Our life experience draws our attention to innumerable experiences that give energy or those that drain our lives. Sometimes these experiences mostly remind us of all we encounter outside – the sounds, tastes, touch, and smells, etc. leaving what’s within us bereft of attention. If we seek to break through the mystery of our life in which we live and move and have our being, then we will need to penetrate within.
To do this, to know one self is the prerequisite. And in order to know oneself, the need to cultivate ‘slowdown culture’ in life is the necessary Requisite, amidst the outside chatter. Once the outside disturbances like sounds, noise, music, impatient horning of vehicles are countered by inner recollection, the being will be able to concentrate on what goes within. It is said that the average person thinks between 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts a day. For, there are persons afraid of silence within/outside.
So what goes within the mind is unconsciously unaccountable. No wonder St. Paul instructs the Romans, 12: 2: “Do not conform yourself to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect”. Thus slowing down will awaken us, enhance our energy and concentration levels, and also facilitate us to let go the useless clutter; refresh our mind motivating to prioritize our priorities. This reminds me about the parable – The big rocks:
An expert on the subject of time was speaking to a group of business students. He stood in front of the students, pulled out wide-open mouth jar and set it on the table. Then he took a dozen fist sized rocks and placed them carefully one at a time into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked the students: is this jar full? Everyone in the class said “yes”. “Really”? He smiled.
Bending down the table he pulled a basket of gravel and put some of the gravel in the jar of big rocks and shook the jar, and the gravel went inside the little spaces between the big rocks. The expert grinned and said once more, “Is the jar full?” By this time the class was on to him and replied, “Probably not.”
“Good!” he replied. And he reached under the table and brought out a jar of sand. He put the sand in and it went in all the little spaces left by the big rocks and gravel. Once more he looked at the class and asked, “Is the jar full?” “No” the class roared.
The expert said, “Good!” and grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in. Almost a quart of water fit into the jar. Then he said, “Well, what’s the point?”
One student replied, “Well, there are gaps in your day and if you really work at it, you can always fit more into your day.”
“No,” “that’s not the point. The point he said: if I hadn’t put the big rocks in first, I would have never gotten any of them in.”
Focusing on the pebbles, gravel and sand we may lose out on the big rocks of our life. So let’s cultivate the slowdown culture and look within…
