Discipleship’s Greatest Lesson

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Discipleship’s greatest lesson is to remove the ego from the equation of action. Masters of the heart are trained to teach obedience to authority which is in essence disobedience to ego. The I, mind, logic, and even heart can be a hindrance in this form of obedience-training. True discipleship trains one to fully trust the Master above one’s own desire, logic or reason. By western standards, this would be considered “blind following.” However, in eastern spiritual traditions, this very process remains the essence of training disciples, in order for one to attain higher stations of reality; Divine Presence. The greatest hurdle for those controlled by the I in WE, is to accept the very concept of discipleship. We are reminded through sages that I does not exist in Divine Presence, and the very goal of the Master is to remove the I. 

A classic zen tale wisely delivers this message further to adherents,
Once there was a wise Zen master. People from far and near would seek his counsel and ask for his wisdom. Many would come and ask him to teach them, enlighten them in the way of Zen. He seldom turned any away.

One day an important man, a man used to command and obedience came to visit the master. “I have come today to ask you to teach me about Zen. Open my mind to enlightenment.” The tone of the important man’s voice was one used to getting his own way.

The Zen master smiled and said that they should discuss the matter over a cup of tea. When the tea was served the master poured his visitor a cup. He poured and he poured and the tea rose to the rim and began to spill over the table and finally onto the robes of the wealthy man. Finally the visitor shouted, “Enough. You are spilling the tea all over. Can’t you see the cup is full?”

The master stopped pouring and smiled at his guest. “You are like this tea cup, so full that nothing more can be added. Come back to me when the cup is empty. Come back to me with an empty mind.”

The famous quote reminds us, “The first step of the Way is to utter, “I know not.” Obedience school was not only meant for dogs.

 

 shaykh nazim and shaykh hisham kabbani 13

Part 2: Imbalanced Chakras and Energy Blockages

The Hulk and Chakra Issues

What are energy blockages or energy imbalances in the chakras?

by Gayle Kirk

 Imbalances in the chakras are known as energy blocks. When there is unreleased emotion such as fear, anger or guilt accumulated from past experiences or when there’s been a lack of nurturing, love, and encouragement during the developmental period, the energy flows less freely to/from the chakras. Whenever a person blocks an experience, he/she blocks the flow of energy to/from their chakras. The chakras become blocked, clogged with stagnated energy, spin irregularly or backwards or can even become distorted or torn. When the chakras are functioning normally, each one will be open and spinning properly to metabolize the particular energies needed from the universal energy field.

If you were to completely think thoughts of love and faith, your body’s energy would flow smoothly between and around the chakras. You would probably feel happy and healthy . Fearful thoughts negatively affect your chakras’ ability to function. They cause the chakras to become dirty, shrunken or swollen. That is why you may feel out of sorts or lethargic and not know why. Obsessive thoughts cause the chakras to enlarge and become out of proportion. When there is an energy imbalance in the chakras, the chakras tend to close down starting at the top chakra (Crown) and moving downward to the Root. Many people close down the top three chakras (Crown, Brow, and Throat) by the time they are three years old as a reaction to the disbelief of their parents and society in nature spirits, spirit friends, and past lives. During the teenage years, the Heart or 4th Chakra often closes down or becomes blocked because of pain and rejection from parents, peers, and lovers. The Solar Plexus or 3rd Chakra may close down or become blocked when parents and society force teens into molds they don’t fit. By the time many of us reach adulthood, we have closed down all but the first 2 chakras (Root and Sacral) and even those often have imbalances due to energy blocks. The closure or imbalance/energy blockage doesn’t usually occur in response to a single event. It’s the repetition of similar events without relief that eventually closes off the chakra or causes the imbalance/energy blockage. After high school, there is usually less pressure to conform and some people begin to reverse the process and start opening their chakras. Usually the Solar Plexus/3rd Chakra opens before the Heart/4th Chakra and so on successively upwards towards the Crown. But this isn’t always true. Some people don’t need to work on their higher chakras. It’s their lower chakras that need balancing. When your childhood and adolescence have been healthy and nurturing, you may be balanced and open in every chakra.

4) Why do we want to identify and remove energy blocks/imbalances and balance our chakras?

