Examples of going with the flow. In Football
I was watching a video of best goals by great players of 21st century (link). The video showed each player's most Iconic goal followed by their own assessment and commentary on actually what happened. Something I noticed was that generally everyone said that there was nothing supernatural about what they did. They did not even recognize that the goal was supernatural at the time they played it. Only after watching the replay some of them realized the value of, it. Common to everyone was, actually nobody wanted to play a brilliant goal, they just went with the flow, "Adjusted themselves to what is happening". Just like the ball was meant to be hit that way.
In a plastic bag, in wind.
Have you seen the empty polythene bag which dances in the wind? It was like the plastic bag got a life by itself. Just a little wind which gave it a lift and it started to behave like a ghost. Like an invisible life controlling its movements. If you haven't seen the plastic bag, you may have seen a flag in the wind. Just like I observed some time ago. Maybe you have watched a leaf floating on the water and compared with the life.
Why should we go with the flow?
If we look carefully going with the flow is the really a form of going against the flow. When we look at life, we always think about it in the point of view of a free will. From the early life we were taught lessons of being successful, financially spiritually and even when it comes to mindfulness and meditation and charity. We degrade and suppress the opposite, poverty, cruelty chaos and greediness. Yet this duality was created by our own minds. So, trying to change things is the normal acceptable behavior, however going with the flow is opposite way to try to change things.
How to go with the flow? - by example
I can give you a useless list of ten things to follow to go with the flow. However, that would not be beneficial to you. That would be just a trick list to rank in google better. So, I will give you example of going with the flow, so you can understand. The main idea is, you can only go with the flow, when you have enough wisdom with mindfulness.
Case of anger.
Imagine you are angry, for some reason, with some thing or someone. We all have been there. Feeling the blood boiling inside with ears starting to get fire. What is our normal response. We know anger is bad, and we try to suppress it. We want to control our anger, and just to see it is getting bigger. Just like happiness disappear when we try to reach happiness, angry monster grows when we try to control it. When the anger disappears, you may start to worry, that you got angry. What is the alternative?
To understand the alternative and understand the true nature of the go with the flow. We need to be aware and acknowledge the presence of anger. That is, it. You would start to see the Anger arises, due to circumstances. Just like all the other mental objects, anger is also a mental object. Hence when the circumstances disappear, the anger will disappear. So, you can just go with the flow. If you have gained wisdom from observing countless times, what happens in your mind, you would know, if anger arise you have nothing to do. It's just a harmless mental object. And you can even play with it. And it will be replaced by happiness. When it is gone, its gone. When it is there it is there. And that is true meaning of going with the flow - just notice your drifting through time.
Oh, that is easy to say. But hard to do. But it is a better framework than trying to forcibly suppress anger, for that matter any emotion. Eventually we will learn that we are not masters of the mind, but just observers. Observers, who even have ability to observe the observer and observing.
When you start to go with the flow, you will eventually find out, that is rather not an option, but it is what is happening. You will notice, watching you tube videos, minute after minute is not your doing, and not inherently less valuable than writing a blog post. That is what I understand by going with the flow.
What does it mean for you?
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