Against All Odds? Or, Because of them?

We humans are very particular. We want somethings and wish to avoid others. We know this. But we are also fairly poor at determining which actions will result in which fruits.

We often have an idea of what we want, be it an object, friend or circumstance. We feel that our desire is somehow deeply valid. So automatically valid in fact, that we don’t even check to see how valid or realistic it may be. We might chose something grandiose or something very specific based on an ideal or set of values. Our wants may even be tied to what we have been told we should be engendering or manifesting in our lives in order to be called normal or successful.

But what really leads to accomplishment? For most people, accomllishment ripens from two basic factors coming together over time. The first is an idea of what we wish for. Lets call this the view. This view must normally be accompanies by a method to get there. In some way, we can say that the heaven in our minds (our goals or idea of heaven) and Earth (the realties of this world, must somehow come together to yield what we want.

It is relatively rare that simply luck brings us what we wish for. And despit the fact that we rationally know we may need to work hard and with great consistency to make something happen a certain way, we don’t want adversity or resistance along the way. We find those things to be basically against us and a block in our path to reaching our goals. But when examined closely, this is not the case. Most famous people who “made it against all odds” actually made it because of all the odds being stacked against them.

I will give one simple if not silly example of my own. For some reason, although not seeing myself to be someone with any level of stamina or speed, I was asked to join a college relay race. It was more of a fun thing rather than an official college contest. The loop was maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile. There were six teams and I believe five people on each team. I was the last to run for my team and we were in last place. I took the baton thinking, I will do my best and since we are in last place and the chances are low, I wont feel bad if we dont't win. But the next team’s person was somehow almost within reach and I was encouraged to at least pass one team. So I did. This placed the second team’s runner just out of reach. I thought, “well, might as well try”. I passed him also. Each time I passed an opposing team member, the next one was just equally and seemingly out of my reach but close enough to make me feel there was some chance if I really tried hard. Before I knew what had happened, I had passed five teams and I came across the finish winning the race for our team. But I had pushed myself far past any reasonable limit and thought I might in fact just die right on the spot. The one great step for the team, was a stupid step for the individual. The point is, that adversity made me the winner not the lack of good odds.

This same story can be seen, again and again in many famous people’s lives. They embraced their goals so completely that the obstacles were usually framed as stepping stones to the goal.

Now suppose you were an olympic athlete and you had a coach that kept saying things like: “You’re great! Wow, you are so fast!” Or maybe: “There’s nobody like you!”??? You may feel really good about the coach but for sure that is a coach nobody wants. The coach is not there to make you love the coach. Like this, the Tantric Guru places challenges in front of the student and doesn’t really see much advantage in massaging the student’s ego. A student may in fact feel fairly unsure nearly their entire journey. There are many types and personalities of teachers also. Some are very sweet outwardly or perhaps in the early days of a student teacher relation. My own teacher was fairly cryptic in his responses to my activities. I very rarely experienced any praise whatsoever for my entire life. And when I was praised I was either suspicious or simply felt that the praise was irrelevant since only death could be the ultimate test of my practice.

So the next time you feel fearful or frustrated with the obstacles that have arisen in your pursuit of worldly and especially spiritual goals, try to remember that the messages and keys to accomplishment and success are in fact lying within the obstacles themselves. Wishing for instant gratification is only our childish unrealistic sense of timing in the face of natural processes of learning and ripening. Instead embrace the obstacles fearlessly and go for the extraction of accomplishment knowing it is always there for the open minded and diligent ones.