Thursday, May 18, 2006
this wOrld is nOt for cOwards
Do we avoid doing something because it is difficult? Do we avoid doing a yoga asana (pose) because we wobble so much or we feel it knocks the wind out of us? Do we think the teacher sadistic in repeating the pose again and again, while watching us struggle with it? If we avoid the asanas that challenges us, it is likely then, we also find ourselves sidestepping challenges in our daily lives. We are supposed to be steady and comfy what? I would like to say here that in the very positions (asanas and in life) that push us to the edge of our abilities and courage, are the greatest opportunities for us to be who we really are meant to be.
As far as possible, I purposely try to do the very thing I find difficult to do. This is not masochism. It is something I have learnt from the teachers and heros I admire about how to grow yourself. A challenge is a call to arms, not a call to abandon arms. I see a challenge as a neon sign post which reads "Here be skills and potentials you have yet to develop!" The very skills and courage you need to face a challenge IS FOUND DOING the challenge.
When we put it that way, it sounds as though we "lack" some qualities in the beginning which need to be "found" later. At this point, we need to understand that we cannot ever realise any qualities that is not already existing within us. It is not because of any lack in us that we fail to be strong in the face of life's challenges, but the potential to be strong is simply at the moment underdeveloped, not fully realised. Think about this: these potentials will NEVER be developed if we do not strive beyond what we think we can comfortably do.
Something initially perceived as "challenging" or "beyond me" indicates the very thing I need to allow me to grow. That is the very pose I need, that is the task I need to handle. I need to face it if I want to live freely. . .
. . . Have you any idea how many doors this kind of thinking opens in your life?!?
I have.
Sometimes, we do not want to face a challenge because it simply feels bad. We don't want to recognise that we are underdeveloped in any way. We want to be in our comfort zone. Safe. We don't want to work so hard, to struggle. We want to do things we are good at. What can I say? It is up to you. Chances are, you find that the comfort zone becomes a very tiny, restricted and uncertain space - and you start to wonder how "other people" always have it so good. For the rest of us who want to live freely in the world, we have to know, "this world is not for cowards" - it has a knack for throwing THE VERY things at you that are beyond you to do - again and again. We need to wake up to the nature of things and rise to the challenges as they come. The strength is already in you, you need to give yourself the chance to exercise it - we only strengthen through practice. In the end, through practice, we will find steadiness in mind, ease and comfort in the body, happiness in the heart come what may. . . and we will come to a point where we start going about HUNTING out the really important but challenging things which need to be done. . . and then do them. Then I congratulate and thank you on becoming an active participant in your life and a good citizen of our world.
This world is not for cowards
. . . Swami Vivekananda
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
As far as possible, I purposely try to do the very thing I find difficult to do. This is not masochism. It is something I have learnt from the teachers and heros I admire about how to grow yourself. A challenge is a call to arms, not a call to abandon arms. I see a challenge as a neon sign post which reads "Here be skills and potentials you have yet to develop!" The very skills and courage you need to face a challenge IS FOUND DOING the challenge.
When we put it that way, it sounds as though we "lack" some qualities in the beginning which need to be "found" later. At this point, we need to understand that we cannot ever realise any qualities that is not already existing within us. It is not because of any lack in us that we fail to be strong in the face of life's challenges, but the potential to be strong is simply at the moment underdeveloped, not fully realised. Think about this: these potentials will NEVER be developed if we do not strive beyond what we think we can comfortably do.
Something initially perceived as "challenging" or "beyond me" indicates the very thing I need to allow me to grow. That is the very pose I need, that is the task I need to handle. I need to face it if I want to live freely. . .
. . . Have you any idea how many doors this kind of thinking opens in your life?!?
I have.
Sometimes, we do not want to face a challenge because it simply feels bad. We don't want to recognise that we are underdeveloped in any way. We want to be in our comfort zone. Safe. We don't want to work so hard, to struggle. We want to do things we are good at. What can I say? It is up to you. Chances are, you find that the comfort zone becomes a very tiny, restricted and uncertain space - and you start to wonder how "other people" always have it so good. For the rest of us who want to live freely in the world, we have to know, "this world is not for cowards" - it has a knack for throwing THE VERY things at you that are beyond you to do - again and again. We need to wake up to the nature of things and rise to the challenges as they come. The strength is already in you, you need to give yourself the chance to exercise it - we only strengthen through practice. In the end, through practice, we will find steadiness in mind, ease and comfort in the body, happiness in the heart come what may. . . and we will come to a point where we start going about HUNTING out the really important but challenging things which need to be done. . . and then do them. Then I congratulate and thank you on becoming an active participant in your life and a good citizen of our world.
This world is not for cowards
Do not fly. Look not for success or failure. Join yourself to the perfectly unselfish will and work on. Know that the mind which is born to succeed joins itself to a determined will and perseveres. Live in the midst of the battle of life. Anyone can keep calm in a cave or when asleep. Stand in the whirl and madness of action and reach the center. If you have found the center, you can not be moved.
. . . Swami Vivekananda