Lao Tzu wrote of the TAO and balance at a personal, spiritual, political, and societal level. Sir Isaac Newton wrote of physics and physical/ mathematical balance.
Balance is opposing forces- the Yin/Yang, the universal see-saw, the perfect pendulum.
True equilibrium, in a thermodynamic closed system, the teeter-totter that never moves, is death. A can of cola at room temperature is in “equilibrium”. It does not change. It is dead.
Dorian Sagan, among other brilliant minds, wrote of thermodynamics and the balance of energy in the universe as a gradient. On a miniscule scale, our solar system is not a closed system like the cola can. A gradient exists between the high quality energy of our sun and the cold of the edge of the universe. Energy flows Into the Cool.
Life exists far from the thermodynamic equilibrium of a cola can. We live in an energy gradient and participate by processing energy to make the gradient efficient. Life results.
This is my interpretation of the balance Lao Tsu understood, thermodynamic balance, and life as I understand it.
