Taller the bamboo grows lower it bends.
This is a Chinese proverb. Of course, you would remember pandas and bamboo trees when you hear the proverb. More importantly we should analyze what does it mean. As the secret of being humble is hidden in the nature of growth of a bamboo tree.
If you haven't seen bamboo, trees, they are one of the fast-growing trees in the world. Compared to its circumference, they are very tall. Although they start to grow directly towards the sky as young shoots, once they reach a certain height, the bamboo will start to bend from its own wight, towards the ground. And this is analogous to the fact that someone wiser is more down to earth than rest of the people. More humble and less egotic. This is the characteristic that everyone should aim to achieve naturally, as there is no way you can bend a tree without breaking it unless it is a bamboo.
Reading the proverb gives me many questions. We will go through each of them to figure out the natural way of becoming humbler. Which I call is the mindfulness way, like a bamboo.
How to be a bamboo?
You can try to be humble. Like the internet suggests there are list of seven, ten or twelve things to do. However, I suggest more importantly we should aim to become a bamboo tree than some other tree. As, if you try to introduce being humble to someone who is not, it will end with disaster as it is not natural. So, how can you become humble like a bamboo. This is where the mindfulness wisdom comes into play. Mindfulness will help us to become a bamboo tree rarther than bend already straight one.
How to be humble by Observing truths of life.
Mindfulness will let us observe life as it is. Just like David Wallace, introduced us to water in his commencement speech, we will be able to see simple truths about life. Simple truths, like happiness is not in money, but an affair of the mind. Like when you go on a vacation, I am sure you have been to visit a mountain. I am not talking about ordinary hill that you visit everyday, when you have so much ego, that would not do the trick. So you will have to go to a great peak, like Matternhorn, Rocky or Himalayan type of a peak. And just when you go there you will realise how small you are. How small you are compared to a mountain which is so huge. When you compare the weight you would be just a grain in a bucket full of grains. Even smaller. More you spend times there you would see your ego, takes a vacation on its own and you fall back on earth. I am sure you have felt the same, just that you have never word it before. Now you know why you feel relaxed as you do not have to carry the burden of being yourself, home. It is a hell of a resoponsibility to be somebody, less ego, is the starting point to becoming nobody. And more you spend time with the nature more you will realise this fact.
You can do the same in the beach, watching the waves. And compare this to all the other human beings. Like the mountain, the sea is a vast body. With the sound of crashing waves, even your voice is going to be unheard, unless you start to shout deep from your lungs. So, definitely you will be silenced for the most of the time when you are at the beach.
When you start to spend your times, in these solitary journeys with nature, you will start to realise the Zero of life. Which essentially means that equality of the life. Life which starts at zero ends in zero one day. And this is universal to every life. When these facts are seen not by my words, but within your own life, you will be reborn as a bamboo. As we see it the conciousness is a potential, which has ability to become extraordinary if it believes in anything. So, the mindfulness way is to realise that you are not different from everyone else. You are not separate from everyone else, as we all are interconnected by the nature. As these simple truths are only seen with the mindfulness, Let's start a humble journey today.
Once you become a bamboo, maybe we can think about start the journey to be a hydrophobic leaf next.
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