Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Struggle ends

Today I grasped the difference between overcoming and transcending. What a critical difference it is!

People who find life full of struggles tend to become "overcoming" specialists; warriors against obstacles and impediments so to speak. I kind of always put myself in this category without being aware of the fact. And I have used it as a weapon even when it came to impediments and obstacles within myself, internal to me...with very little success.

Then today a penny dropped. I was reading Osho's Secrets of Yoga where he says, "Overcoming is a repression: it is a conquering over. You fight, you force it down, you jump on the chest of it and you sit there, you wrestle with it; then it is overcoming. But it is always there and you are caught in a trap; now you cannot leave it because the moment you get off, it will get up. Overcoming is not the same as transcending...Overcoming comes through struggle. Transcending comes through understanding."

The passage spoke to me. Almost as if it was written just for me. It shed instant and blinding light on several areas of and incidents in my life.

I will try now not to overcome. Perhaps I might then transcend.

3 comments:

Reshma Bachwani Paritosh said...

overcome has a ring of 'effort' to it. transcending i would imagine happens effortlessly when it does. it feels like a swoop...one mind you standing infront of a mountain...and before you know it your on the other side.

so are you trying to overcome your blog interia or transcend it? :)

Ms perspicacious

Pooja Kewalramani said...

Question: So does one just transcend a situation on fine day or does one follow some steps to transcend?

Unknown said...

Blog inertia I think i have transcended, Reshma ;).

Pooj, I have no idea what the steps are but I do know that the first hint of direction is to stop struggling. I'm trying to do that in multiple aspects of life right now.