LEAVING ONLY WHAT IS TRULY IMPORTANT












“If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there,

what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?”

-         Confucius


My wife and I had just taken a short break and spent two days at a quiet beach resort. We had chosen week days so that we could experience complete solitude. Watching the movement of those waves was like watching the movement of our own breath… There was robust movement on high tide - action, aggression… holding on. There was complete yielding on low tide -  inaction, submission… letting go. I could relate what was happening inside me to what was happening outside… Nature was operating outside as much as it did inside…

How amazing! How reassuring!

I was particularly getting in touch with some of the anxieties and fears which were dominating my consciousness… The movement was identical… I could feel the surge… I could feel the quiet rest… Nothing seemed to overstay, neither my fear, nor my valour… They came and they went… and, they did over and over and over again, just like waves did, just like my heart did… Come, go… Come, go… Don’t stay!

My pride and my humility… My success and my failure… My joys and my sorrows… Yes, which of these is permanent? Which of these has come to stay here forever and ever? As I sat there immersed in the tide outside and the tide inside, I could get strikingly aware of the words of Steve Jobs:

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important." 

“Leaving only what is truly important!”

Fear and anxiety stay in my heart till I hold on and on… and till I do not know when to just let go... The clarity of my mortality and the clarity of the divinity within me are the ones who cause the tide within. From that clarity, alone, I am guided to deal with my fear and anxieties...

Yes, as Confucius said, what is truly important is to look into my heart and find nothing wrong there... Meanwhile, fear and worry will come and go, just like the waves outside and the waves inside!



GERALD  D’CUNHA

Pic.: Anil Bedi


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