Symmetry/Asymmetry

"Find the symmetry in your asymmetry." I said that the other day while teaching a yoga class to a budding young group of teacher trainees. What did I mean by that? Let’s start by defining some terms.

A-sym-me-try n 1. the condition of being asymmetrical in an arrangement. 2. a relation between 2 things where the first has a relation to the second, but the second cannot have the same relation to the first.

Wow. Look at definition #2. That’s life. Life is asymmetrical. Life is messy. Even the most symmetrical lives still have the unknown factor bubbling beneath the surface. In art, asymmetry is movement. It’s exciting. Our eye moves about the page. It’s dynamic. The relationship is ever-changing. In our bodies, it’s our organs, our right/left, even though we think of them as symmetrical, they never will be given the fact that our innards are totally asymmetrical. Asymmetry in unpredictable. Asymmetry keeps us safe. It’s easier to attack the predicted. It’s easier for a burglar, to burgle a person that has a predictable routine, And yet, asymmetry sometimes gets a bad rap. We are naturally uncomfortable with change, with things that are out of balance. We move towards symmetry. We move towards inertia.

Sym-me-try n 1. the property of being the same or corresponding on both side of a central dividing line 2. harmony or beaut of form that results from balance proportions 3. the mathematical definition 4. a state of invariance shown by some phenomena when changes of orientation, charge, or parity are made

Nice. Seriously. Symmetry in tranquil, calm, predictable. In art, it’s a state of balance. Symmetry – a state of balance. In art, when we look at a symmetrical work, our eye settles on the page. It doesn’t move around. Symmetry is stasis. It is essentially inert. It doesn’t move or move us. It’s staying power.

In the body, we strive for symmetry based on the fact that we have a right and left. But we also have and top and a bottom, and a back and a front. Our internal organs aren’t symmetrical. And yet, we focus on symmetry in what is essentially an asymmetrical organism. No problem.

In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali – the result of yoga is “pairs of opposites cease to have impact.” Basically a symmetrical state. If the “opposites,” aka right and left, are the same, they are no longer opposites. So in yoga we strive for state of sameness. Definition 4 of symmetry says essentially the same thing. In yoga, when we have achieved a state of yoga, we are no longer impacted by asymmetry. We remain neutral, calm, content, in the face of change, and change happens. Constantly. Even while standing in tadasana, mountain pose, where you are just standing there, basking in all your symmetrical glory.

So finding symmetry in your asymmetry is to relish the change, to be able to flow with the change, yet remain flexibly unchanged. To live in the eye of the hurricane, watching the excitement orbiting around you, but to tap into that which remains essentially unchanged – our Essence, Our big S self. That place inside that knows no sorrow, that feels no judgment. That place where we rest in our Svarupa – our true nature. It is beyond the asymmetry of the personality, beyond the you/me, good/bad, right/wrong-ness of it all. Where we are a human, being. Not a human, doing.