The saying; ‘every coin has two sides’, is used as a positive encouragement but in fact enforces a negative and limited view. It ignores the key to happiness, creativity, objectivity and finding the solution to all problems and conflicts, the third side.
Even a razor blade, the sharpest of knives, has a third side, it is just a very thin edge, the cutting edge.
This world is one of duality, hot and cold, black and white, good and evil. But as a ball tossed into the air stops for a brief moment before it returns to the ground, that moment is the key to wisdom. In Zen meditation there is a saying, enlightenment is found at the moment between the in breath and the out breath.
To live on the fine line is not saying to be without emotions, rather, it is to have both opposite emotions, or see both sides of an argument simultaneously. This is how we get true objective reason and understanding. I describe myself as an optimistic pessimist. Positive about the outcome but realistic about what can go wrong, so I am not disappointed if things do go wrong and am prepared to deal with them effectively and efficiently.
If you are not willing to give up your personal views that always suit your self interested desires, then you will never see the ‘big picture’.
The perfect person is a balanced person. Sadly this is interpreted as emotionally dead and flat or cold. but in reality, the only side that has movement is the third side. A coin left on one side or the other does not move, but balanced on its edge, it has the potential of movement.
It can roll around the world, or down the drain as I saw a coin do when it fell out of my pocket and rolled about two meters right into the sewer. What was fascinating is that although I saw my money rolling away, I did not react to stop it. This is a very common human trait, we see our life or opportunities rolling away and do nothing about it, because we are stuck trying to be one of the two sides and are not flexible enough to change.
This is explained in the principle that knowledge is limiting. Indeed this contradicts what is commonly accepted and although knowledge gives one the opportunity for further growth, in general day to day life, it is the most limiting factor of the human personality. I shall explain.
When you know something, you stop listening. Have you ever had a conversation where you thought you understood what the person was saying and you shut down, only to find out that you were wrong? How many times have you shut down thinking you understand and missed out totally on the reality or truth or perhaps one little piece of information that you did not know which was very valuable. Your perceived knowledge limited you from learning because you already thought you knew so why waste your time listening to what you already know.
The way to open your mind to live on the third side is only through the humble acceptance that you may be wrong. If you are right, your mind will not be open to anything. But if you know you are or could very easily be wrong, then your mind will naturally be seeking the truth. It is a human characteristic, we need to know the truth. Unfortunately the need to know is so strong that we often just accept a lie and settle so that our curiosity is abated.
As the coin is at rest on one of two sides, so our mind is at rest with being this or that. But your soul, whatever it is in you that makes you read this article and search for answers as to what is bothering you, is never satisfied with a lie. The subconscious intuition has a very good lie detector and that keeps you up at night, or your mind too active to meditate or focus, and especially never be present.
From the mental vantage point of the third side, one can see both sides of any argument and thus find the common ground, or see the real obstacle in a business situation or the key point that is the next breakthrough in an invention.
What is most valuable is that it is only from this third side that we can resolve all our mental and emotional issues which are limiting our life. Only here can you see what you are holding on to, lying on your side without movement, fixed in your opinion, that is preventing you from moving forward in your business, work, personal relationships, and most importantly your own personal emotional and mental frustrations and limitations.
To put it simply and bluntly, humans are pretty much all mentally and emotionally messed up to one degree or another. They are this way because they only see things as this or that, one side or another, and cannot comprehend the balance of two opposites existing simultaneously, like sweet and sour soup. The third side is that combination which allows for opposites to exist simultaneously in harmony with each other.
it all begins with you taking the constant point of view that you are possibly wrong and that there is nothing wrong with being wrong. It does not mean you are a bad person, it just means that your opinion is simply not correct, so open your mind, be humble, and learn for the future.
In order to keep your life moving forward, guiding its direction as you roll along, you must look at all situations from the third side, the one that can see both sides of every situation, and then guide your coin in the direction of objective reality.
You may not always get what you want, but in this way of dealing with life, you will get success far more often and at the end of your time on earth, you will have gone a lot further in every aspect of a fulfilled life.
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