Stephen Wiltshire has been called the “Human Camera.” In this short excerpt from the film Beautiful Minds: A Voyage into the Brain, Wiltshire takes a helicopter journey over Rome and then draws a panoramic view of what he saw, entirely from memory.
I came to know about this from my friend Kamlesh Dave. When we watch Stephen perform we understand that the power and capacity of the human mind is awesome. Here, I’m reminded of this quote from Herbert Otto:
We are all functioning at a small fraction of our capacity to live fully in its total meaning of loving, caring, creating and adventuring. Consequently, the actualizations of our potential can become the most exciting adventure of our lifetime.
I was first introduced to the above quote by my mentor, Aporesh Acharya, founder of MILT who constantly reminded us of it. Aporesh was always urging us to “go beyond yourselves”. I understood that to mean we must constantly challenge ourselves and our beliefs. In similar vein Arthur C. Clarke has said:
The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.
The commercial brand Adidas has seized this idea and used it as their brand’s tagline, Impossible is Nothing:
I like the core thought behind “go beyond yourself”. Living it on a daily basis enriches life and makes it more meaningful and enjoyable. Do you know of any examples of people who have gone beyond themselves that you’d like to share in the comments below?
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At the moment, this reminds me of Aditi’s performance at Pratham. A school going child facing the year of her board exams – remember Prabodh, how tense she was when she was deciding whether she could participate in a dance programme and yet do justice to her studies. The book I was reading at that point was “The society of mind” by Marvin Minsky. He speaks of genius as those who can manage what they learn, deal with multi-frames and so on. I remember discussing the concept of Multi-tasking with Aditi, and how life is never a linear sequence of events! I am so glad she took the plunge, extended herself, found joy in learning and working with a team! Is there any wonder that she then danced magically on stage!
well i can draw a corrollary for a professional person, with years of practice, coming back to the roots (of life as ancestors) giving up usage of electricity, usage of mobile phones, of the modern comforts of life, like transport, email, usage of water facilitated bathrooms, electricity, doing stringent demands for quest of knowledge, within the four walls of a strict code of Maryada (self propounded beliefs) speaks as a living example of “go beyond yourself” wherein we are all so much used to materialistic comforts ! the site at http://www.jaindiksha.wordpress.com tells it all for the uninitiated !
loving, caring, creating and adventuring
loving, since there is no relationship !
caring since there is strong belief in non-violence in thought mind body &spirit
creating since there is a daily verbal interchange !
adventuring since daily life is a big battle, not knowing where the next morsel of food is going to come from, or where the next sip of water from !
each day is a new one on the horizon !
The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible
How true !