Opposites and Equals

Today I am going to tell a little story and some thoughts in this post. The story may or may not have any link to the thoughts like any other things in this life and universe. While each is related and linked to each, they are also not. Just as a grain of sand can be the entire cosmos or it can just be that – a grain of sand.

I will begin by quoting one of my favorite Zen thoughts - A person may appear a fool but he may only be guarding his wisdom carefully

Years ago, while touring one of the greatest wildernesses of our planet I befriended briefly a noble soul; a beautiful woman with great courage, humility, immense wisdom and a single minded focus to heal the world. She is a rare combination of complete beauty both within and without. Over the days as we exchanged ideas, brain-stormed on enterprises to benefit the society together, our friendship blossomed, and then progressed to what I felt was one of comfort zone and one day I expressed to her, my wish to see her in person. By some quark of fate when we had met it was very brief, so brief that I didn’t really remember meeting her; while she had seen me in action for well over an hour. So after our regular exchanges over phones and mails though I knew now how she looked I pined to meet her physically and I just expressed it one day. There was very little chance of it happening quickly or anytime soon. But it was an expression of my train of thoughts. And there was nothing more at that moment that I wanted from her, besides just meeting her in person.  

Similarly I had met another beautiful woman more than two decades ago in a small confine and at that time she was engaged in more ways than one to a friend of mine. This woman too like all my woman friends, is beautiful, kind, generous and pure soul. She deserved the finest and the best in life but life had other plans for her. Soon after we met, she and my friend got estranged (certainly not because of me), and over the years as we became good friends, she met and got married to a man who can only be termed a real beast. She and I remained friends but with my travels and climbs we rarely saw each other anymore. Her life turned into virtual hell, everything around her collapsed, she was tormented physically and mentally every moment. She at times spoke to me from far, exchanging mails too, telling me what was happening, though never complaining. Just accepting her fate and not willing to give up on her dreams, which now centered around her son, for whom she wished a bright future, outside the influence of the evil father? I became for her a guide, a friend, into whom she could confide. I still found her lovely and charming while she believed that she had turned old and ugly due the years of torture and mental agony. Then one day I asked her if she had ever loved me; and she replied that she had always been in love with me.

As is told through almost all great wisdoms in the world, and also from Newton’s law of motion no action will happen without its reaction, or a reaction exists since there exists an action somewhat opposing it. It is upon us to say which was the action and which the reaction and which followed or preceded which one. Objectively if you wish to feel the breeze flowing in, you will need to blow out. Without this very simple act none of us would be alive as we breathe in and out every moment unconsciously. To get something you have to lose something. Now ponder the following –

How will you seek if you don’t find

How will you ask if you don’t answer

How will you win if you don’t surrender

How can you possess if you don’t let go

How will you say if you don’t speak silence

How will you rejoice if you don’t suffer

How full will you love if you don’t empty

How will you climb if you don’t descend

We often say that where there’s a will there’s a way. I would like to twist it and say ‘where there’s a willing heart, there’s a way.’ And this willing heart has to be reciprocated by a willing heart and only then great things would happen. Since nothing can exist or happen in isolation to its pair.

I do not speak of a romancing heart here but of a heart that romances all that it seeks and tries to imbibe.

Stories can and will go on, and if you are willing only then they will end or begin. They can be found wherever you look, wherever you open your heart and the mind of your soul, wherever there are memories, wherever lies a drop of tear or smile - story is born. Find it. 

Go to the bottom by all means my friends since I will eventually see you on top!