and atrocities in our collective histories. While scales differ, no culture has been immune to this shame. Let us take time to ensure we understand that no one individual should ever be labelled as a cancer by any exterior part of their person. Solely their actions. To exterminate all flies and mosquitos would be unjust, and unbalanced. To swat a mosquito from your child’s arm, or a fly from your meal is a different experience than ultimate annihilation. To label all men as villains is a lie, to label a convicted pedophile as a cancer in our society accurate. While we can’t pretend to know the purpose or role of a single entity in the grand scheme of life (for example, the eradication of one species of pest may starve another population, such as spiders5) we can protect our own persons, we do not have to simply let something take from us.
As everyone has a Shadow, every shadow has light. When we avoid shunning, or stunting ourselves by limiting our scope of understanding, we’re free to move forward and find where the characteristics of our internal Monsters are applicable, and helpful. Where they can enhance our care for ourselves and community. Catholics and Christians around the world ask themselves, “What would Jesus do?” Even within the Saint, there was anger, and a controlled level of violence. In the story The Cleansing of the Temple we see Jesus overturn the tables of hawkers, and money changers6. It’s part of the Jesus myth that encourages us to embrace our strength and decisiveness, and give an example of an acceptable show of force at an appropriate time. Did he cause unjust harm? The measure being if he transferred his own suffering to someone else, rather than alleviate theirs and others. There was a blasphemy, the pollution of something not only sacred, but set for public grace. Was the business and property of others affected? Yes. But the cost of inaction was the community’s continued suffering. A community of which hawkers themselves were part of, and a space which would benefit them as well when used in respect with its original intentions. It would be unjust to destroy a business’s vehicles, but fair to sabotage them under circumstances where they were dumping their toxic refuse into a river that fed a town. In the same way that it is fair for neighbours to call the authorities on someone that has started an illegal clandestine methamphetamine lab. These enterprises poison others, put their safety at risk and cause tremendous suffering. In the case of the Cleansing of the Temple, Jesus would stand justified, his monster tame, and well utilized.7
Parents channel supernatural strength in order to protect their children against predators, or accident. Fighting down animals, lifting cars, removing threats at all costs. Exterior menaces are the obvious issues, though we must make sure to cast an even eye towards the internal. To the things we can fix within ourselves for the sake of ourselves, family, and community. Aiding others by leading by example. This is again where the practice Vipassana helps us evolve, strengthens the will, tempers the temper.
While the practice of “confessing one’s sins,” may have caused an enormous amount of psychological harm on those that followed its doctrine8 there is a tremendous intention within the indulges of the ritual. A critical look at oneself, naming mistakes and misdeeds, with the hope of becoming better. Both Vipassana and Confession require a reckoning and purification with the shadow.
But what do we do when it comes to one another? A complex question our societies have struggled with since our dawn. Our criminal codes have come a long way since Hammurabi, yet the pendulum doth swing. In some cases a stricter hand may be called for, and in other cases, it is high time for a dramatic loosening of our grip. Regardless there is a need for constant reevaluation, and transformation.
It is obvious there will always be perpetrators regardless of our punishments. While it is tempting to keep turning the screws, it is far more important that we don’t lose sight by learning to rehabilitate each other. Giving a kinder eye to the why’s of crime. Utilizing our entire kit of healing modalities, therapies, and wellness practices, doing our best to remove desperation from all walks of life. Finding true ways to rebuild, reintegrate, and not only punish. Understanding that hurt people, hurt people. That most takers have been taken from, or taken advantage of. We want to soothe the monsters in each other, not strengthen them.
In most instances problems come from ignorance, or lack of education. A profound misunderstanding of how one’s actions may harm those around them. To remedy, we may have to give more than we receive. This shouldn’t be a bad thing. We can, and should strive to live in a society with healing practices to those that might not even know they need it. To those who commit the atrocities around us in hope of bringing them to the light. When we all rise together, when there is less to climb towards, there’s a safer height to fall from.
With pen to paper, i can’t shake a sense of fear. A dash of warning. The ideas i intend to touch on have a tendency to be abused, distorted, and worse, can lead to totalitarian practices. Science Fiction writers9 have been wise with their displays of the horrors conjured by ‘reeducation centres.’ In a world where the horrendous consequences of similar ideas already exist10, it shouldn’t be hard for us to imagine a thoughtful, and kind evolution of the philosophies with grace, and honest investigation to the horrific failures of the past a guiding lines.
