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[fajrdrako]

Yoga Basics News had something I thought I needed to hear today, so I'm reproducing it here:

Dhriti (steadfastness) is an essential component to achieving one’s goals and to making progress along the yogic path. Dhriti requires overcoming non-perseverance, fear, and indecision as well as a constant practice of patience, courage and will. The more ambitious our goal is, the more obstacles we may encounter, and the more Dhriti will be required for our success. But for our Dhriti to effectively achieve our goal, a clear purpose, realistic objective and well-conceived plan must first be in place.

Working on it.

Reminding myself that I am descended from the Scottish clan Grant, whose motto was: Stand Fast.

Comments

[kikibug13.livejournal.com]

This is so true! I tend to get a burst of enthusiasm, and unless something comes up to keep my interest, I just... trail out of that activity and into something else.

For some reason I dislike ambition (I really don't know why; I've also been described as ambitious, and at the time I took it as something I had to correct in myself) - while at the same time raising the concept of will, and free will, to a principle to live by. So I don't usually see the goals I set for myself as ambitious (well, I sometimes don't think of them as goals at all - just things I want to do). But even in this case... the more desirable things tend to take more effort, and often over a longer period of time, and that does mean... steadfastness of purpose.

Oh, and BTW did you catch the Shoop Shoop song Captain Jack video that was published over at torch_wood: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9GAk7ESYOk? I so loved it!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I tend to get a burst of enthusiasm, and unless something comes up to keep my interest, I just... trail out of that activity

Yes. It isn't generally that I 'trail out' but that I get frustrated - it doesn't go as well as I'd hoped, it turns out not to be easy, and I start slacking on it. I consider this a serious character flaw, to seek out the easy and avoid the difficult, especially in the long term.

So: working on it.

I dislike ambition

Seems to me that a lot of people do. I don't know why; if you figure it out, let me know. There are certain things I think ought to be more valued than they are in the world at large, and ambition is one of them. Others are intelligence, scholarship, and beauty - the world is very ambivalent about beauty.

I love that video! Thanks for bringing it to my attention. It's so delightfully in character, so full of joie de vivre, or joie de humanite, or whatever it is that makes Jack the loveable man he is.

(Digression re: "humanite", do you know how to put an e with acute accent on an LJ post?)

[kikibug13.livejournal.com]

Oh, if the thing doesn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, that would get me energized, most likely (well, not always. *thinking of my anxiety about driving* Although I'm not sure that counts... I wasn't overenthusiastic about that in the first place). But if it turns out to be easy... I just turn to something more challenging, I guess.

About accented e - easy cheat would be, if it works out, insert the symbols in the word processor of choice and then copy and paste them here.
Test: é è
Well, there should be key combinations to insert any symbol from the character map, but I don't feel like checking them out... I know by heart but two - the Bulgarian quotation marks: „ (alt+0132) and “ (alt+0147), which almost no word processor will get right, and I wanted to use them quickly. I used to know the one for "degree Celsius" too, but I can't recall it now...

Re the video - I was sort of looking forward to your reaction... and when I didn't see it anywhere, I just figured it probably slipped by you. :) Glad do share the joy, I loved it so much! Joie de vivre, I think. Love for life and the living, perhaps.

Re ambition. I think my dislike for it may be rooted in my childhood and the way we were taught that ambition is connected to capitalism, and capitalism is bad. But I'm not too sure that is all.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I like certain kinds of challenges, but I do get frustrated, and when I get frustrated I tend to turn to other things. Sometimes this is good - depends how worthy the goal is.

I did react to the video the other day - loved it, played it over and over - but I was too tired to post, too tired to say anything... I've been doing a lot of sleeping over the past while. Hopefully this will help me get over my virus. It makes for a very boring life, when you do almost nothing but sleep!

I think my dislike for it may be rooted in my childhood and the way we were taught that ambition is connected to capitalism, and capitalism is bad.

Well, that's only true if you cite ambition in capitalist terms - i.e., making money. I don't like capitalism myself. But I see ambition in wider terms - achieving creative goals, for example. Or righting wrongs.

[kikibug13.livejournal.com]

Well, that's only true if you cite ambition in capitalist terms - i.e., making money. I don't like capitalism myself. But I see ambition in wider terms - achieving creative goals, for example. Or righting wrongs.

Makes sense. But my elementary school teacher wasn't very particular. And wasn't very much given to subtleties.
But then, how subtle can you get teaching communist propaganda embedded in abstract terms to 6-7 year olds?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Teaching any kind of propaganda to 6 year old must be a funny job. I'm sure they soak it in. I'm not sure it sticks.

Or perhaps, like any kind of propaganda, it sticks with some and not with others.

