2 Life Transformational Qualities to Have

A tao story and its huge implications

In ancient China, an elderly Tao teacher was addressing his last class of students. It was going to be his shortest ever talk. He had promised to reveal the secret of a fulfilling life.

There was a small glass filled with liquid in front of every student. He warned them that the solution is extremely bitter in taste.

He then dipped his finger in there and took it to his mouth. He winced in great distaste and asked students to do the same. They hesitated for an instant but followed in a moment of deference. It was a horrible experience but somehow the disciplined students tried their best to keep up a good face.

You have courage, the master was overjoyed. Despite knowing the unfavourable outcome you did went in to explore, to obey. You surely have it!

But none of you noticed what I did, he exclaimed! I dipped my middle finger into the solution and the Index finger inside my mouth. If you had observed it then, surely, you would have avoided the unpleasant experience.

Observation and Courage, in that order, will take you to your maximum potential. courage without observation has little value.

That was the last talk of his life.

Observation

I used to go every Sunday for a day-long meditation. At the beginning of every session, there was an orientation class for 15 minutes that iterated the same theme: The objective of meditation is to train the mind to be attentive to the surroundings first, then own body and then thoughts.

One day the gentleman asked us that we close our eyes and tell him how many blades does the ceiling fan has, 3 or 4? Honestly, I never notice it, everyone else too looked up.

Sometimes he would pick someone up and ask where do you keep your shoes outside, on the left or right side of the door?

Awareness is so easy to slip by, I often get conscious of eating when teeth cut the tongue. I walk absentmindedly and notice only when the streak of thoughts are broken by a twisted ankle or a harsh honking.

When I drive, I lose the sense of details around me except for keeping a safe drive.

If we have a headache do we know why is it happening? Did I eat something unusual or Am I thinking too much or I underslept, or is it that we simply pop a pill and get away with that?

The movement of observation shall happen to start from the gross level and move to subtler dimensions. The awareness of sound around us, the visuals like trees and buildings and the smell of the places we go. While going to bed I sit with closed eyes for five minutes and send love and affection to all the places and people that I came across the day. That gives me a night of restful sleep and also provide a reality check of my awareness.

Awareness of thoughts is directly correlated to breath. A breath meditation or vipassana opens up certain inner dimensions. It is a fantastic tool to sharpen attention.

Courage

courage is the first of human virtues because it makes all others possible — Aristotle

I wanted to learn data science for my career progression. I kept on procrastinating for 3 years until I realized that it is not the lack of time, resources or technical skills but fear of failure or unknown that was driving my arguments.

One step of courage is what is required. I just signed up and had my weekend class before my fear started to evaporate. The best handle to fear is to realize it, accept it and face it.

“To fake courage” is also a tested way to trick the brain. In a classic psychology experiment, people found cartoons funnier if they saw them while holding a pen between their teeth which caused their facial expression to feign a smile. Researchers explained this phenomenon with a theory called “facial feedback”: Even if people don’t realize that they’re smiling, signals created by the upturned corners of their mouth send signals to the brain which in turn automatically boost their mood.

Happiness makes people smile, but smiling itself makes people feel happier.

The origin of fear is rooted in our association with outcomes and the need for social approvals. Necessary as they are but when out of balance it is capable to overpower our capability of rightful judgement.

Let the observation guide our courage and let courage be the force behind our life’s journey.