Homeostasis
(from
Greek: ὅμοιος, hómoios, "similar"[1]
and στάσις, stásis, "standing still";[2]
defined by
Claude Bernard and later by
Walter Bradford Cannon in 1926,[3]
1929[4]
and 1932[5][6])
is the property of a system, either
open or
closed, that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a
stable, constant condition. Typically used to refer to a living
organism,
the concept came from that of
milieu interieur that was created by
Claude Bernard and published in 1865. Multiple dynamic equilibrium
adjustment and regulation mechanisms make homeostasis possible.
Author George Leonard discusses in his book Mastery how homeostasis affects our behavior and who we are. He states that homeostasis will prevent our body from making drastic changes and maintain stability in our lives even if it is detrimental to us.[11] Examples include when an obese person starts exercising, homeostasis in the body resists the activity to maintain stability.[12] Another example Leonard uses is a unstable family where the father has been a raging alcoholic and suddenly stops and the son starts up a drug habit to maintain stability in the family. Homeostasis is the main factor that stops people changing their habits because our bodies view change as dangerous unless it is very slow. Leonard discusses this dilemma as the media today only encourages fast change and quick results. The opening of his book aptly describes his despair with the current state of the world and how it is at war with homeostasis. "The trouble is that we have few, if any, maps to guide us on the journey or even to show us how to find the path. The modern world, in fact, can be viewed as a prodigious conspiracy against mastery. We're continually bombarded with the promises of immediate gratification, instant success, and fast, temporary relief, all of which lead in exactly the wrong direction."
Conscious and unconscious are complementary systems that can produce an ongoing homeostasis within each individual. This homeostasis constantly requires adjustment from conscious to unconscious, and from unconscous to conscious. It is a dynamic system. JViJP 73
Instead of seeking union with a woman
outside ourselves, we have to seek it within ourselves… by the
union of our male
and female nature in the process of meditation’
Yabyum - father-mother divine couple - Tibetan
In
Tibetan Buddhism, the same ideas are to be found concerning the
bell and the
dorje, which, like the yab-yum, symbolize the dualism that must be exceeded.
The sacred Tantric
practice leads to rapid development of mind by using the experience of bliss,
non-duality, and
ecstasy while in
communion with one's consort.
... as the history of Chinese philosophy shows, it has never gone so far from
the central psychic facts as to lose itself in a one-sided over-development and
over-valuation of a single psychic
function. ...
Therefore, the Chinese have never failed to recognize the paradoxes and the
polarity
inherent in what is alive. The opposites always balanced one
another - a sign of high culture. One-sidedness, though it lends momentum,
is a mark of barbarism.