You Grow from Your Edges

A review of Standing at the Edge

The first big idea in Standing at the Edge by Zen priest Joan Halifax is this:

Traits, behaviors, and emotions that we usually consider healthy—like altruism, empathy, engagement, respect, and integrity—can, when pursued to their extreme, tip our psychology over the edge from health into sickness.

The second big idea is this:

That we grow from falling over the edge. If we carefully observe and explore what Halifax terms the “edge states” of our psychology, we can turn what we learn into our greatest possible moments for growth and wisdom. And…just maybe…we can learn to pull ourselves back from the edge more often.

In summary: the good pursued to its limit becomes the bad, and exploring the dark places we visit in our pursuit of the good can create the conditions for growth, change, and wisdom.

In some sense, this is a tale as old as time. Take, for example, Batman:

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Πηγή: every.to