Thursday, September 04, 2008

|| and > (Pause and Play)

From here

Leonardo da Vinci spent countless hours ruminating upon things of the spirit as he worked on his famous canvas of the Last Supper. He spent so much time meditating in the cloister that some of the monks in the community became concerned. They remonstrated with the artist about his wasting precious time and money. "Why do you spend so much time with us in prayer when you have come here to work?" they wondered.

Leonardo answered, "When I pause the longest, I make the most telling strokes with my brush."

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Hmm. In today's world, such pauses are considered to be nothing less than a crime. Especially in the corporate world. Ironically, lack of such pauses is what causes permanent gaps in the long run. Permanent gaps that smack of chaos caused by people who did not initially want to stop for a while.

Something tells me that most people will gradually and ultimately slow down when they need to and go in search of a life and work that allows them to take in life the way it should ideally be. I know of some people who have held their own in such a blind, meaningless and merciless world.
These are people who have, paradoxically, escaped herd mentality but tapped into the wisdom of a wiser 'world'. Hats off to these folks! They've found the guts, faith and conviction to take the less-trodden path and lead the way for the rest of us....toward a more serene and fulfilling future.

Being busy can be addictive (Like Calvin says, "Everybody is a slave to routine"). We need more and more people who can overcome this addiction and free the world from its clutches. People who can make it a better place to live in - for the current crowd and generations to come. We may not be able to save the world from its eventual fate but we can at least make the remaining parts of the journey more meaningful.

Spiritual thinking, as I know it, would advocate that we need to be calm and composed even when surrounded by such chaos, ambiguity and uncertainty. If one were to rule out the thought of running away from such a world, it leaves us with the next best (to my mind) option. Pausing, slowing down, taking breaks, experimenting, introspecting and being happy with a life that's 'different'. These may be the wisest ways to continue to be in the 'real' world and yet lead a more meaningful life. Such a style of living, I guess, will make us less desperate to change the world in one master stroke and have faith in its (and our own) evolving destiny.

5 comments:

Prashant Sree said...

Hi Nimmy,

Liked these words:

"Such a style of living, I guess, will make us less desperate to change the world in one master stroke and have faith in its (and our own) evolving destiny."

I believe that sometime in life a person realizes that he is out of sync and he has to rectify it somewhere.,. Its then he takes a break, looks inside himself and then eventually awakes to the truth !! :)

And maybe thats what we call as an Awakening !! Another beautiful thoughtful post from you :)

Prashant Sree said...

Hey,

Have updated my blog !! Would love to hear your views.

Cheers. :)

Prashant
*+

Nimmy said...

Thanks for being such a committed commentator, Prashant! :-) Appreciate it!

And I've just been checking out your blog....rock on!:)

Carnal Zen said...

Well said Nimmy! I really think we forget that playtime and relaxtime are active meditations, they allow are minds to detach from the routine responses we would normally give and provide the world with new thoughts and creative colors. Great post!

Nimmy said...

Thanks a lot, CZ. :-)

Guess what....I wasn't honestly happy with the post....kept feeling that I have missed out something somewhere....or maybe I had the feeling that there was an element of slight confusion in my mind as I tried to put them down on paper....felt I hadn't articulated everything on my mind...!

Maybe I should ponder over it again and it'll dawn upon me....