Yogis knew that a person’s illness often first manifests in the chakras before the physical body. They knew that no one could be completely healed if the chakra system continued to be out of balance. When there is a blockage or imbalance in one part of the chakra system, it has an impact on all the other chakras. Imbalances occur when there is too much or too little energy flowing through the chakras. By understanding how each chakra affects a particular body function and life issue, it is possible to identify where a chakra is malfunctioning. Various techniques can then be used to balance the chakra system and restore health in the individual physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Holding negative thoughts causes chakras to become dirty with dense, dark energy. This prevents chakras from providing sufficient vital energy for the body. Unbalanced or “blocked” chakras create a whole range of mental, emotional, and physiological conditions. Some say we come into this life with a certain set of life challenges already factored into our chakras. This partly determines our attitudes and behaviors. Many therapists believe that the imbalances in our chakras are in part from our childhood and cultural experiences. They say that one of the ways we try and protect ourselves is by closing down the relevant chakra so we won’t feel those uncomfortable emotions. It is a defense mechanism.

5) What are some ways you can balance your own chakras and your clients’ chakras? There are many ways to balance the chakras and clear any energy blockages/imbalances. Some useful therapies and tools are: Chakra Balancing, Inner Child Retrieval, Intuitive/Spiritual Counseling, Spiritual Healing, Mediumship, Past Life Regression. There is also Strong Desire, Clear Intention, Love & Forgiveness, Prayer, Sound, Massage, Dowsing, Yoga, Reflexology, Astrology, Reiki, Meditation, Visualization, Toning & Chanting, Healthy Diet & Exercise, Tuning Forks, Music, Crystals & Gemstones, Aromatherapy, Flower Essences, Oils, Perfumes, Incense, Color, Affirmations, Introspection, and Journaling. We are made up of vibrating atoms, which appear to those who can sense the subtle energies as color and sound. Color and sound are forms of energy, which vibrate. As the vibration of sound becomes higher and lighter, the sound is transmuted into color. Color is visible sound. Both color and sound affect the chakras, especially when used together. Each of the chakras or energy centers is associated with a specific tone of the musical scale and with a specific color. Certain music and tones can help heal energy imbalances in the chakras by assisting the body to release unwanted thoughts and feelings and to come into its natural state of balance and harmony through deep relaxation and entrainment. When our physical, emotional, mental or spiritual bodies are out of vibrational harmony and sound and color are projected into the chakras, correct vibrational patterns can be restored enhancing overall well being.

Sound produces changes in the autonomic, immune, endocrine and neuropeptide systems. Quartz crystals amplify, transform, store, focus, and transfer energy. They are used in microphones, radios, TV equipment, watches, laser tools, and computers. Crystals may have profound affects on the organs, tissues, and cells as well as the circulatory, endocrine, and metabolic systems.

When thought energy interacts with a crystal, those thoughts are changed to harmonic forms, which change brainwave frequencies and can alter consciousness. Thus, positive intention or affirmation combined with crystals can provide wonderful healing results.

The laying-on-of-hands as in Spiritual Healing, Reiki, and Therapeutic Touch have also been found to be extremely effective in balancing the chakras when done by a knowledgeable, trained, and experienced practitioner. Chakras can also be helped back into balance during hands-on healing through entrainment. The body wants to vibrate at a healthy resonance and will readily move from an out of balance state towards a healthy state when healing energy is available.

Lower chakras spin slower than those in the upper body and head. Lower chakras relate to issues of the material world, while your upper chakras relate to more spiritual issues. The direction chakras spin is often described as clockwise, although some say they spin in alternating directions and vary in the direction depending on if you are a man or a woman. The concept of open or closed chakras is an oversimplification since there are really varying degrees of openness that can be experienced in different chakras. Even though we may be able to assign some illnesses, ailments, and emotional/mental imbalances to the chakras, there are interpretations that defy categorization and require intuition for understanding. When the energy in a chakra is deficient, it can be treated with color visualization of that chakra’s color or the opposite color called the antidote color to create balance. If the energy in the chakra is clearly excessive, it can be treated with the antidote color as it is visualized into the chakra as thought energy. For example, if a baby’s skin is too red, it is overly excited and could lead to conditions such as heart troubles and high blood pressure later in life if it becomes habitual. You can help the baby and mother to relax by encouraging them to wear blue clothes, listen to soothing music, bringing in blue flowers, using blue light in the home, and other “blue” techniques.

