(From Handbook For Humans)
A boat cannot move very well in the water if it’s unbalanced, if it’s not stable. If it’s a sailboat it may be leaning over in the wind, but to proceed it still must somehow be in equilibrium. The same is true for us.
This principle could be called Stability Creates Success, because it means that whenever greater inner stability can be achieved, greater external flexibility is possible. Flexibility, the ability to adapt to circumstances in creative ways, is fundamental to the prospects of success in any area.
For example, why did the mammals survive when the dinosaurs perished? One significant factor is that mammals developed an ability to stabilize their internal temperature.
The metabolic chemical reactions taking place inside many dinosaurs sped up and slowed down in accordance with the outside temperature. If the outside temperature dropped, the dinosaur’s internal life-process would slow down. When a giant meteor hit 65 million years ago and the earth’s temperature fell drastically, the dinosaurs suffered extinction.
Yet the early mammals managed to survive that event. Why? In part, because the stable internal temperature allowed them to adapt to a wider range of temperatures outside. Their metabolic chemistry continued to function even when the earth grew cold. Their greater internal stability allowed them more flexibility to adapt to external events.
Another example is the rise of the vertebrates about 350 million ago. The development of an internal skeleton gave the vertebrate animal much greater stability, allowing it to become more mobile, complex, and resistant to predation. So it could survive in a wider range of external circumstances.
A third example might be the severe drought which began occurring several million years ago in Africa, causing the forests and jungles to thin out dramatically. Our ancestors responded very successfully to this threat by coming out of the trees and beginning to live down on the grassy plains, where danger was more prevalent.
How could they survive in this harsher environment? By evolving a rational brain which could, for the first time, form a stable internal model of the outside world, and thus creatively analyze it.
No longer was the brain entirely subject to instinctual stimulus-response with its external environment. It could now reflect and respond. This greater internal stability brought about a dramatic increase in flexibility and resourcefulness towards the outside world.
This principle holds just as true in our own efforts to be more adaptable and resourceful about our life. If we develop and maintain greater inner stability in some way, we’ll automatically have greater adaptability to the world and thus a greater probability of success with it.
When we work on improving our diet, for example, we’re increasing the inner stability—the health—of our body. Greater bodily stability and harmony, in turn, increase our potential resourcefulness in adapting to our environment.
Another example: When we meditate we develop more internal stability. So we tend to be more appropriate towards the outer world, to maturely respond, to have the presence of mind to follow our inner wisdom.
Becoming more stable inside involves breaking the symmetry between the inside and outside, a constant theme in the development of the universe. The outside may fluctuate, but the inside does not have to slavishly follow it as much. There’s more response and less reaction, more choice and less mechanicalness. We’re more able to resourcefully respond.
In following this principle, then, anything we can do to increase our inner stability will also lift our flexibility and probability of success. Stability creates success.
For instance, if we’re facing a crisis it’s often best to remain where we are and keep our tools and resources at hand. It’s often good to produce something, a project that can help us remain focused. It’s good to meditate in stillness, and so on. All such practices increase our stability and thus our chances of successfully meeting a crisis.
Like any good principle, this one can be widely applied But the challenges that we feel most deeply in life often arise from our own conditioning. So let’s begin there:
© 1997 by James Sloman
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