Black and white, light and dark, beautiful and ugly: the two sides of the same coin.
The light side obscures the dark side; the dark side reveals what shines. We cannot shine until we have accepted our shadow: an equation so simple it seems impossible. Recognizing and integrating the less ‘clear’ aspects of our personality releases the most authentic beauty.
Painters, poets, and scientists have tried to translate, each in his language, that excellent vibration that is light, creating works of art and theorems of extraordinary power over the centuries. What is fair for you? Is it something internal or manifest? Is it something absolute or subjective? Is it something to do with beauty? With purity? With particle physics?
Take the equation e = mc2. No math, no complicated theory! Just a quick consideration: that genius of Albert Einstein would never have come to relate the speed of light and matter if he had not accepted to go beyond what he already knew, accepting the possibility of trespassing into madness. And then, after all, to discover the new, it is not necessary to be extravagant, follow his simple advice: “It is impossible to solve a problem using the same form of thought that created it.”
Beautiful is the idea of light associated with a spark of madness that makes you look beyond what you know well, illuminating your doubts and giving you the courage to leap the new. So we shine when we welcome our dark thoughts.
Imagine a radiant person. She may not be beautiful; she may not have achieved victories and success; she may also have slept poorly. Yet, her quality is resilience, the conscious acceptance of the changes that occur in the paths of life and in the map that best represents them in the world: the face, posture, and movement in space.
Try now to bring your awareness to the body and check how you feel right now: are you in contact with yourself? Does your energy flow freely? Do you have any resistance? Do you feel numbness in some parts of the body? Being aware moment by moment of what is moving inside us makes us more present, more vibrant.
Shines more who has certainties or who, with simplicity, manifests his doubts? Shines more who is young, strong, and beautiful or who accepts himself over time? Who won for the tenth time, or who dared to face the competition challenging all his fears of inadequacy?
Yes, they both shine. And so, we also subvert the paradigm according to which if one wins, the other is necessarily defeated. It is possible to win together, with a view to shared advantage, by desiring the best for oneself and others. Who under the spotlight, who is bypassing the shadow of their fears: it is time to enter the ‘win-win’ paradigm and participate in the race of life in a new spirit, recognizing the highest potential of each one; different talents and inclinations that create a fresco of thousands of colours.
Learning to applaud even those who came last in challenging their shadows is called love and is the most contagious form of light.