The antidote for excessive red is blue and the antidote for excessive blue is red.

The antidote for excessive Orange is indigo and vice versa.

The antidote for excessive yellow is violet and vice versa.

If someone has excessive sexual energy (Sacral/2nd Chakra imbalance – chakra color orange), the antidote would be indigo which would help make the person feel less nervous. An alternate treatment would be to use yellow which strengthens the Solar Plexus/3rd Chakra – chakra color yellow and puts that person more in touch with his or her own gift which enhances their feelings of self-worth and makes the person less desperate for a sexual partner. The personality will usually reflect the energy of the highest open chakra or the chakra with the most energy and focus.

Illnesses and ailments respond well to treatments using color visualization in combination with the other chakra balancing techniques already mentioned. Other ways to use color vibration to help balance the chakras are by wearing clothing and jewelry with specific colors or by having certain colors in your home and office. Surround yourself with various colors of nature and flowers for balance as well. You can even ingest color vibrations as a food or juice or as colored water. Visualize the colors through your inner vision and absorb them as colored light. Through our sense of smell, we can also breathe the color essences or vibrations into our bodies through Aroma-Therapy.

So, if you find yourself occassionally turning into a Hulk or a Dr. Jekel, perhaps it’s time for some energy work. Invest in yourself and try our Qudra Reiki Attunements.

Part 1: Chakras Overview

Chakra Balancing

Rainbow Brite; a seeker of universal harmony and balance

by Gayle Kirk

 The goal of this text on chakras is to help you understand:

1.) What are chakras, why are they important, and how do they support our bodies?

2.) Where are the 7 main chakras and what are their related life issues?

3.) What are energy blockages or energy imbalances in the chakras?

4.) Why do we want to identify and remove energy blocks/imbalances and balance our chakras?

5.) What are some ways you can balance your chakras and your clients’ chakras?

6.) What is meant by the “kundalini rising”?

1) What are chakras, why are they important, and how do they support our bodies? Our bodies appear to be solid, but, in fact, we are 99.99% empty space filled with energetic, vibrating atoms, according to quantum physicists. Our entire body vibrates at a basic frequency of approximately 8 cycles per second, which is the same frequency as the basic electromagnetic field of the Earth. We are literally attuned to the Earth. Chakras (pronounced “Shock-Ruhs”) are whirling concentrated energy centers.They are measurable patterns of electromagnetic activity for receiving, assimilating, and transmitting life-force energy to and within the body.Chakras receive and transmit energy all the time. When perceived clairvoyantly, chakras appear as a colorful wheel or flower with a hub in the center, similar to fans with overlapping blades. Chakras are located deep within the center of the physical body next to a hormonal gland along the spinal column. There are three currents or nadis, which flow in and around the spinal column, like the serpents spiraling around the caduceus (the familiar symbol used by the American Medical Association). The current on the left is the Ida, the feminine force of passion and emotion. The current on the right is the Pingala, the masculine force of the intellect. Chakras are attached along the spine from the base to the top of the head and are held in place by the crossing of the invisible Ida and Pingala. Chakras draw in Divine life-force energy (also called “ki”, “chi” or “prana”) from the Universe and distribute this vital energy to the physical glands and organs in the body and through the bloodstream and nervous system for optimum health and well being.

Chakras coincide with the body’s endocrine system. Each chakra has an influence over the endocrine glands and internal organs in that part of the body where the chakra is located. Sometimes, their influence covers a broader area. The chakras also connect the spinal cord, the autonomic nervous system, and the endocrine system with our subtle body of vibration energy called the bioelectromagnetic field or aura. There are two primary electrical systems in the physical body. The first is the alternating electrical current of the nervous system and brain, which governs our muscles, hormones, and physical sensations. The second is a continuous, electromagnetic radiation coming off our atoms which allows for an energy exchange between individuals and their environment. Each person’s unique energy field or aura makes up the person’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual states. Scientists in the field of energy medicine agree that this vibrating energy field stores coded information about our past, present, and future health.

