“Fear or Stupidity has always been the basis of most human actions.” – Albert Einstein
“Failure does not come from falling down. Failure comes from not getting back up.” –Anonymous
Many failures are not acknowledged as failures, but instead are viewed through the eyes of denial… “Oh, that wasn’t for me anyway” or “Oh, I’m glad I finally found something better than that.” Such denial is the most common form of “not getting back up.”
It requires strength, courage and self-respect to acknowledge failure as just another failure, and to then get back up and try, try again. Fear and stupidity masked as strength, courage, and self-respect are by far the more common basis of human action than are true strength, courage, and self-respect.
Yet when I view people, I see the depth within them as them. That depth – who they realize themselves to be once they see beyond the surface – is an infinite reservoir of strength, courage, self-respect and all great things.
Beautiful blog and just what I needed to hear.
I tend to be my own worst critic and I’m quite sure most often the basis for that criticism is my conditioning that’s laced with stupidity and fear. Looking honestly at failures feels like a good thing, but the self-loathing and criticism is debilitating.
I’m contemplating on the distinction between true strength, courage and self-respect, and fear and stupidity masked as those very things! So intriguing! I’ve felt glimpses of the real thing from my depth and it’s extraordinary.
Thank you once again for your words of encouragement and direction.
Recently, I have been seeing (again) where in my life I tend to fail, and fail, and fail, and fail. (Actually, living in the ashram, I cannot escape it.) You simply expect better of me. I notice several responses in me to the idea of renewing my efforts to try yet again:
1) I blow off the idea that I can or should do better. I can easily rationalize this with common cultural standards.
2) I am hard on myself, internalizing my failure as “I can’t be good enough” and therefore am despicable. (Yikes!)
3) I give up, and feel helpless, hopeless, and sad.
Obviously, none of these responses are satisfying! I can’t find peace in them, and that keeps me searching… Behind each of these responses is my belief that I “can’t” do better. It is like I run into a wall, an invisible but impenetrable wall of my conditioned limitations. It runs so deep that I feel like it forms the boundaries of my capabilities and my potential reality. Wow.
I can feel how I “buy” this reality on a deep unconscious level, and my emotional responses well up from there. But I long to do better, and this leads me to believe that I have that capability.
Your expectation and insistence, Brahmarshi, that I DO better gifts me with your belief in me that I CAN do better, and challenges me to accept that as a reality. This encourages that quiet, simple knowing inside me that I am not bound… even by the shortcomings that have operated throughout the years of my life! What a gift! I don’t know HOW, and I certainly won’t get it all in one try, but… I am learning that
**JUST BECUASE I DON’T GET IT RIGHT ALL AT ONCE DOES NOT MEAN THAT I AM NOT MAKING PROGRESS, as long as I keep going. And I think THAT is the key.
Thank you so very much.
Jai Shiva Shankara
1st impression: Coolest picture ever
2nd: Great blog!
It is cool, like a primeval ocean.
Fear of failure, the fight and illusion.