[kikibug13.livejournal.com]

Oh, it sticks, if it's repeated often enough. Children will believe anything (I know I've come home with some ideas that've startled my mom pretty bad); and things learned at that age, when one doesn't have the knowledge to sift through the crap, if left unattended, will crop up - from the sub-conscious, perhaps - at unexpected times and with unanticipated impact.

Lucky for me, my mom tended to talk with me about things we were taught, and a lot of the things, at least the ones that impressed me, got out in the open and were cleared in a timely fashion. Still... I do have some attitudes that I'm working slowly to update, because they just don't work.

BTW, that teacher was a pretty nasty creature. I don't know if she survived as an elementary school teacher past 1990, but I somewhat doubt it. She basked in the forced respect she got from us and didn't hesitate to abuse her power over us (well, at least according to my memories and my mom and stepdad's comments). I was really glad to get out of her sphere of influence in fourth grade...

[kikibug13.livejournal.com]

Gah.

So, are you at home again, and recovering? Or just spending non-working time sleeping?

I hope the virus finally does get away. Sleeping should help some, I think. *sending good thoughts over, just in case*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm at work, trying to convince myself I am alert and wide awake. I've been sleeping at home... last night I went home, did some yoga, had some supper, watched the CBC airing of Doctor Who and then fell asleep at 8 pm!

I think the virus is fading away but sometimes I think I'm fading away with it. I really am feeling better - much better - just tired, and coughing. In fact there was a while yesterday that I actually felt as if I had normal energy.

I'd rather be sleeping comfortably than in pain, if that's the kind of choice we have to make.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

non-perseverance, fear, and indecision

All sounds drearily familiar. *sigh*

Right, bed for me - I need a good night's sleep to dispel this gloom. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

All sounds drearily familiar. *sigh*

I think people with health problems are more prone to this than others. And sadly, the whole human race is prone to this - except for the lucky high-energy types.

I need a good night's sleep to dispel this gloom. :)

Gloom is not good. There are better remedies. Hope, for example. Hope's a good one. (I have it on good authority!)

So - hope you slept well!

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

A thought. This is noble, but does it not seem to presuppose that one begins at all times without still having major things held over from prior experiences that get in the way of going straight forward with something new? Look at the "indecision" and procrastination not as flaws, but as virtues: they indicate that something else first needs taken care of, and should not just be pushed aside by force (of mind, if you like) and ignored. Just as it is not wise to ignore a physical injury or sickness, nor a need that has a place in the material world (shelter, food, safety), so it cannot be always automatically be wise to deem non-perseverance a flaw, and attempt to eradicate it without embracing it and learning its full reason for existing.

I offer this thought humbly.

Addendum: I have long admired your clan motto; it is of course similar to Duncan McLeod's, with which I usually get it confused: Hold Fast, which sailors used to tattoo on their fingers lest they lose their grip on the rigging during windstorms.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

does it not seem to presuppose that one begins at all times without still having major things held over from prior experiences that get in the way of going straight forward with something new?

I would argue that dealing with 'new stuff' always includes dealing with 'old stuff' at the same time, it's part of the progression. And 'old stuff' doesn't necessarily hamper us, it can be helpful in the progress.

Look at the "indecision" and procrastination not as flaws, but as virtues: they indicate that something else first needs taken care of

Maybe, but they can just as well indicate fear or reluctance to take on responsibility or other unhelpful motives.

it cannot be always automatically be wise to deem non-perseverance a flaw, and attempt to eradicate it without embracing it and learning its full reason for existing.

Well, in the yogic way of dealing with life, nothing should be 'automatic' - awareness or mindfulness is the first step and primary key to all things.

I like Stand Fast better than Hold Fast, which I find morally ambigous, implying possessiveness.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

As a fellow Scot [:-)], I too like that phrase "Stand fast." But then clan Gregor's motto [rendered from the Gaelic] is "Royal is my Race," a reflection that they were descended from senior leadership in Ireland and expected to have the same position in Scotland. No such luck, as history has shown clearly.

Right now, I'm trying to start a new [hard SF] novel. I've had the idea kicking around in my head for years; I just have to *resolutely* do something about it. As walkingowl would have put it, life has a way of intruding, however ... my glasses have become prone to spontaneous self-disassembly, and I had better do something about that first.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

they were descended from senior leadership in Ireland and expected to have the same position in Scotland. No such luck, as history has shown clearly.

Well - the aristocracy didn't fare too well in Ireland, either, did they?

I've had the idea kicking around in my head for years; I just have to *resolutely* do something about it

Wonderful!


life has a way of intruding, however

Oh so true.

my glasses have become prone to spontaneous self-disassembly, and I had better do something about that first.

Oh dear. Can you see?