Have you ever noticed there are two kinds of people interested in personal development? What two, you ask? One that's obsessed with finding the bliss of inner peace and the other that wants to get stronger and tougher.
So you've got the meditators on one side and the macho folks on the other. Strange, because in Authentic Ancient Traditions this split never happens. They all knew you've got to keep the YIN and the YANG together.
That's why monastics have tended to be really tough people. The Shaolin monks of China are a really good example - trained to be hard as nails, but really a bunch of vegitarian meditators.
What do they understand that we don't seem to get? They know that if you want to maximize your potential, you have to cultivate body and mind equally. If you want inner peace, you have to develop exceptional toughness to do it. And that if you want to be really tough, you need to meditate, to dive into your inner world and face some really difficult battles.
There are no short cuts in life. You won't find unending bliss just because you decide to stop believing in conflict. Real personal development requires resilience, and resilience is something you cultivate and build over the long term. That's why it can't be taken away from you. If physical toughness or spiritual enlightenment could be obtained in a day, a week or a month, they wouldn't be worth fighting for.
So make every effort to hold these two aspects of personal development together in your own life. Nurture your health and build up your fitness and physical resilience. And at the same time, do everything you can to cultivate a harmonious emotional state, a state of gratitude and kindness towards everyone.
~Dr. Symeon Rodger
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment