Equanimity, Internal Noise, and Time Wasted on Imaginary Things
Move like a Wheel from the outside, but be still like an Axle from the inside.
Equanimity
A Cart can’t move forward if its Wheels don’t rotate. It will be stuck at the place forever. Same is with life; you can’t move forward without experiencing the cycles of life. However, notice the Axle of the Cart; the Wheel rotates, but the Axle remains still, equanimous.
The Sanskrit word for “suffering” is “Dukha”. “Du” means bad, and “kha” means an Axle’s hole. A ride on a vehicle with a bad axle hole leads to suffering. If the Axle’s hole is irregular, even the smoothest road will feel uncomfortable.
Learn to be in touch with your Axle. Life will throw good and bad moments at you (the universe doesn’t know good and bad, it’s just your interpretation). Keep moving, keep experiencing the ups and downs of life, but be in touch with your Axle. Move like a Wheel from the outside, but be still like an Axle from the inside.
Internal Noise
When stuck in a traffic jam where everyone is pumping horn, or trying to work when your colleagues are having fun around you, you think that it’s the external noise that’s disturbing you, but it’s actually the internal noise.
There’s internal noise even when there’s no external noise; it's the noise of your thoughts. Random thoughts pop up now and then. You are never really silent; there’s always some noise. Learn to cultivate the inner silence, and the external noise will stop bothering you.
Once you shift the source of your calmness from outside to inside, no outside noise will be able to disturb you. Find your calm inside you; not in places like mountains, rivers, and forests; but inside you.
Time and Energy Wasted on Imaginary Things
We live more in imagination than in reality.
We worry about future events all day long when we should be preparing for those events.
We keep thinking about beautiful things to happen in life when we should be going to sleep.
We keep daydreaming about our goals when we should be working on them.
We keep thinking about our past when we should be addressing our current problems.
We get a limited pool of time and energy every day, and we spend most of it on imaginary things. This wasted time could be better used to act or take strategic rest to perform better the next day.
Imagination has its place, but recognize when it’s just eating up your time and energy.
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