Totality is in perfect balance and harmony within itself. To explore this inherent balance in totality, we contemplate the intriguing symbol of a lotus flower, that holds significance in eastern cultures and mythology.

The muck and mud provides sustenance to the lotus flower which blooms with its divine elegance in a swamp. Without that dirt that gives rise to it, the beauty of the delicate lotus would not be born.

The esoteric meaning of this symbology points to how we could align our lives confined in the limitations of the body-mind, with our expansive infinite reality. It is suggested to consider the world around us like a pond, where we are growing and living like the lotus flowers. We are reminded to live in the world, without being of it- like the lotus flower that remains untouched by the muddy water that surrounds it.

This is the right approach to live a life of freedom from suffering. Because this is the attitude with which, we do all that we must in the world, without getting attached and entangled in it. We perform all our actions and yet, we remain free and unbound from everything in the phenomenal world, that surrounds us. 

In this freedom, there is no suffering. This attitude relies on the wisdom and balance in totality.

This is not a rejection of this world, rather embracing it for what it really is- made of that very same reality, that nourishes, sustains and permeates us. We do not judge the world based on its apparent differences, separations and conflicts. We see it with an understanding of our common reality, our oneness with everything that exists.

This acknowledgement frees us from the attachments, because it releases us from the illusion of the ‘self’ versus ‘the other’. If we are one with the world, there cannot be attachment or entanglement with it, there can only be freedom! This is living in totality, as totality.

Totality is not homogeneous, every possibility is expressed and complemented by its opposite. But each in a pair of opposites, is not really different, the perceived polarities are qualitatively and fundamentally the same. Their apparent contradictions are in balance and neutralise each other, into one single reality.  This is the one reality of all that is.

The dirt from a pond is transformed into the subtle fragrance and perfection of a lotus bloom. With every flower that rises out of the swamp and sways in the breeze, totality proclaims a restored balance! The darkness is consumed and transformed into light, it reflects the balance that is inherent in totality. This totality is the sum total of all that is. It is balanced within itself, and there is nothing outside of it.

When there is a mouse scuttering around somewhere in a field, a hungry eagle soaring far above in the sky has a corresponding mouse shaped hole in its belly, there is this polarity of the eagle above and the mouse below, the yin and yang within the totality. 

This little mouse catches the eagle’s eye and the bird swoops down on it, catches and consumes it- the mouse shaped hole in its belly is fulfilled temporarily- yin merges in yang, a balance is regained. This is how the totality maintains its balance in every nook and corner of existence.

This is beyond the narrow human standards of judgements about morality, ethics, empathy, mercy or compassion. These terms are meaningless in context of the whole, the totality, which constantly devours itself to be rejuvenated.

This process ongoing forever, there is no end or beginning, everything is in a movement- a flux of the eternal waves of manifestation, rising and falling continuously in diverse forms, never exhausting, never resting!

The mouse that fights for its life and the eagle that preys on it are one and the same. The apparent polarity is essential to maintain the illusion of their separation, but is itself an illusion (maya), their oneness is reality.

The fear and pain felt by the mouse when it is clutched by the claws of death is experienced by the very same oneness, who experiences the satisfaction of the eagle’s hunger when it feeds on that mouse.

This oneness is the reality within everything. The one who knows through all, the one who experiences through all, the one centre to which everything always points and refers to, that one is the same for all. Totality is the manifestation of this one reality, in myriad forms.

Every atom, particle or cell in it, is pervaded by this same reality, everything is, just as it should be and always nothing less than perfect, irrespective of how it appears to the limited human intelligence.

So, whatever imbalance, flaws and a million frailties that we might see in ourselves and others, they are always balanced to perfection within totality, of which every being is merely a miniscule part.

As a personal entity, we do not exist except as an expression of the totality, in its complete context, interconnected to everything else that was, is and ever will be! Our only relevance is, in this context of the whole, because we are the whole and nothing else is, anywhere else.

Our true value is as the totality, we are that. Not as an individual, not as a person, not as a creature, not as a body-mind-ego entity, but as this whole, sacred, perfect totality, this oneness, this flow of all that is!

If we can grasp this fact, there is no suffering. This is the freedom from all misery. There is always a possibility of physical pain, as long as the body is alive. But, there is no psychological suffering, because there is no separate entity who can suffer.

There is death, destruction, cruelty, hatred, all kinds of calamities around. But there is also the equal and opposite of that- the beauty, joy, innocence, kindness, empathy and love. The balance comes from both complementing, neutralizing and ultimately merging their separations into oneness.

There is always balance, the nature of totality is absolute perfection, everything always is exactly how it needs to be, not even a blade of grass is out of place even for a moment, this perfection is inherent in the harmony within itself.

There is an enchanting lotus blooming somewhere for every muddy swamp, and none of these are separate from the one whole totality. We are the Lotus and the swamp!