In a philosophical sense, there is a great argument for isolation as a solution for corrupted, and harmful behaviour. If we look at modern surgeries, autotransplantation techniques for hearts, livers, even limb attachment, they are ripe with metaphor. Removing an organ to repair, or extract a tumour, to avoid damaging the rest of the body, system, or society. For the point i’m trying to make, let’s consider Cardiac Autotransplantation. The heart is removed, with consideration of maximum care in order to extract difficult to reach tumours, and clear blockages without harming the whole.11 Or we can consider medical induced comas, where we keep the body and mind suspended in rest, well monitored, and nourished, in order for it to heal undisturbed.
In an ideal society we should be able to provide each other with varying degrees of locations of seclusion while we heal, both as a preventive measure, and as a rehabilitation technique. Similar to our penal systems now, but with well considered programs of reintegration instead of outright discipline, or consequential retribution. Peer support systems in a structured way that doesn’t exploit or abuse one another, doesn’t take advantage of our taxes, or puts us at risk with ruthless punishment for those that have broken the law for some irrelevant time frame. We need a way to have offenders return to society healed, and uninterested in committing more damage. As opposed to the negative feedback loops that plague current systems, and help no one.
Why couldn’t we, as citizens, also attend such centres? The benchmark for success would be our own appeal, and draw for the average person to visit. Places viewed with esteem, not shame. Group therapies, counselling, exercise, yoga, nutritious food, skill building classes, meditation, distance, and rest. Luxuries worthy of our tax dollars. Modelled like libraries, one could imagine centres open, and encouraged for public use. Citizens could take turns checking themselves in. The choice, and privilege of self care, available. A revolving door of those choosing to attend, for their own evolution, and rest, along those mandated for low level offences until professionals deem offenders are well fitted for reintegration.
Again the slip to totalitarian tendencies can be quick in these practices and must be avoided at all costs. A rising tide lifts all boats, a community of relaxed, patient, fed, rested, healthy people have little to no reason to harm others. To take, or cheat. Like wolves have evolved to dogs, former predators become well adopted to farm life, fulfilling harmonious lives for all when needs are met.
There is a lot to learn from the generous Vipassana Meditation retreats12. Attendees are fed (nutritious, though sparing meals) rested, and encouraged to not speak with each other, instead focus and work on oneself unhindered. We could learn from this model, and apply a more holistic path. Yoga, for physical health, opposed to prison-yard gyms, quiet, vast libraries, patient education, a myriad of therapeutic practices, meditation. There is often a well deserved critique of modern education at times mirroring, and leading to our prison systems13 , but should we look at new contemporary pedagogical modalities14 we should be able to find more gentle approaches.
More destructive, psychotic, violent crimes require a far higher degree of isolation (and, an argument to be made for full elimination for particular, unforgivable actions) erring on the side caution for the sake and safety of the public, measured with consistency over extended lengths of time. Both high and low security prisons should focused healing. Avoiding ideas like reeducation, and moving towards personal evolution. Brainwashing is a frightening reality of penal systems. As dangerous as setting strict boundaries on thought is, there are simple standards that we should be able to all agree as mandatory for participation with the public. We can look towards hate/racial crimes as a prime example. One would not be allowed back into the world at large until they show a consistent reverence, and respect for all walks of life, despite their pigment, sex, or lifestyle choices.
There is much to be said about the degree of crimes, of criticisms of prisons. While they will require a much more robust, and nuanced piece of their own, i would like to touch on two things.
First, true change will never come without willful choice. Yes, creatures can be beaten to submission, but this will never be fruitful. A broken spirit will not blossom like a well tended plant. We can see examples in the animal kingdom and plant worlds. There is such a drastic difference in behaviour between animals harmed into obedience then those nurtured into harmony. We see predators and prey become friends when we alleviate their basic needs.15 Often this requires years of generational change, the kind that evolves wolves to modern dogs. Time, the major solve. We see our plants, well tended, and well protected, flourish under basic farming principles.
Second, not all acts of violence are justified. While this isn’t the time to go into the nitty gritty of the spectrum, there are somethings are universally good (lets choose black, the absorption of all light as our marker for this) and somethings that are inarguable in their wickedness (we’ll use white, the reflection, or, repulsion, of all light, as our example here). We can think of inoperable tumours, and equate them to crimes against the pure, the innocents, our children, and elders, those that step into the category of unforgivable. Further investigation is a conversation for another time.
