Do not dwell in the past, do not
dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
-
Gautama Buddha
We have all heard and read a lot
about living in the Now. Each of us, undoubtedly, interprets it in our own way.
Yet, living in the present is not something one achieves and is done with! It
is an on-going and everlasting exercise one engages in, and a rather
challenging one at that. One of the reasons for this is the fact that at any
given point in time, we are either busy doing something, or thinking something.
Come to think of it, Human Life is all about swinging between either Thinking
or Acting.
Needless to say, any task in life
calls for some amount of thought and some amount of action. Finding the right
balance between the two becomes a key determinant of your efficiency. At one
end of the continuum are situations that require 100% action, thought comes
later. This may be true when someone is getting a heart attack, and you simply
need to call the ambulance NOW. There is no time for thought; you simply have
to DO IT. Here, instant action is paramount. At the other end of the continuum
are situations where 100% of thought may be applied, with no or negligible
action. Take for instance the philosopher who spends years thinking about a
theory and working it out in his mind. All his ‘action’ happens only on the
fertile grounds of his mind; no ‘real’ measurable action takes place. Most
situations, however, fall somewhere in-between these two extremes. There may be
some tasks that call for more action and less thought, and vice versa. For a
person to be efficient and effective in any task, he needs to be able to strike
the right balance between the two.
Temperamentally though, we tend
to have a preference for one over the other. Some of us are thought oriented,
we prefer to mull and ponder, gaze and wonder, think and ruminate over the way
things are. Thinkers are often seen as dreamers, star gazers, philosophers, or
even as lazy good-for-nothings. It is the thinkers who make us see the world
from a new light, who question age old customs, who ask Why? What? How? How
come?
On the other hand, some of us are
more action oriented, who believe in getting out there and taking charge. These
are the actors, the ones who can move mountains, who can get things done, who
compel the rest of us to move out of our comfort zones. These are the ones who
lead by their example, who believe that actions speak the loudest.
Having a perfect balance between
these two frequencies, arriving and remaining at the center of this spectrum,
is probably what meditation is all about……
The Buddha is the one who
mastered this to perfection. Think of the Buddha and what comes to your mind is
his serene expression, his equanimity, his meditative posture. The Buddha achieved the peak of the thinking
frequency; he questioned established patterns, he came up with a whole new
philosophy of Life. Yet, the Buddha is also the epitome of the actor, the
do-er. While he practiced renunciation and detachment, he did so in the midst
of people. He acted, every minute of the day, to communicate his thoughts, his
views and his philosophy to people, he was seen constantly engaged in some
service to humanity or other. He was a tireless worker, a do-er to the core.
Thus, he mastered both these seemingly disparate frequencies to achieve perfect
equanimity.
This, then, is what each of us
needs to aspire for. No, not all of us can become a Buddha. Yet, it is equally
true that the potential to be a Buddha lies between each of us. Life, then, needs
to be a sincere attempt at always remaining in harmony with our thoughts and
our actions, always ensuring that one feeds into the other, and, most of all,
that they are both helping us reach the same destination. Knowing our natural
temperamental inclination, and then working consciously toward also inculcating
the other, is what will help us achieve this goal.
Article first published in the Inaugral Issue of 'Just Let Go' in September 2015.
