Greatest Hits Vol. 5 - How to Live With Contrasting Beliefs

<p><i>Hey hey, Rebels! This week will bring to you another Rebel Buddhist Greatest Hits Episode about how to live with contrasting beliefs… while I go on my long-awaited semi-silent meditation retreat. (I had almost canceled due to COVID, but I’m officially out of the risk window and tested negative!</i></p><p> </p><p><i>I’ll be back with a new episode next week.</i></p><p>_</p><p> </p><p>We are all complex beings, made up of contrasts. Discipline and wildness. Security and freedom. Worldly and divine. </p><p> </p><p>There are dichotomies everywhere. It’s part of nature, and we are all a part of that. </p><p> </p><p>Yet often we are asked to choose only one aspect of ourselves and lose or leave the other. And for many of us, our culture believes it’s hypocritical to stand with one foot in each contrasting space. </p><p> </p><p>The place that deep work happens is often when we are recognizing and living in polarity. It’s where we change, evolve, and strengthen. </p><p> </p><p>It’s like the image of the Taoist tai chi or yin-yang. That dividing line isn’t just straight down the middle. It curves so that the two sides are cradling each other, and each side has a small circle of the opposite color embedded within it. </p><p> </p><p>You can’t have one without the other. Like light needs darkness, the polarizing parts of you need each other to exist. </p><p> </p><p>We all spend more time in this space than we realize. Maybe we are super healthy, but we can’t resist a greasy fast-food meal once every now and then. Or we post all these outdoor journeys on social media, but spend a full weekend binge-watching Netflix in our PJs and don’t tell a soul. Many people live in gender fluidity for this reason – acknowledging the limitations of choosing one polarity or another. </p><p> </p><p>So if it’s part of nature and part of life, why do we resist living in polarity so much? </p><p> </p><p>Some people may say that we feel hypocritical, or that our integrity is compromised when we want to live between polarities. I challenge t