The hill climb season is underway. I used to win a lot of races, but this season have had two 3rd places. I still enjoy competing, but these days it is a slightly different focus.
My spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy once said something like “There’s always someone better than you.” The context of this quote was with regard to human pride. No matter what we do, there’s always someone better than us. If we rely on human pride for satisfaction, there will always be something to knock us back.
I find it a strangely reassuring maxim – ‘There’s always someone better than you’. I think it is because it also reminds us to remember the highest spiritual philosophy – if we are all one – who is better than whom?
It is also a subtle reminder that real satisfaction doesn’t come from being the best, but getting joy from whatever the result and outcome.
Of course, philosophy is one thing, but living philosophic ideals – is something else.
Swami Vivekananda once told some young men, they would be better off playing football than reading the Bhagavad Gita. The point of this statement was that we may need dynamism and even desire, before we are ready to go to the next stage of lofty spiritual ideals. Only when we have had certain experiences are we more receptive and understanding of higher ideals. After experiencing winning and losing, we can start to understand and appreciate better the ideal that it doesn’t matter who wins.
Photos from weekend racing
Pateley Bridge
Pateley Bridge.
Golf balls and sheep.
View.
Guise Edge.
Related
Not everyone can be Eddy Merckx
Thank you for this.
I too cherish that maxim, ‘There is always someone better than you’.
I personally see that “someone” can be our own inner pilot.
Such being the case, I look at that One as the source to aim at, to compete with, to reach to, according to an ideal of “sport is play”.