'There is more to life than increasing its speed'
Mahatma Gandhi
1869 - 1948
A poster with this quote and picture of Gandhi has been prominent on the London Underground recently. Some cynics may say this is an attempt by Transport for London (who sponsor the posters) to suggest that a slower journey is a good thing, and that tube upgrades are unnecessary! However there are other interpretations...
When I read this quote for the first time I was surprised to realise that, even a century ago, Gandhi was already seeing a world where change caused him to question the real benefits of 'progress'. And the pace of change in those days was a tiny fraction of what we see today.
When I came to work in the City of London in 1990, I saw a 'mobile' phone for the first time. From memory it was bigger than the proverbial brick and came with an even larger battery which was so heavy it had to be worn on a special belt. Naturally (in those days) I was impressed. It enabled the trader wearing it to be 'in touch' with the markets whilst also being in the pub at the same time! I wondered whether I would ever be important enough to be worthy of such a status symbol! :-)
Just 20 years later, anyone without a sleek, pocket-size, multifunctional mobile phone is setting themselves up for social exclusion, and we have seamlessly integrated the idea of a 24/7 culture into our lives.
Technology helps us stay in touch with our family and friends - without having the hassle of actually meeting them! We can have new friends we have never met. We can maximise the use of our time. Do more. Have more. Go faster. Fit more stuff in. We will not have time for enough sleep. But somehow that will be OK.
Even when we aren't actually doing anything, thoughts fill our minds - there is so much to think about, so many possibilities - we simply don't allow our minds to switch off. My life must be more than it is. I must be more. This is not enough!
So why should we be concerned? This is an improvement, a step forward, an advantage. It makes our lives more efficient! We can do more in each day. Live on adrenaline. And then, one day, when finally we have achieved all we want, then finally we will find the time to be happy! (We hope.)
But STOP for a moment, if you dare, and consider the cost. Is it possible that we are simply adding more to our lives, somehow cramming more in, without any leakage or loss?
You may find we are not adding to our lives, we are simply exchanging one thing for another. Yes, we can have more and do more but at the same time as we are getting our hands on a sleek new exciting piece of hardware or software, without noticing we are allowing something else to silently slip away.
Bit by bit we are letting go of those moments when we could stop and not have to do anything, not have to think anything. Those moments when life is OK, just as it is without us having to try and fix it! Those times where we can just appreciate the world as it is and feel the deeper quality of each moment. They are becoming fewer. We are neglecting our deeper self, our deeper needs.
We have no time for this moment! We are too busy thinking about how to manage the next moment, rushing on to the next meeting, the next workout, the next social... we have the speed, we have got QUANTITY sorted... but the inner QUALITY of the present moment is lost.
To feel the present moment is to risk feeling your truth.
To the proverbial alien visitor, it would probably appear that most of us want to do more, to be in touch with others and the outside world at all times and extract the maximum QUANTITY from our lives.
Yet when I ask people for what purpose they are doing and having these things, I get the answer that what they really want is to feel inner QUALITIES like, love, peace, acceptance and happiness.
We continue to look outside for these qualities because it is a lot easier to look outwards and measure our lives externally (using judgment and comparison with others), than it is to be honest and look inwards and feel our own truth. And in the short term the satisfaction gained from looking outside can seem like a good substitute for what we really want.
But the real qualities we seek are not on the outside, they are only found by looking inwards and that is what we are ignoring as we are lost in the fog of the race for more speed.
That is what Gandhi's quote means to me. Speed is one of life's variables, and it can be exciting but it is not worth chasing at the expense of the qualities we are truly seeking.
