What happens when we resist something? That thing persists. That thing stays for a longer time. This we have seen in our own life. Whatever we hate, whatever we resist; they stay more. And sometimes, it affects our life adversely. Sometimes, it creates a lot of inconveniences, roadblocks. We see this happening. Some people have resistance to certain things and then they do not even venture forward; they stop. This is our food for thought today.
Everybody, all the people who have done something in the world, who have left a mark in the world, have experienced resistance from society, from the people, from various situations; they have experienced resistance. But their courage, confidence and conviction, helped them move forward. They walked forward. They kept walking, so they turned the resistance into inspiration because they were sure; they knew what they were doing.
For example, Jesus had a lot of resistance in his life. So many people did not approve; and they were influential people, High Priests. And they were very upset that a carpenter is coming and speaking philosophy. People were following him; this annoyed them. And they tried their best to slow him down, or even annihilate him, which they did eventually. But Jesus did not stop. He kept walking. He kept doing his thing. Even when adversities happened; he continued. This is the sign of great men.
We can see that in history, they faced a lot of resistance before their accomplishment. It’s like going and working out in a gymnasium. You have to literally pump the iron to create a toned up body. Similarly, you got to really fight to move the pressurizing society, and walk. Contemporary society may not even understand. What do they do? They talk to others about you. They threaten you and they character assassinate you. All those things they do. But if your conviction is clear, if you know where you’re going, if you can handle resistance; there will be a success around the corner.
Resistance is part of existence, you can’t avoid resistance and live.
Think about the resistance inside, prejudices inside, concepts, contamination inside; what have we gathered from the society? Many things we have gathered and many of those things that we have gathered are useless.
But life is about experiences. Every moment experiences. When we are walking, talking, sleeping, eating; everything is giving us experiences. So, why are we afraid? Why are we afraid of people? We have our life, we have our expressions, we have our inclinations, we have our tendencies. If they are harmless to others, we don’t have to be worried about it. If they are harmful to others, then we must check what we are doing. We must stop, think, and correct.
And we have seen highly destructive people, especially you can see that in politics. So much of mudslinging is happening in politics. Sometimes, innovative, good politicians get affected, and they are sometimes removed by some people who do not want progress, who do not want innovation, who do not want to change the country. Their selfishness supersedes the progress of the country because they are more interested in maintaining their selfishness and gathering more for themselves and their families; rather than making a change in the country. So, if selflessness is ruling, if somebody is working with selflessness, often they are attacked, and they are sometimes character assassinated and sometimes they are removed. We have seen that many times in politics.
So, all these things are part of life. But resistance; always remember that what you resist, persists, they stay on for a longer time. Anything new comes to us; we resist. And if they keep on coming, after a while you get used to it, then you accept. But by then precious time is lost.
We should be like a child. Everything is coming, and we accept that. We look at it, is this suitable for us? Take it. If it is not suitable for us, discard it. We do not need to accept everything. Any philosophy, any person, any time, space, any material, coming to us; everything is probably not suitable for us. That’s alright because we have our orientation. We have our own character, constitution. Only accordingly we can accept. This is fine. This is okay, but if we keep on resisting people, we keep on resisting ideas, we fail to live. We become like a caged animal; we are kind of caged, our movements are restricted. It is very important to understand how deep is your resistance level, or how much you resist, that is the benchmark for how much you will progress.
I leave this thought with you. Think about it, how much you resist in life, how much you accept in life. Acceptance makes life smooth. And we accept ourselves, then the people around us, then the society, materials, what has been provided to us; accept them. Be thankful, be grateful, how life will be.
This blog post was first published on Mohanji’s blog and republished with his permission. Explore Mohanji’s free audio library on Insight Timer with guided meditations and talks in 14 languages.
