The 2016 Olympics were going on and it was the men’s final 10,000 meters race and every eye was on Mo Farah and the question being whether he will be able to retain his title at the Rio Olympics. As luck would have it, Mo Farah had a mid race fall and all I could see was runners literally jumping over him – perhaps to save themselves from the fall or in the moment they are unable to decipher what has happened and therefore continue running, or they just wanted to avoid stepping over and injuring Farah and of course their own need to do their best in the race since they have trained for this one event literally whole of their lives with one in a four year window to participate, the reasons could be many. It took Mo Farah few seconds to get up and continue the race. But as they played the clip in slow motion, the fact that was right in my face was that no one had stopped. The event had happened on 14th August 2016.
And then on 16th August it was the 5,000 meters women race and Nikki Hamblin fell four and half laps into the race, accidentally tripping up Abbey D’Agostino with around 2,000m left to run. Abbey quickly got back up, but, rather than carrying on with the race, she stopped to help her fellow competitor Nikki who remained on the ground. Crouching down on her hands and knees, Abbey was seen helping up the Hamblin urging her to continue. While Abbey helped Hamblin back on to her feet, she herself hadn’t realized how bad her injury was in the accident that it was difficult for her to continue running. It was Nikki who then stayed next to Abbey encouraging her to finish the race. It was Abbey’s never give up attitude that helped her continue finish the race despite the injury. What transpired in the race reflected the true spirit of sportsmanship and both the runners were awarded the Fair Play award for upholding the true Olympic spirit. To feel the emotions of compassion, courage, never give up attitude, watch the video.
Whilst over the years of understanding of myself, I realized that I have been someone who never thrives well when it comes to competition, but it was Olympics 2016 that forced me to really contemplate whether what stayed with humanity would be the stories of wins or the stories of compassion, helping, supporting and encouraging each other? What is it that truly connects within us deep down and connects us with the Universe and everything that it includes?
Competition – the dictionary meaning of which is ‘the activity or condition of STRIVING to gain or win something by defeating or establishing SUPERIORTY over others. The two words to take note of are – STRIVING and SUPERIORTY. Both Striving and superiority refers to the Ego’s need to stay alive. Striving is all about going upstream, which is difficult and hard. That itself is against the flow of life. It strips us off our natural free flowing existential self of BE-ing. We are conditioned to believe that life is difficult. That life is a struggle. Stuart Wilde’s book “Life was never meant to be a struggle” beautifully explains this part of Ego’s need. It is true that we run after the complex because we think simple is stupid. We are conditioned to think that if it’s not difficult, it is not valuable. If the solution offered to the client or customers is not complex, it won’t sell or we will not be adequately remunerated for it. And since we have to be better than our competitors, we have to win by hook or crook.
Just take a look outside in Nature excluding human beings. Every flower that blossoms, every tree just is. A rose blossoms not with the idea of being revered as a symbol of love or seeking approval for its very existence or establishing superiority over other fellow roses. But for some reason we humans do. We are bigger, better, more intelligent, more aware, more spiritual than fellow humans. What we are unable to understand is that seeking approval is the EGO construct. How can success be defined in defeating the other – the other who is the same as me in the eyes of the Universe?
This whole Universe is an effortless beautiful art of existence and evolution at the same time. Our human bodies are a classic example of how intricate, scientific and effortless the system is. We don’t make our hearts beat, we don’t make our stomach produce the necessary chemicals to digest food, we don’t or rather can’t tell our lungs, kidneys, pancreas or for that matter how the brain should function or how a broken bone should heal itself or how and when the white blood cells should decide to fight any illness. The human body is simply a fine piece of engineering by the Universe, each organ perfectly designed to collaborate with the other. Even in people with special needs, despite mental challenges, the hearts continue to beat, stomach continues to digest – the basics work effortlessly. Effort, struggle is against the flow of life per se. The idea that life is nothing but struggle is just one of those attachment to our ideas, thoughts when we delve deeper.
But for the law of duality, we would not experience the difference between self and the other. To that extent we have to embrace the difference. To that extent we have to understand ego’s existence. And that’s why masters have said that Ego is a great servant but a very poor Master. However, when we start feeding ourselves with the idea of us being better than the other, we reject the perfection in nature. Sub-consciously we demonstrate this aspect of our conditioned thinking or promoting this idea of competition in practically everything we do – from grades, to jobs or our profession, to car, to houses, to bank balances, to looks, to clothes, to jewellery, to family lineage, even spiritual lineage – name it and it is there. It’s that part of Ego’s ever evolving intelligence which we need to unlearn and we need to take conscious actions towards not passing it on to the next generation.
Transformation is something that is very different from change. When a thing doesn’t retain its original characteristic that is transformation. The evolution of a caterpillar into a butterfly is transformation. Competition thus has to be transformed into collaboration – the act of working together with someone to make something which benefits both the parties and everyone around.
Collaboration is about embracing, understanding and respecting our inter-dependency on everything. It’s not about winning or feeding the ego. It is understanding and reminding ourselves of the fact that no man is an island. That we are not bigger than nature, but when we align with our true spirit we demonstrate the truth of Godliness or being God ourselves. Since that’s what we are made of – that God particle. And this is what I was reminded of in Nikki and Abbey – the existence of divine presence. And a few days later I found this story in the form of an ad on YouTube which is inspired by a real life event. https://youtu.be/v1qtv7uKUlY
It is the story at the Seattle Special Olympics, where nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled, were assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash. At the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with relish to run the race to the finish and win. All, that is, except one little boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times, and began to cry. The other eight heard the boy cry.
They slowed down and looked back. Then they all turned around and went back … every one of them. One girl with Down’s Syndrome bent down and kissed him and said, “This will make it better.” Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line. Everyone in the stadium stood, and the cheering went on for several minutes.
Whether this story is true or not, whether others are competition driven and self centered – the fact remains that all that we always remember people who were kind, loving and generous to us. That’s the only thing that touches the heart. Let us put in the effort to collaborate and spread more love and joy. Choose kindness over righteousness. For what we sow is what we reap. For real competition is to be better than who we were yesterday. We need this more now than ever.