Confronting The Pull-Up Bar Down To The Bones
A short tale of one young man’s spiritual practise
Tom walked up towards the terrace; it is where his pull-up bar is. On his walk towards the terrace through the stairs, he saw them, the health-obsessed neighbors on the nearby terraces —the fitness freak youngsters, the elderlies following the doctor’s death threat, and mindful addicts who had managed to swap their addictions. They had all been there doing the same for weeks or months — if not years.
Tom had only begun his practice (walking up towards the terrace and standing beneath the pull-up bar was all he could do) for some days. Actually it took him a while to even start to get up at 6:00 AM in the morning and to stabilize it, and then some more days for him to get himself up to walk towards the pull-up bar in the terrace.
As usual, on that day, Tom stayed there beneath the pull-up bar for some time, staring at the bar. And then walked back down the stairs. The neighbors silently made fun of him for not doing anything other than staring up onto the bar. Some even took great pride — thinking that they were far ahead and better than the poor Tom. Some even took pity on him while busily running on the treadmill and at the same time sending him flying-loving-kindness-kisses.
Being lost in their mind, busy making fun, and pitying, they were missing a gut-wrenching spiritual lesson that was being demonstrated by Tom. Not that he wanted to demonstrate nor he wanted others to take that path, but it was available for those who cared.
Little did they knew that he was confronting his inner demons while being beneath that pull-up bar. He would not jump on to the bar for the fear of self-defeating blackmailing voices in the head or for the praise from neighbors. He could not fool himself that just because he managed to jump on to the bar that he would earn the entitlement to not face up to his demons — that would only be postponing the inevitable confrontation.
He was neither fleeing nor fighting, in that sense, but staying unflinchingly and patiently. He was demonstrating an organic growth, the long-cut, not the short-cut available in self -help manifestos which were mostly childishness masquerading as growing up.
He did not want to take the advice of ‘do-it-anyway or do-something and repeat it blindly,’ until it becomes another dull habit to boast off to others as “I blindly did it and you should too”.
Tom was not just staring at the pull-up bar, but at them: weakness of mind, laziness, procrastination, expectations, fear of failure, shame, embarrassment, etc. He was seeing them and studying them for what it is. And so that when he finally grabs his palms onto the iron bar, he could not only bear his weight but the demons in his mind too intelligently — he could witness his own true strength and cultivate it day by day in an organic way.
He would get to defeat his enemies day by day, and not postponed inevitable confrontation with them for some clever idea of ‘do-something’.
The emotional stability and spiritual progress that he acquires through confronting his daily pull-ups could extend to other life challenges too in the same way. It was his way of demonstrating true courage and humbleness, not the courage born out of fear and arrogance.
One day when he walks up towards that iron bar, he would have the strength of every brave prisoner who did not hesitate or flinch while walking towards the rope waiting for them to be hanged despite the frightening thoughts in the head.
“One’s action ought to come out of an achieved stillness: not to be a mere rushing on.” — D.H Lawrence
If you liked it, you might as well consider reading my other short stories:
Thank You. Pretheesh Presannan.
