Deadlines Make Me Anxious. How Can I De-stress? || Acharya Prashant (2024)

Acharya Prashant

Watch Deadlines Make Me Anxious. How Can I De-stress? || Acharya Prashant (2024) - Acharya Prashant on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00I have a lot of thought regarding to when it comes to deadline.

00:04How can I be peaceful when I have to meet deadline as such?

00:09What if we could break the deadline into something more immediate?

00:13Would you be equally anxious still?

00:15This was said about the Buddha also.

00:16That when he was walking, he was just looking at the ground.

00:20Just three steps ahead of him.

00:21Not beyond that.

00:22If you have a meaningful life, it will involve a humongous target.

00:26And if you think of the humongous target, you're dead.

00:28Break the whole thing down and ask yourself just this question.

00:32Just as we miss redemption, liberation, the truth, we also miss deadlines.

00:37Because they appear big and distant.

00:39Make them come near.

00:44Pranam Achyaji.

00:47I'm very grateful to be here in your presence.

00:51Welcome.

00:51And while I'm here, I'd like to ask one question.

00:55I'd like to seek the opportunity to ask this question.

00:57My question is, I have a lot of thoughts regarding to when it comes to deadlines.

01:09I have a lot of racing thoughts.

01:11That's caused me to have palpitations.

01:15Even when, and it also wakes me up.

01:18It caused me to have restless sleep at night.

01:23And how can I have, be peaceful when I have to meet deadlines as such when the situation.

01:36There is a philosophical paradigm to this question.

01:44If there is something that you know is well within your reach, does that result in palpitations?

01:57The ego gets scared when it thinks of something terribly big or terribly distant.

02:14And that causes it to be anxious.

02:17Now that which you think of as big or unattainable, we are talking of deadlines here and something else as well.

02:30That which the ego thinks of as big, distant, unattainable, if it really were intimate, easy,

02:48immediately within reach, would the ego still be afraid?

03:00That's the difference between the common perception of the highest and the wise one's view of the highest.

03:05That's the difference between the common perception of the highest and the wise one's view of the highest.

03:30We remain anxious because we think of that as distant.

03:39And if it is distant, then the ego is anxious.

03:43If it is big, then the ego thinks that, you know, I am so small, that is so big, I'll have to lose my smallness or all kinds of problems.

03:52How will I reach there? I'm a petty thing.

03:55I'm also talking of deadlines here.

03:57What if you break down the whole thing to just see how much is to be done in the next two hours?

04:10I don't want to look at what is to be done tomorrow.

04:14What if you break down the whole thing to just see how much is to be done in the next two hours?

04:20How much is to be done in the next two hours?

04:23I don't want to look at what is to be done tomorrow.

04:27Tonight before sleeping, I have two hours.

04:33I only want to see how much is to be done in these two hours.

04:36Would you be equally anxious still?

04:38That's why all the wise ones said that is very near to you.

04:46Your problem is that you are looking afar.

04:49If you will look afar, you will be afraid and you will also miss the thing.

04:57As we miss our deadlines.

05:02We are also talking about deadlines.

05:04Just as we miss redemption, liberation, the truth, we also miss deadlines.

05:11Because they appear big and distant.

05:14Make them come near.

05:16Break the whole thing down and ask yourself just this question.

05:21What is to be done this hour?

05:23This moment is all I have.

05:27So, I won't look beyond the next two hours or beyond the next 30 minutes.

05:33If I start thinking of what is to be done till day end or month end or year end,

05:38I will be bogged down.

05:42The very thought will be so heavy, I will be crushed under it.

05:47I won't even think of that.

05:51When I look at how much I need to do right now, oh, it's so manageable.

05:55There is nothing in it.

05:58But if I look at the aggregate figure, it appears so daunting.

06:01Oh my God, this much is to be done in this week.

06:04Sir, a week is a long stretch.

06:08If you just look at what is to be done this hour, it's very affordable.

06:17Are you kidding me?

06:20Look at this moment.

06:22Look near and you are home.

06:26There are a lot of wise quips on that.

06:29They say those who have to go far,

06:33they just keep looking at their feet.

06:37This was said about the Buddha also.

06:39That when he was walking,

06:41he was just looking at the ground,

06:44just three steps ahead of him, not beyond that.

06:48It's very interesting.

06:50The Buddha would not look this way into the horizon.

06:55He would look at the ground, just two or three steps.

07:00Beyond that I don't bother.

07:05Otherwise, the more meaningful the life,

07:10the bigger the mission,

07:12the more infinite the target,

07:14and you start thinking of that target,

07:16and you are destroyed.

07:17Which means then life has to be deliberately kept meaningless.

07:22If you have a meaningful life,

07:24it will involve a humongous target.

07:26And if you think of the humongous target,

07:29you are dead.

07:33So if you don't want to be that,

07:34you will have to keep your target as petty.

07:37And a petty target means a petty life.

07:39That's a bad paradigm.

07:44The target might be infinite.

07:46I have volition, control, authority only over the now.

07:52So I won't think too far ahead of myself.

07:55One hour, one day.

07:59Some sensible horizon is all that I care about.

08:06Not 50 years.

08:11Something more immediate.

08:14And that's what spirituality is about.

08:16There was a beautiful poster we made.

08:19Oh, a lot of people took it.

08:27Spirituality is not the blaze of the beyond,

08:30but the intimacy of the immediate.

08:35That was way back in 2015.

08:45I don't know whether that poster is even in circulation anymore.

08:54Break it down.

08:55Just ask yourself how much is to be done?

08:58Right now.

08:59And that's all.

09:00Beyond that, I don't bother.

09:12You know how the Upanishads put it?

09:15They say yes, it's infinite.

09:18But it's also very immediate.

09:20Tad dure tad avanti ke.

09:23Very very far.

09:24True.

09:25But I also know that it's also very immediate.

09:30So I'll focus on the immediacy.

09:34Why horrify myself with the thought of the infinite?

09:44I would rather remain humble and think only of the immediate.

10:14True.

10:15So when it comes to reality,

10:17as it mayed be the flatten,

10:20the

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended