Stasis is a concept that is used continuously by whose following a spiritual path, or those working self help programs, but it is seldom called Stasis. It is an important concept and understanding Stasis will help people understand why they are working a particular way.
Stasis has several meaning but in this context is an internal that is held constant by a force around its boundary. Suppose you have a population of people and they are held constant by a political entity. At first the stasis is easy to maintain because the difference inside the stasis is not very different to outside the stasis. But as the world changes the pressure for change within the Stasis increase and more control has to be used to hold the Stasis constant.
At some point the control fails and the Stasis explodes. In the physical world revolution, uprising and civil wars are the result of the controls needed to hold the Stasis constant failing. Communism failed when the internal need for change become stronger than the force keeping it contained.
For the individual the concept of Stasis is equally relevant. Someone works at a job they hate. At first it isn’t too bad, but the pressure builds until there is an explosion. Married couples do nothing to solve the problems building in there marriage until it all blows up and the marriage is over.
To be successful on our spiritual path it is essential to keep the boundary between our inner life and our external life free of control. If we don’t pressure will build and when control fails there will be an explosion. If something goes wrong in our physical world it has gone wrong. And if getting upset or angry is an appropriate response then get angry.
If we attempt to pass it of with some spiritual platitude or saying, (everything happens for the best), it will place pressure on our spiritual being to conform to an ideal that is not realistic. If we make a mistake than accept we have made a mistake. Learn from it, try to avoid doing it again and move on.
The alternative is to give ourselves a hard time because we are on a spiritual path and we are supposed to know. Each time we give ourselves a hard time the pressure will build.
Then there will be an explosion and we will abandon the spiritual way because we are not good enough. Nobody on this earth is perfect. The spiritual path is not about perfection, it is learning to do the best we can.
The way to deal with the pressures of the physical world so that it does not put pressure on our spiritual being is to learn, accept and move on.
Everything on the spiritual path is the same concept repeated in many different forms. Learn, accept and move on. This is how to deal with stasis in all its forms. The worst thing we can do is to try to force ourselves to conform to an idealised perfection that cannot be achieved.