Inspirations from Binah

A friend and I were talking about ying and yang recently, two equal energies that work together in harmony:  Masculine/feminine, push/pull, force/form, action/reception… flowing within us in a quest for balance.  Yet we all have to admit that one flows stronger than the other. Often times, this natural tendency is used to excuse unwanted behavior or challenges, hence why you hear comments such as, “I can’t help it, I’m an Aquarius.” and so forth.  Instead of hiding behind an unchangeable label, our natural disposition should be seen as a valuable tool for personal development.  When you know who you are, truly see yourself with clear and accepting eyes, you can more easily discover what you need in order to navigate life’s challenges and manifest your dreams.

In the course of our conversation, we talked about the different ways these two opposing, yet harmonious, ying/yang energies manifest.  We paused on black and white, investigating emotions and associations.  We live in a world of duality, and until we evolve into blissful unity, each extreme needs the other.  Our vocabularies can only understand via comparison, knowing that what one is, the other is not.

In Darkness

When I was asked which color I feel a greater affinity for, black or white, it took me a minute to answer.  Black and white are very symbolic to me.  Like the great pillars of Jachin and Boaz that stand at the porch of Solomon’s Temple, they represent the primal masculine and feminine energies: force and form.  But while I know that I carry a large amount of masculine, action energy, I was surprised to realize that it is with the ebony depth of Boaz that I resonate most.

The minutes ticked by and I struggled to form the words that could express why a person that feels like she can’t live without feeling the Sun’s rays pour through her window every day would choose darkness over light.  As I looked around my room, Binah’s black rays of Understanding stepped in and illuminated the answer:

My life is about transformation, my own and that of those I serve through my spiritual work, and that requires the blackness of death.  I believe in finding the beauty in the darkness.  It is in the dark that we hid our fears, worries, and shames.  And it is in this blackness that we must dive in order to do our greatest work: to find and heal the wounds that prevent us from moving forward.  Like a deep-sea diver, I search for the light found in the shadows, using every tool in my Spiritual Toolbox to illuminate what was once cloaked in darkness.

I bow low in deep gratitude to my friend for providing a safe space where I could explore freely and achieve a new level of connection with Binah, the grand mother of Understanding.

I leave you with this TED talk by lighting architect Rogier van der Heide who offers a beautiful new way to look at the world — by paying attention to darkness in order to see the light: