Endurance is perseverance
By Taru Bahl

THE most tangible form of endurance is perseverance. When stuck in the middle of a traffic jam no amount of hooting, honking, abusing, fidgeting and restlessness is going to get one smoothly through the traffic. Just turning off the ignition, accepting the fact that there is precious little that one can do and waiting for things to clear up is the sanest option. Seconds before a train or airplane taxis to a halt, busybodies with cell phones in one-hand and lap top computers in the other make a mad scramble to leap off. Crowding around the exit point, they push, jostle and create a palpable aura of tension. Seconds before the train can halt they tumble out in the hope that the few moments that they have gained will pitch them that much forward in their onward march to wherever they are headed. Patience is obviously something they haven’t heard of. And they haven’t bothered to calculate if the minutes that they have gained by hurrying and scurrying has been a gain in any real terms. Haven’t we seen how racing cars driven by people possessed, overtaking us from the left are found at the next traffic signal thanks to the slow moving traffic and numerous other hindrances. To be quick, fleet footed, efficient and effective are definite advantages but when they amount to creating high stress levels without adding to the bottomline in any way, it may not be a bad idea to rethink and learn to relax, take it easy, hold on and persevere.

The spirit of endurance and perseverance is one of the most powerful concepts that man can ever learn and imbibe. The beauty is that it can fulfil one’s objectives in life with no external effort. We don’t necessarily have to conquer others, we only need to be tough with ourselves. Oriental philosophy has always pointed out that it requires strength to endure, understand difficulties, suffer hardships predict risks and tolerate abuse. The human spirit has to triumph over itself, even if it has to endure the humiliation of defeat and criticism.

The fable of the Pung Bird demonstrates this most amply. Legend has it that in the North Sea of China there is a fish called Kun which is thousands of metres long and which when grows older, evolves into a bird called Pung. It flies over the great sea southward to its destination, the Celestial Pool, beating the water with its majestic wings for over 3,000 km. It takes six months to reach such a height before it is ready. Now with its back against the pure blue sky and nothing blocking it, it can set upon its course southward without any obstacles. How can one compare such magnitude with the morning mists, the dust or insignificant creatures? Now, why does the Pung have to struggle upward 90,000 km without making any visible progress before starting his journey southward?

When a person makes a trip to the nearby woods to return a few hours later, he doesn’t have to prepare a supply of food. If he has to travel 100 km, he would need to prepare food for a single night. If he has to travel 1000 km he would need to prepare food for three months. What do the cicadas and doves understand about such matters? They don’t know what spring and autumn is all about. The moral of the story is that when one is destined for greater accomplishments in life, the preparation can be extensive. Just as the Pung bird struggled upward without making any visible progress toward its destination and despite the ridicule from other birds and insects, it continued to flap its wings straight upward until it arrived at a greater height above the earth’s surface. With lesser birds still chattering about his foolishness, he spread his great wings and soared effortlessly southward and into the Celestial Pool. If we have to draw inspiration from the Pung bird we have to develop our powers of endurance even in the face of criticism, ridicule and physical hardship, in order to achieve goals and to scale greater heights of physical , material and spiritual success.

Expecting instant results and solutions to the most complex problems is both the boon and bane of the present generation. While in some cases this sense of urgency actually helps maximise potential and garner support there are times it ends up complicating things further. The secret of success then lies in two words — persistence and resistance. Persist in what must be done and resist what ought not to be done. Emerson said, "a man is braver not because he is braver than anyone else but because he is braver for ten minutes longer." Also remember that not all problems in life have a quick fix solution. At times the solutions may be slow in coming and at others the solution may be in just learning to endure an unchangeable situation. Wisdom lies in knowing the difference.

Milan Kundera in his book Slowness talking of speed says, "the man hunched over a speeding motorcycle can focus only on the present instant of his flight, he’s caught in a fragment of time cut off from both the past and the future. He’s wrenched from the continuity of time, he’s outside time." In other words he’s in a state of ecstasy. In that he’s unaware of his age, his wife, his children, his worries and so he has no fear because the source of fear is in the future and a person freed of the future has nothing to fear. Speed then, is the form of ecstasy of the technological revolution bestowed upon man. As opposed to the motorcyclist the runner is always present in his body, forever required to think about his blisters, his exhaustion. When he runs, he feels his weight, his age and is more conscious than ever of himself. This all changes when man delegates the faculty of speed to a machine. From then on, his own body is outside the process and he gives over to a speed that is non corporeal, non material.

There is pleasure in letting things take their own natural course. Resistance beyond a point only brings about strife and discord. Patience, stoic determination, gentle understanding and calm assessment of the situation are traits of an intelligent and wise mind. Going with the flow is not about giving up self-effort but rather about accepting reality. It is about recognising when it is time for action and when it is time to sit it out. After doing all that was humanly possible during the period of crisis and finding that the situation is still beyond remedy one must anchor oneself with the spirit of endurance and let the dark moment/night pass.

Asians who have a history of being the ideal role models when it comes to enduring suffering and hardship, swear by the principle of turning inactive to be able to conquer crisis. They feel when the pulls and pressures are all in the negative direction and everything seems to be tumbling down, just step back and wait till the dust settles so that you don’t panic and your efforts don’t backfire.

If on the one hand perseverance is all about enduring on the other hand it is about persistence too. But too much persistence may not always be a pleasant attribute in one’s mental make-up. It could be annoying and irritating, taking a person further away from his objectives. There is a certain harshness and arrogance in a person who insists on being persistent. He is guided by the singular purpose of his own need with utter disregard of the imposition he makes on the other’s time, resources and sensibilities. One must know when to keep on trying in the hope of bettering the scenario and when to gracefully quit and/or move onto other alternatives. Along with having the wisdom to persist when there is hope of reversing a trend or decision in one’s favour one also needs to learn the art of sometimes suffering the insufferable, tolerating the intolerable and enduring the unendurable.