Of course, there are some sides that need to be vanquished. Pedophiles, the rapists. We can find excuses for theft. We can find, not justification, but reason for murder, be it accidental manslaughter, jealous rage, too much force in defense, murdering one that’s trying to murder others. We can comprehend defensive warfare. We understand this with our peacekeepers, and police officers, to an extent, when done justly. There’s room for circumstantial justification for pretty much everything- except rape and pedophilia. There’s no reason that someone requires an orgasm at the cost of psychic and physical detriment of another person. Blaspheming the beautiful acts of love. We all have a choice to break these cycles of abuse, if that doesn’t come from within oneself, then society must intervene with a swift palm. We must choose to remove those that perpetuate, the same as the malicious mosquitoes buzzing above our beds. They only serve the negative aspects of ecosystems, fear, and frightened justification for extensive overbearing responses to umbrellaed crimes, as if they’re parallels. As if a spider (even a venomous one at that) is the same as a bloodsucking, disease ridden mosquito. The former requires respect, and understanding, the latter, elimination. Regardless of how difficult a burden the weight of that reality may be to carry, the consequence of repeat offenders is too high. An action that requires the thoughtful, and considered rise of our internal monsters.
The answer of how we handle one another is of course, handling ourselves, and empowering everyone else to the same opportunities. Making sure we have the time, knowledge, and skills to take care of our mental, physical, and spiritual self.
Though we live in a world of greys, the spectrum must have a black and white. While nuance always matters, there are extremes that are inarguable in their morality, and where they stand as right or wrong. We must be vigilant in our kindness. Making efforts to see the whole of humanity. Live with atrocities of the past on our shoulders to guide ourselves to more peaceful futures. To know that the vile we see in others lives within ourselves as well. It takes tremendous effort to relinquish those aspects, the work of lifetimes. Fight off your demons. Send them away in hope, and with gratitude. With the flies, and mosquitoes. You’re Welcome.
What a difficult piece, filled with gaps, and holes, require inordinate amount of revision. Thank you for your patience.
If you are curious about Vipassana please follow this link, or click here to donate to such a worthy cause, and their efforts for classes in prisons across the world, as well as to anyone who feels called.
Thanks for reading,
-Mr. Write
Jung, C. G. (1959). The Shadow. In Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (2nd ed., Vol. 9, Part II, pp. 8-10). Princeton University Press
Ok ok, i’m kinda jumping to conclusions. There is evidence to believe the opposite, that our bodies produce the itch, to warn us of harm, to help us pay attention. i of course don’t buy it, screw those little bastards.
Green D, Dong X. The cell biology of acute itch. J Cell Biol. 2016 Apr 25;213(2):155-61. doi: 10.1083/jcb.201603042. PMID: 27114499; PMCID: PMC4862869. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27114499/
The most famous would be Shaolin Monks - Nešković, Marta. “Embodied spirituality: Shaolin martial arts as a Chan Buddhist practice.” International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology, vol 8, article no. 3, 2024. DOI:10.1186/s41257-024-00104-8.
https://ijae.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41257-024-00104-8
Though there are many other examples https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunmudo?utm_source
Mark 11:15–17:
Then they came to Jerusalem.
And he entered the temple and began to drive out
those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple,
and he overturned the tables of the money changers
and the seats of those who sold doves;
and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.
He was teaching and saying,
‘Is it not written,
My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?
But you have made it a den of robbers.
i realize that paragraphs like these can lead to some dangerous thinking, vigilantism, witch hunts, people comparing scars in contest. i hope those that dare to read, take the time to digest, and recognize that this is not a green light, merely a case to be made that sometimes, there is kindness in the violence.
A few examples of how much harm well intentioned ideas sometimes cause. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_trauma_syndrome
https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/catholic-guilt-recall-of-confession-promotes-prosocial-behavior
Masterpieces by Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World come to mind
Pick your nightmare…
Residential Schools
Soviet Gulags
Chinese Cultural Revolution
S-21 Tuol Sleng Prison in Cambodia
…and unfortunately, so much more…
Blackmon SH, Patel AR, Bruckner BA, Beyer EA, Rice DC, Vaporciyan AA, Wojciechowski Z, Correa AM, Reardon MJ. Cardiac autotransplantation for malignant or complex primary left-heart tumors. Tex Heart Inst J. 2008;35(3):296-300. PMID: 18941651; PMCID: PMC2565530.
Michel Foucault — Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975).
Foucault argues that schools, prisons, factories, and hospitals evolved from the same 18th–19th century disciplinary technologies of power—surveillance, normalization, examination.
Prins SJ, Shefner RT, Kajeepeta S, Hatzenbuehler ML, Branas CC, Metsch LR, Russell ST. Collateral consequences of the school-to-prison pipeline: Adolescent substance use and developmental risk. Addict Behav. 2023 Feb;137:107524. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2022.107524. Epub 2022 Oct 17. PMID: 36279712; PMCID: PMC11017990.
Montessori, and Waldorf are easy, and popular examples of alternative schooling philosophies.
Whoa, obviously quite a stretch, (here are few fun examples
Though it is not fool proof, and at times needs years of generational change, in the same way modern dogs have evolved from wolves, time is part of the solve.