The tortoise teaches us much.
It has a hard surface but a soft interior. We too must be tough and resilient in our worldly transactions yet compassionate within.
It has the ability to withdraw its senses at will when it senses danger. We often weaken in the face of temptations. Even as we see the desire rising and our mind rushing in areas it shouldn’t, we find ourselves helpless in tapping into this important ability.
It moves slowly but continuously. We must remember that consistency is like boiling water. For a long time, we hardly see anything happening and suddenly the water boils. It’s not that nothing is happening. The temperature rises one degree at a time till the boiling point. Similarly, our efforts may not show immediate results but incremental steps lead to a tipping point of results.
The tortoise always moves quietly on the side. Keeping a low profile means keeping our ego in check. We may have much to show the world but attracting unnecessary attention to ourselves can be very damaging. Let us not get carried away with our successes, rather express gratitude with humility for everyone who made our success possible.
It is goal-oriented, always moving towards its goals. Our actions and time must not be wasted. We must keep striving continuously one step at a time, to achieve our goals in life and our ultimate goal of life.
It is a symbol of non-violence. And violence can manifest not just as physical. Greed, discrimination, an attitude of non-inclusion, and denying opportunity to the deserving is also a form of violence.
It hatches its eggs not by sitting on them but concentrating on them. Temples have a tortoise to remind us to single-pointedly concentrate on the Higher.
It’s long life symbolizes endurance a quality essential to navigate through the ups and downs of life.
It will serve us well to patiently and deliberately take one step at a time. Like the Tortoise.
Yes viv, we get
Inspiration by just taking time off to observe and understand nature.. thanks
Thank you, Vivek, great learnings from a tortoise which we normally just tend to ignore….
Amazing how many analogies our scriptures have drawn from Nature…Showing & telling us….If only we are “awake” and “alert “!!!
Great writing
How phantastically put. I would never have thought about a tortoise this way. Some great thoughts.
Now I know why there is a tortoise at the temple.
I knew why there was a cow and a mouse but aleays wondered about the tortoise.
Thanks for the reflection on the Turtoise!! Relating the the hard and soft part, I thought of the classification of fruits, … but I would not dare to put this as a comment after your post. 4 kinds of fruits : those that are soft inside and hard outside (like the turtoise), those soft outside and hard inside, those hard the whole way through, and those soft the whole way through!!!!! And just an interesting complement: you can use this clasiification for human beings too!!!!!!
Thanks for sharing this beautiful perspective Claude !
Fascinating analogy with the tortoise – and thanks for highlighting the need to withdraw the senses.