A lovely quote received from my good friend Ajay. He attributes its wisdom to OSHO. You can interpret in several ways one being the front foot will have no ego for being in front (being successful) if he knows that the situation may change and he would become the back foot. And the back foot symbolizes those who meet with failures or loss they will not feel small if they are aware that the situation may change for the better and put them forward – symbolizing success 🙂
Breath of Joy 
Dilip, it is an inspiring post ! Cheers.
LikeLike
Many thanks Shaheen . its nice of you! With kind regards.
LikeLike
Dear Sir,
the quote about the legs being in bliss irrespective of whether they are ‘ahead’ or ‘behind’ leads us to question – why is there this ‘relevance’ or ‘value’ attached to ‘ahead’ & ‘behind’? Is it as simplistically put – ‘ego’? Or is it a ‘fear’ of ‘losing’ out? I tend to think its about a deep seated ‘fear’ of losing ‘our’ existence as ‘something’ that makes us care about ‘ahead’ and ‘behind’.
Jaggi in his inimitable style recently wrote about fear & its root & I felt it appropriate to share it with you –
“There is fear of just about everything. People are even afraid of being too happy. In different human beings, fear is at different levels. In some, fear is very apparent. In others, it is subdued and hidden, but it is there. So, what is the basis of fear?
One day, two men from the gas company were taking meter readings. They parked their truck at one end of the alley and started working through toward the other end. One was a senior employee; the other was a young recruit. When they reached the last house, they checked the meter while the woman in the house watched them through the window. After they finished, the senior man said, “Now, just to prove that age won’t stop me from running faster than you, let’s race to the truck. Let’s see who will make it first.” They ran full blast, and when they just reached the truck, they stopped. Right behind them the woman came huffing and puffing, trying to keep up with them. They looked back at her and asked, “Why are you running behind us?” She said, “I was watching you take the reading of my meter. When two gas men run so desperately, I thought I’d better run too.”
One aspect of fear is that it is cultural. It is just contagious; it grows among people. But even for that to happen, fear has to ignite in a human being first. Suppose you were the first human being on this planet. Obviously, there would be no buildings and no heating systems. Suddenly it becomes cold, it starts raining and you are all wet. Then thunder comes, lightening, forest fires and wind — you don’t know what is happening, where everything is coming from and where it is going. The first thing that arises in you is fear, because you do not know the beginning or the end of what is happening.
Even now, it is the same reality. The existence and survival of your tiny body in this vast existence is constantly under threat every moment. That is one level of fear, physical survival. But the existence of your personality — you as a person — is also constantly threatened by the social situations in which you live. Not just out on the street, but even in your house.
In your family, somebody is always stepping on you; maybe not physically, but in so many other ways. Physically, you are so small that you may be ignored, but personality-wise, you are quite big. In your workplace or in your family, you have spread yourself wide and people keep stepping on you, so there is constantly a fear of extinction or damage. So the personality is even more threatened than the little body. The little body being threatened can be managed if you create reasonably safe physical situations, but your personality being under threat is always on.
The root of your fear is just that whichever way you exist — as a physical being or as a personality — you exist as a limited human being. When you exist as a limitation, there is always a possibility that somebody will prick the bubble. Spirituality means you want to prick the bubble yourself. You don’t want to wait for your boss to do it, your mother-in-law to do it, your neighbor to do it, or the devil to do it; you want to do it yourself. If you burst the bubble, if you stop experiencing yourself as a limited person or a limited body, if your experience extends beyond that, you will see the basis of fear has been taken away from you. Absence of fear naturally leads to a blissful existence.”
So it is not about the left & right foot being ‘aware’ that ‘this state of ahead & behind’ will change, but the fact that they are ‘rooted’ in an awareness of ‘changelessness’ or ‘permanence’ or ‘limitless’ that gives then the assurance & therefore the bliss of Being!
So lets get past these ‘false identities’ that are so ‘limiting’ in their nature that all our attempts to seek ‘security’ from them will be futile, however ‘large we try to make it or expand it to!’. Lets just identify with the True nature of Being and therefore Know that there is NO Ahead or Behind, there only IS!
A simple technique that Adi Shankara gave us was the technique of Viveka Vichara – the reflection on ‘nitya & anitya’ viveka – the discrimination between that which is permanent & that which is impermanent. Shankara says that we must endeavor to focus on the permanence & whenever we are in a dilemma we must seek out that which is ‘permanent’ and give up the impermanent. So by this simple technique – we know ahead & behind are mere reference points that are ever changing as well as depend on who is looking from where etc., so impermanent so futile to even waste our energies pondering upon! This techique is sure to lead us to fearlessness that thrives in the awareness of our Limitless Nature!
Cheers!
LikeLike
Dear Sriram,
Thats an interesting story in which Jaggi explains ‘fear’.Thanks for sharing.the same. But it is Adi Shankara who speaks on the eternel truth of Viveka Vichara – the endeavor to focus on the permanence & whenever we are in a dilemma we must seek out that which is ‘permanent’ and give up the impermanent.
Yes this is so convincing but perhaps to be able practice this we may need to bring about a change in our thoughts and way of life.
