Fire and water meet in earth
Fire and Water are often seen as the great opposites. Fire rises upward, is expansive, radiant and describes the very movement of the Shen of our heart. Water flows downward to rest at the lowest point, receptive, hidden and describes the deep essence of Jing, held in our Kidneys. If they only oppose each other, life becomes unstable. Too much Fire and we become scattered, restless and the Spirit cannot settle in its home, the heart. In the West we call this burnout. Too much Water and we sink inward, withdrawn, we live in the past and the Spirit loses clarity. In the West we might names this depression or agoraphobia.
When Fire and Water meet, this great tension creates a structure, a steady centre where they hold one another. The place where they meet is Earth, at Center. It is within this alchemy that the middle path is born and the discovery not of conflict, but integration. Earth becomes the bridge between what was and what might be, a place where direction, purpose, and inspiration meet memory, grounding, and endurance. Earth is presence, the embodied now and the fertile ground that holds both. The middle way is not just a personal path, it is a space for community, dialogue and shared awakening and it is here to remind us that we need this form to express who we really are.
INVITATIONS
Get outside in nature where you can feel life touching you and you meeting life all around you. Walk gently on the earth in the presence of your past, with all your longings for your future yet, experienced as raw sensations in the present moment.
Sit or lay for a few minutes in a way where your body is organised in a natural way. Can you feel where your energy rises in you and where it retreats? Drop your awareness into your belly, feeling the movements of the breath here for a few moments. Invite a spark of warmth, a small flame of curiosity to rise from your belly and to light up your chest on the inhalation and keep the chest bright as you exhale. Repeat 12 - 14 times.
Earth is not just a middle path, it is presence itself. Through movement and stillness, the simple act of listening, practice coming home, not to perfection, but to balance. Explore doing everything today as if you are holding it tenderly with both hands.
The Daoists would say that in this dance, the Jing that we are, rising up to meet with the Shen, is the essential rhythm of cultivation. This is an essential movement to bring what is precious within us, up and out into the world around us. We can forget that letting go, is part of the alchemy. Shen and Jing must have space to meet, merge and consolidate. Letting go is when the Shen acts and reveals. Yet without that meeting, life can feel fragmented, restless or heavy. The art of practice be that Yoga, meditation, walking in nature, is to allow for the conditions for this meeting to occur.
This ultimately is what this union asks of us, to walk between the worlds of our past, our essence and resources and give them a home in this body, this breath and the present moment where they can be lived, not only imagined. It is the pattern of one human life with a past, a longing for a future and a steady presence now, here and to bring insight and liberation into the life we are living now. Here we can remember that our life is not something to be balanced once and for all, but continually lived with awareness, humility and heart.