Chakras originated in the ancient Hindu system of healing dating back to before 2,500 BC. Yogis have used the chakra system for thousands of years as an integral part of holistic healing. Every living being, including the Earth has chakras. There are hundreds of chakras within and around you, but most psychics and healers are concerned with only the 7 major ones. Some people are sensitive enough to see or feel the chakras. To try it for yourself, lie on your back and pass your hand over your front midline, from the pubic area to the top of your head, a few inches above your body. You may feel the chakras as intense concentrations of energy. You may see the colors of the chakras with your inner eye or third eye even if you aren’t looking directly at them. This may be seen easier with your eyes closed using the inner eye. It may also be easier to try to see and feel the colors of a friend’s chakras rather than your own.

 Where are the 7 main chakras and what are their related life issues? Besides their role in maintaining our physical health, chakras also oversee various life issues. Each of the 7 main chakras reflects essential aspects of consciousness and governs our lives, loves, learning, and spiritual awakening.

The 1st Chakra (Root) governs Physical Needs and Security.

The 2nd Chakra (Sacral) governs Sexuality, Emotions, and Desires.

The 3rd Chakra (Solar Plexus) governs Power.

The 4th Chakra (Heart) governs Love, Forgiveness, and Compassion.

The 5th Chakra (Throat) governs Communication.

The 6th Chakra (Brow) governs Intuition and Reasoning.

The 7th Chakra (Crown) governs Spirituality and Understanding.

The chakras are interrelated; one affects another. The Root Chakra is the lowest of the 7 chakras and spins the slowest or resonates at the lowest of the 7 vibration frequencies. The Crown Chakra is the highest of the 7 chakras and spins the fastest. Each chakra is also a different color.

The colors are similar to a rainbow and go from Red (Root) – Orange (Sacral) -Yellow (Solar Plexus) – Green (Heart) – Blue (Throat) – Indigo (Brow) – Violet (Crown).

Masculine and Feminine Energy

 

Masculine & Feminine Side

by John and Micki Baumann

The Masculine Side:

The masculine side deals with the strength of the self. It is what causes you to act either timidly or self-confidently. The thing that is most important in determining the strength of the masculine side, is the value that you, at a deep level, place on yourself. This is a value you know within yourself that you have really and truly earned. It could be thought of as a sort of self esteem. Placing a high value on yourself affects your whole being and helps you feel strong and confident in operating your life. And, in the reverse direction, when you are able to operate your life confidently, things can really turn around for you because you get more out of life, and this automatically makes you place a higher value on yourself. You can build the masculine side through progress and small wins, through positive reinforcement, by practicing, and by doing things and generally taking an active part in operating your life. If you have a strong masculine side, you are in charge of your own life because you are internally controlled. You tend to look people in the eye. You stand straight, and you usually command attention when you walk into a room, whether you say anything or not. This happens because of the strength within. If you have a weak masculine side, you also have a lot of doubts. You doubt yourself, your abilities, your capability to do things. Things intimidate you and you don’t move forward well. You are afraid to put yourself out there because you know you are going to fail, so you don’t even try to accomplish things. If you have a weak masculine side, you often feel the need to show off your attributes and accomplishments, whereas if you have a strong masculine side you are self-confident, and don’t feel it is necessary to show off. The masculine side is full of things that you have to be strong and self-confident in order to do. These include being able to claim your basic rights, such as the right to feel free to operate independently of others, and the right to belong or fit into society in any way you please. Claiming your rights also includes being able to stand up to people who try to take away your rights, either by force or intimidation, or by manipulation, or by trying to hinder you in choosing your own direction in life. The masculine side also includes the ability to take risks when appropriate, to be decisive when necessary, and to focus or concentrate in order to get something done. In addition, it includes being able to figure out how to accomplish things so you can get more of what you want out of life. Part of this is being able to figure out how to operate your life in a responsible manner, how to reason without distorting reality and without fooling yourself, and how to accurately weigh probabilities so that you know the most likely outcome to expect in situations you come across.

