Endurance is the power to continue on despite pain, stress or fatigue. I cultivate endurance by always striving, pushing myself beyond my accustomed mental and physical limits. The opposite is weakness.§
Comparing the actions of one who is enduring to one who is weak§ |
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|---|---|---|
Situation§ |
Endurance§ |
Weakness§ |
When faced with climbing a hill to a temple on pilgrimage, you…§ |
pace yourself and work through the urge to return to the bottom when your legs start to ache.§ |
find the spasms in your muscles too uncomfortable and turn around, and never reaching the top.§ |
While learning a difficult Sanskrit sloka, you…§ |
maintain the study schedule you have set for yourself, despite brain fatigue.§ |
become discouraged when the brain tires, and take a break for a few days.§ |
If required to work late into the night, you…§ |
draw on the energy in your spine and remain alert and focused.§ |
succumb to sleepiness and retire without finishing the work.§ |
Gurudeva explained: “What is meant by ‘moving the forces of the world’? That means fulfilling realistic goals that you set for yourself. That means performing your job as an employer or as an employee in the most excellent way possible. That means stretching your mind and emotions and endurance to the limit and therefore getting stronger and stronger day by day.”§
ASSIGNMENT: In the next two weeks, when a challenging mental or physical activity depletes your normal reserves, draw on the energy within the spine to recharge you to carry on.§
Date you began this assignment ____________________§
MY THOUGHTS ON THE BENEFITS OF ENDURANCE: 
§
