Fire making challenge = people have flint & steel, dead grass, and sticks they must use to light a fire that burns high enough to burn a string above it.
the key to success in this is to focus entirely on building the fire. Don’t look at how high the flames are going. Don’t look at how close you are to your goal. Keep your eyes entirely on building the fire. Focus entirely on the input that provides output.
It’s that simple. There’s such a profound truth hidden in this.
It reminds me of the core message of the Bhagavad Gita… To not focus on the results. To perform action without fixation on the end result.
After watching this episode of survivor, I did my shambhavi mahamudra kriya meditation. There is a part of this meditation where I chant Om while visualizing energy rising from the base of my spine upwards. If I focus entirely on the task, using all my attention to focus on chanting aum and visualising the energy rising up my spine, I get great results. Amazing. However, often when I’ve done just a few chants, I will have a surge of energy in my mind, and my thoughts will become considerably more interesting and seductive, so I can get distracted and focus on the thoughts. Then I’m only half engaged with the practice and in the end the results/benefits are way less significant. I don’t feel as liberated from ego or as deeply in the presence of the ultimate. I should’ve just kept focusing on building the fire instead of getting excited and distracted by the flames that arose when it started.
In any endeavour you will go so much further so much quicker if you can just ignore the benefits or results or side effects of your work and continue to keep building the fire.
This is the power of yoga. If you can be above preferences… Above desires and attachments. Above attractions and aversions. Then you won’t be seduced by the fruits of your good actions. You won’t get sidetracked because you have already attained stable contentment / satisfaction / freedom from clinging and lack and desire. Then you can be unwavering in your work, and this consistency and focus is what brings such great success.
Most people are motivated by that state of lack though, so their whole perspective and the foundations that their goals are standing on are all based in this consciousness/identify of lack. They want x because it will bring y. In many cases this dooms them from the get go. They must transition to a new way of being where they no longer want any result. They are indifferent to outcomes…
Why would they do anything then? Aren’t we completely reliant on desiring things to act? Wouldn’t one become inactive of they didn’t desire results, if they didn’t desire something they didn’t already have…
Apparently not. You can be free from desire and lack and still act. Eckhart Tolle said it just sort of happens. He’s a great example. He lives continually in the present non-dual state. He clearly isn’t attached to outcomes. He says he just does what makes sense.
Yogic literature says that you carry out your dharma. You just do it. In the way animals just do what they’re programmed to do. When you overcome ego and perpetual lack consciousness you are no longer driven by desire and neediness, you are moved by compassion, by an inner compass. You simply do what makes sense to do.
Sadhguru said something along the lines of “I don’t mind if the world dies or heals. However, since I found a well, and I’m enjoying the water, and everyone is dying of thirst, why wouldn’t I let them know about the well?.
So to summarize… Let go of attachments. Stop caring. Be unwavering. Be unmoved by the fluctuations of the mind. Just be calm and composed and keep building your fire. Not because you really want the results, but because it makes sense to build the fire. Don’t be distracted by the shiny pretty flames. Just keep building. Figure out what inputs create positive outputs and then be diligent about doing those inputs.
In a way this reminds me of my insight yesterday about how we should focus on being fully alive as opposed to capturing it. It’s all about presence and contentment basically. Full engagement while remaining detached. I linked that insight below:
Reality is a camera always recording