I know you are already way ahead in this journey!
Thanks my friend for sharing your insights which do help us in spurring us on. May I add a quote ” जिसे भविष्य का भय नहीं रहता, वही वर्तमान का आनंद उठा सकता है” – Only he who is not fearful of the future is able to be joyful in the present.
Cheers 🙂
LikeLike
The post by Dilip and the comment by Sriram spell out the truth of life in the simplest of terms. Thanks a lot..
LikeLike
Hi & welcome. Nice of you to appreciate. I love to use quotes and inspire myself. Thanks for the return call 🙂
Cheers!
Dilip
LikeLike
Respected sir,
This explains me in consonance of your guidance once I had taken from your good self on living in the power of now without thinking of the results.
Regards
Girish kohli
LikeLike
Hello Girish nice to see you here after a long time. I know you are really busy in driving the various business processes in your company.
I liked all the three comments you have given and find them interesting. I thank you for making time.
Here’s wishing you great success in your professional career and in producing results.
Cheers!
LikeLike
Ajay my friend, Great to read your amplification on on the inspiring quote given by you, You are perfectly right on the importance of ‘you get one moment and you have to live it.
The best example as we know is in the Defence forces and that’s what soldiering is all about – in the ‘thick’ of it you live only for the moment!
Thanks my friends! With warm regards,
Dilip
LikeLike
Hi my friend dilip, I am glad you all liked the quote and living in the moment. to amplify osho says that you are always given a single moment; you are not given two moments together. If you know the secret of of living one moment, you know the whole secret of life. Because you will always get one moment: and you know how to live it, how to be totally in it. Al;so a man should be little wild, ready to live insecurity, ready to risk, ready to go on the untrodden paths, always ready to take the challenge of the dangerous. Then life is every moment an ecstasy, and boredom dispears. with warm regards.ajay
LikeLike
That is a very great quote about keep goin, thx for sharing 🙂 my dad is a fan of Osho.How have you been sir? miss u and my class.
LikeLike
Hi Poonam what a pleasant surprise. We in class miss you too but what you are doing is gaining rich experience and that’s great. Nice to know your Dad knows a lot on Osho’s teachings.
Wish you best of times. Regards.
LikeLike
living in the moment is easier said than done. one has to remind oneself time and again and remain alert. whenever you see that now you are slipping into a problem. catch hold opf yourself, run,jump.dance, but don!t get into the problem. Do something immediately so that energy that was creating the problems becomes fluid, unfrozen,melts, goes back to the cosmos. seeing things as they are without judgement is possible only when we are truely living in the moment. droping the ego built on falsehood and imagination will make it easy.
LikeLike
You are so right and what you say is only way to keep off from falling into mind related problems – and therefore yes one ‘must do something immediately’.
As I am well aware that you actually are living life in that way = you are very well placed to speak these words of wisdom.
Many thanks for giving us these precious nuggets!
LikeLike
Oh yes it is how we perceive it! glad you liked it Amira.
LikeLike
that sure is a lovely quote.
always be thankful for what you have, good or bad. it’s just a matter of perception 🙂
LikeLike
In our Life god has not given as only sorrows or only joys ,
we have few very good days in life ,
and all of us have experienced a phase of struggle some or the other time …
but we can maintain a balance of our emotions and keeping taking control of our life by
1) Avoid getting carried away by success, happiness or joy, and
2) Never get Depressed by failures …
Never let Emotions overpower you, otherwise the balance is disturbed…
I really never realised that our own feet me be such a good example … of understanding this
LikeLike
Wow Ketaki how nice to read all the three comments coming together.
@ Yes you guys brought up some great points on Samsung.
@ And I am glad you felt good reviewing the pics of the earlier batches. Yes very soon your batch too will find a place of honor in y blog 🙂
@ Good take on the Weekly Inspiration post .. glad you appreciated the message in it
Thanks for dropping by and best of luck.
Cheers 🙂
LikeLike
Dear Dilip Sir,
I was totally new to this idea of Blogs , but i am so sure that it is going to add up a new Dimension to our personalities by expressing our feelings… 🙂
I wrote here in ur blog , for that matter its my first expression on any blog ever , and i feeling so nice and homely here … really…its so much fun to read the comments of our college and profesors like you and Mr Bora… such a friendly, warm and open platform to express your own views and share our feelings and knowledge….
i am enjoying this , i am sure its going to improve me Day-by-day , and make myself a better person … 🙂
Thankyou Dilip Sir for creating such a wonderful platform for all of ur … we get to learn a lot .
with warm Regards
Ketaki
LikeLike
Dear Ketaki,
I am so happy that you find this medium an interesting way to express your thoughts and views. I am sure very soon you will have your own blog too. Thanks for your kind words,
With lots of good wishes.!
LikeLike
Never heard this one before, but so true Dilip. Life can change in a split second. That is why we should all try to live in the moment as much as we can. I always look forward to your weekly inspiration my friend. Margie
LikeLike
Oh yes ‘live in the moment’ is the key! Glad you liked it Margie. Regards.
LikeLike