Slowdown

 "You got be faster than the fastest
   and slower than the slowest"

Some time in 2003 I suppose. Heard this from my GURU. To me, when a guru says, just listen. Follow if possible. no questions asked. Nor dig into "who made this statement?", is this his original words? and so on...

Could not make out the meaning of these words. but realized it was important. Had to wait for the concept of relativity to come for rescue.

A little flashback..

"Lion has to run faster than the fastest deer"

Some time in 1996, saw these motivational words on one of my clients table. Was inspired by this and started to work more and more. As quickly as I could. To the extent of burnout. Most often.  

The above two ideas seemed to be opposite of each other. Almost. But not exactly.

Sometime in 2008 or so, took a drastic decision to slowdown. Literally. 

Did a personal SWOT analysis. Listed down strengths, weaknesses, talents and skills.  Was brutally honest in doing this. All I wanted to do is to acquire the skills that matched my inherent talent.

From then on, it was exploration, experimentation, nomadic journey, living in solitude, odd jobs.... Was just going with the flow. The spiritual mind constantly nudging not to get into the planning mode. So, just evolved with every day.  Got into wake up, work, eat, sleep routine. Nothing did matter. Rather nothing should matter for the outcasts.

Today. 02 Oct 2023. The meaning of slowdown dawned upon as a flash. From the "science of relative motion".

Galilean relativity. Most of us would have experienced this. When two vehicles are travelling next to each other, at the same speed, we feel we are not moving at all (at rest). The concept of relativity has origins from similar experiences in a ship, or train or car or rocket. We could see the transportation evolve.

How does science of relativity connect to the concept of slowdown?

These are the order of events that happened over the past 2 days.

Realized that I had acquired sufficient skills to make a decent livelihood. It has taken almost 20 years. Too long though. But felt a sense of joy. 

With the joy of having acquired sufficient skills; MIND started RACING again.

Apart from the concept of slowdown, I was using one more policy. "Do the best with what is available right now and nature will conspire to offer the clue". This concept came to the rescue; to connect slowdown and relativity.

The first Example:

The speed of writing should be in sync with the thoughts in the mind. We cannot write faster than our thoughts. When mind and hand are operating at the same speed, we may consider them to be at rest. That's mind & body (hand) relativity.

The second Example:

You may try this trick (if you don't know yet). When climbing a mountain or stairs, try to take one step along with inhalation and another step with exhalation. Observe the duration of your climb. We can keep climbing for a long, long time. Breathing and Climbing are the same rate. Synchronized. Though we are in motion (climbing), we may consider it as being at rest. More so. 

The Third Example:

Dreams occur in our mind. Too fast. Am referring to the dreams that we have when we are awake. But we may not have the resources to achieve this dream instantly, due to lack of resources in terms of money, contacts, space, tools etc.

A P J Abdul Kalam — Dream is not that you see in sleep, dream is something that does not let you sleep. 

So, slowdown is not about absolute REST. Its about being active. The activity which synchronizes with the resources available on hand. It was an aha moment. Self discovery. Guidance from a guru is always through self discovery. This should be meaning of the statement from my guru. it applies to both absolute rest and relative motion.

Note:

The mismatch between the pace of mind and availability of resources would lead to stress & burnout.