The Feminine Side:

Like the masculine side, the basis for the feminine side is also a value. But instead of a being a value you place on yourself, the feminine side is based, at the same deep level, on a value that you place on others. It could be thought of as a sort of other esteem. The value you place on others affects your whole being. If you have a strong feminine side and place a high value on others, you are often giving and unselfish. You usually know what is good for people, and you tend to operate in ways that helps others get what they want out of life. You happily let people operate their own life without interference from you, but when asked, you are also willing to help by supporting, cooperating, and giving advice. People feel comfortable with you because you give of who you are without pushing yourself on others. If you have a strong feminine side, people also feel comfortable being around you because there is no selfishness for them to detect. If you have a weak feminine side, you place a low value on others, and you are not a giving person. Instead, you are selfish and greedy, and tend to keep yourself closed off from people. You are isolated because you don’t want to share yourself, or anything you have. Also, you don’t take responsibility for yourself, but blame others for your problems. Although the feminine side is generally not as well understood as the masculine side, the negative or selfish aspect of the feminine side is something almost everybody recognizes, especially in others. In fact, it may be the most easily recognizable characteristic of all, because of the discomfort factor involved in being around a selfish person. If someone has a weak feminine side, it could also be said that he has a strong dark side (the evil or negatively motivated side). The feminine side is always very weak in someone with a strong dark side, while the masculine side can be anywhere from weak to strong. In the extreme situation where a person has an almost nonexistent feminine side, he will often act in ways that could be considered evil in nature, because he acts only on his own behalf, and does it to such an extent that he doesn’t care how much his actions hurt others in the process. If you have a strong feminine side, you often behave in ways that are considered feminine in nature. You do things you have to be giving and unselfish in order to do. These include recognizing the basic right of all people to use their own will to operate their own life, for example, by allowing them freedom to operate independently, freedom to fit in where and how they want, and freedom to choose what things to confront or face up to in life. Allowing people their basic rights also includes allowing them to control their own life without interference from you, to choose their own obligations in life without being manipulated by you, and to choose their own path or direction in life without hindrance from you. The feminine side also includes having enthusiasm and zest for life, and recognizing what things are worth getting enthusiastic about. And it includes having the persistence and tenacity to stay with things to the end, while still knowing when to give up on something if your energy is better used elsewhere. In addition, the feminine side also includes being kind, compassionate, patient, responsive to the needs of others, and it includes knowing how much energy you can put into each of these without hurting yourself by draining your own energy.

 The Balance:

The masculine/feminine or yin/yang balance is extremely important, almost more important than how much you have grown as a person. Even a less evolved person, if he is balanced, treats others the same way he treats himself. And that is what balance is all about. If the masculine side is much stronger than the feminine side, you tend to be pushy and take unfair advantage of people. On the other hand, if the feminine side is much stronger than the masculine side, you tend to let others take advantage of you, and you become a doormat for people. How can you tell which side is stronger for you? The balance between fear and anger in your life is a good indication. If the masculine side is stronger than the feminine side, you tend to feel anger more easily than fear. The greater the imbalance in this direction, the more easily you will feel unjustly treated by others, and the more easily you will become angry and aggressive with them, because you have an unrealistically high opinion of your own rights compared to those of others. Conversely, if the feminine side is stronger than the masculine side, you tend to feel fear more easily than anger. The greater the imbalance in this direction, the more easily you will feel you are treating others unjustly, and the more easily you will become fearful and defensive, because you have an unrealistically low opinion of your own rights as compared to those of others. Also, the greater the imbalance in this direction, the more easily you will become angry with yourself, because you don’t like your low level of self-confidence, and you inherently realize you are not living up to your potential. Rights: The masculine side determines in general how you feel about your own rights, while the feminine side determines how you feel about the rights of others. If the masculine side is stronger than the feminine side, you tend to think of your own rights as being stronger or somehow more valid than the rights of others. This means you will slant those rights in your own favor and will sometimes take advantage of other people’s rights to the extent of your masculine/feminine imbalance. Conversely, if the feminine side is stronger than the masculine side, you tend to think of other people’s rights as being stronger or somehow more valid than yours. This means you are likely to give up some of your rights in order to give someone else more than his rights actually entitle him to, and consequently, you will sometimes be taken advantage of. If you have a good balance between your masculine and feminine sides, you will generally exercise your own rights when you want, but you will also allow others the full measure of their rights.

The Balance and Greed:

If you have an imbalance toward the masculine side, that is, a stronger masculine than feminine side, it means you place a lower value on others than on yourself. This often shows itself as greed, which is a form of selfishness, and a natural consequence of this kind of imbalance. Greed produces the desire to want more than your fair share of things. It is wanting things at the expense of others. A greedy person usually makes his gains by exploiting others. Greed is the opposite of generosity, since generosity results from wanting everyone to have enough of everything. Greed is a form of selfishness, and is one of the ways that an imbalance shows itself. Sexuality and the Masculine/Feminine Balance: The stronger the masculine side, the stronger is your sex drive, and the more aggressive you are sexually. The stronger the feminine side, the more giving you are sexually. Also, the stronger the feminine side, the greater is your capacity to really enjoy sex when the circumstances are right. This is why selfish people generally don’t enjoy sex very much. So it can be seen that the best lovers are people whose masculine and feminine sides are both strong. The Historic Dominance of the Masculine Side: The masculine side is the side that everybody knows and understands. All through time, people have had to develop the masculine side in order to be able to survive and thrive in the physical sense. Many books have been written about developing the self esteem and self-confidence of the masculine side. There have also been many “success” programs such as Scientology, Est, Lifespring, etc. These programs develop the masculine “I can do it” attitude, and they are effective as far as they go. They are good for people with a stronger feminine side and a weaker masculine side, because what they teach helps that kind of person achieve balance. But for people who are balanced in this way, or who already have a strong masculine side, these programs often create an imbalance, or add to an already existing imbalance. This is because they develop the masculine side while ignoring the feminine. And it is precisely because the feminine side has been largely neglected, that the masculine side is so much better understood. Dominance of the Masculine Side in Business: Business has always operated from the completely masculine concept of the bottom line, and not from the feminine concept of existing in order to do what is good for people by benefiting those it serves. The desire to be powerful has had a large part in this, and has led to a tolerance and even encouragement of the idea that power over others in small but insidious forms is acceptable, especially where money is concerned. And money is power, in the sense that, if you have money you can buy the time of others and have them do your bidding. This completely masculine orientation has kept business from operating in a balanced way that could be good for the people served by business, in addition to being good for the bottom line.

 Liberation and the Developing Masculine Side in Women:

Women have also been working on developing the masculine side, sometimes at the expense of the feminine side. Liberation has helped many women develop the masculine side by teaching them to stand up for their rights and not be coerced in any way. This has gone a long way in changing the old traditional viewpoint in which the man was the boss and the woman was the slave. The problem is that, in some areas, liberation has placed men in the role of the enemy, and this has prevented many women from using their feminine side in interacting with men. This is because liberation has taught some women to feel free to choose only to withhold from men, but not to feel free to choose to give unselfishly to men. True liberation for a woman is freedom to choose how to operate her own life. This includes the freedom to choose to give unselfishly to another person as well as to withhold giving from them.

Technology, Spiritual Development, and the Global Masculine/Feminine Balance:

 When we look at the development of our species as a whole, technological development could be compared to the masculine side, while spiritual development could be compared to the feminine side. And just as balance is necessary for an individual, it is equally important for us as a species to maintain a balance between our technological and spiritual development. At the present time, the masculine or technological side is too strong compared to the feminine or spiritual side. This is a dangerous position to be in because we have technology that is capable of great destruction, but we are hardly developed enough to use it wisely. There is an expression that says “Technology and human nature are sometimes a volatile mix”. This volatility is a result of the imbalance that occurs by having too much technology for our level of spiritual evolution. To correct this imbalance, it is necessary to develop the feminine side and bring it into closer balance with the masculine side, both individually and as a species. This will allow us to use our technology without misusing it, not only in areas of conflict or war, but also in areas of caring for our planet in a way that is good for her, and consequently good for us. Only then will we no longer have to feel that “Whenever we pull a technological rabbit out of a hat, we end up being disappointed by the droppings it leaves behind”.

 Balance Requires Developing the Feminine Side:

For reasons of survival, liberation, business, and technology, most people have been able to develop the masculine side to a greater extent than the feminine. It may be that it is just easier to learn the lessons of the masculine side, but the result is that, as a species, we are left with a serious masculine/feminine imbalance. And it is a dangerous imbalance because it is a formula for destruction and hurting people. The time has come to develop the feminine side and achieve a greater balance in this area. It is time to recognize that the feminine side has value, and that its value lies in knowing and doing what is GOOD FOR PEOPLE. It is time to recognize that it is good for people to give and help each other, because that creates less turmoil in the world. It is time to recognize that at this moment in our evolution, most people are here to learn to develop the feminine side, because that is what will give us balance.