Balance in the Universe from Philosophy to Physics

The universe we are a part of is mostly beyond our comprehension in terms of scale and complexity.   For the first time science is trying to answer questions that have been historically explained by religion.  In order to truly understand our experience in this world we must explore a broader perspective of things by merging concepts and information from all disciplines.  In order to take such a broad view of things means that the pattern you are looking for is going to be relatively basic.  The less complicated something is grants it wider applicability.  Chinese philosophy articulated this widely applicable and easy to understand concept that seems to govern many facets of our experience: yin yang, or two seemingly opposing forces that are actually interdependent and interconnected such that one gives rise to the other.  They cannot exist without one another and they always strive to maintain equilibrium.  Yin yang was also used to explain other natural dualities such as male/female, light/dark, low/high, and others.  But perhaps this concept permeates further in our universe than simply things like hot and cold or rich and poor dualities here on Earth.

Balance in Science

First Law of Thermodynamics

The abbreviated version of this law is energy can neither be created nor destroyed; energy can only be converted or transferred from one form to another form.  This law describes the balance of energy that exists in the universe.  The fusion reaction occurring within the core of a star is converting energy from the weak nuclear force and the electromagnetic force into heat and light energy.  People typically refer to these reactions as producing energy, when, in fact, energy is merely being shifted from one type to another as opposed to actually creating new energy.

Newton’s third law of Motion: Law of Reciprocal Actions

This is the Law from which people get the saying, “For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction.”  If you fire a gun the bullet is forced out of the barrel from the force of the gunpowder exploding in between the chamber and the bullet.  The equal but opposite reaction of the force generated to propel the bullet is the recoil.  In this way, motion between matter particles is balanced by distributing the force exerted upon it in equal but opposite directions.

The Water Cycle

Earth is fortunate enough to possess liquid water and all of the wondrous things that can arise from a planet having water in the liquid state.  On Earth, water exists simultaneously in the oceans, in the atmosphere, and in various forms within the crust.  The weather engine that is fueled by the Sun is perpetually converting liquid water into steam that rises into the atmosphere, cools and condenses in the presence of particulate matter in the air, and then returns to the oceans and the crust by way of rain.  Water is not being created on Earth, it is merely being converted from one physical phase to another with the introduction and removal of heat energy.  In this way Earth’s percentage of water ratio remains in tact, whether that water is in the atmosphere, ocean or the crust.

Forces

Matter exists because of the interation of four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetic, and the strong and weak nuclear forces.  The electromagnetic force presents the most clear cut example of the balance in everything concept.  Most people are familiar with the concept of positive and negative charges.  This is the manifestation of balance in the electromagnetic force: there are two different, but equal forces that make up electromagnetic energy.  Without the balance in the electromagnetic force, matter and energy as we know it would be impossible.  Atoms would never have formed because there would not have been electron and proton particles that attracted each other to form an atom.  We would not exist without this balance.

Balance in the Economy and Business

The Economy: Supply and Demand

The economy as defined by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) consists of four major components: Government Spending, Consumer Spending, Investments, and the net Import/Export amount.  All four of these broad categories are governed by supply and demand.  European citizens typically demand more services from their governments and therefore their governments’ budgets are larger proportionally to their GDP than the U.S. budget.  Ultimately, supply and demand are the primary drivers for the amount of money it costs to purchase something.

Finance and Accounting Both Personal and Corporate

Accounting as an entire financial information management framework cannot exist without the fundamental principle of balance.  Our financial data, from personal bank accounts to the annual report of a Fortune 500 corporation, is maintained in a double-entry system.  For every time something occurs that involves money two records are produced to account for the movement of that transaction.  These records have an identical dollar value but one is the negative value of the other.  Who assumes the negative amount is entirely up to your position in the transaction, but sure enough, someone receives a negative (that is not always bad in accounting – revenue carries a negative sign and so does income).  There is a financial statement referred to as a Balance Sheet that represents all of the assets of a corporation and how the company has been financed.  The assets’ value must equal the liabilities and equity.

Religious and Philosophical Balance

Classical Chinese Philosophy

Classical Chinese philosophy, science and medicine all were deeply routed in the belief that there were two seemingly opposing forces really are complimentary and dependent on one another.  It was also believed that other natural dualities such as light and dark, male and female, positive and negative are results of the yin yang concept.

The Classic Christian Duality of Good and Evil

Christianity brought forth upon us the notion of an inherently good and evil duality in religion that made its way into modern times personified by Jesus and the Devil.  This is a familiar duality for many Western cultures that spreads through popular culture in addition to religion by way of books and movies and other stories.  There are a good number of novels and movies created on the premise of a savior to some unspeakable evil.  These can be traced back to the cultural duality concept of a purely good and a purely evil force that truly brought forth this religious manifestation.

Karma Embodies Balance Throughout a Greater Existence

Karma is the concept of cause and effect that was core to ancient Indian religions and remains a core principle of Hinduism and Buddhism.  Part of what makes Buddhism different from Hinduism is in the treatment of the cause and effect relationship’s philosophical intricacies.  The core is that an individual accumulates positive and negative karma from the things he or she did, thought, or said and the subsequent effect of those actions.  Both religions believe in a cyclical existence such that when one dies they are reborn again but still carrying the accumulated positives and negatives incurred in previously lives.  It is believed that your accumulated karma determines the manner in which you are reborn, like the type of creature and the circumstances.

Emotional Duality

There are also many dualities in the spectrum of human emotions.  Splitting emotions into two polar opposites with no gradient of intensity in between would be a false premise.  Regardless of the fact that there are degrees of emotional intensity, for example between being ecstatic and being despondent, there is a linear spectrum that has two opposite ends balancing one another, and giving rise to the other.  One cannot exist without the other.

Images used in this post

Yin_yang by flickr user dalehugo under the CC license.

Ganesha by flickr user alicepopkorn under the CC license.