Choosing and owning a sailboat is entirely riddled with conflicting ideas and desires. Both activities require constant compromises. Accepting that no single boat, no matter how technologically advanced, can have all the features one desires. As we add features critical to its construction, albeit essential, another component must give up its right to be part of the vessel. If we were serious about sailing! Ultimately, it becomes a matter of concession: what we must select for our expedition and its remaining features that meet most of our fundamental needs but only a few of our opulence and wishes. Without a contemplative devotion towards longing, it would be challenging to be at peace with our final commitment.
If “time” was an ocean, the sailboat would be our mind to cruise through the waves. However, the critical component compass for the vessel is missing because there is no definitive destination for anyone in the sea—an expanse without a horizon! The compass was less vital than our crucial ability to continually compromise throughout the harrowing journey. The mind provides the only tool to negotiate and settle with concessions. This one-of-a-kind and only “Ēkbār” sailing privilege requires one to cherish each moment’s gift if there must be a reason to sail. The journey entails weaving through the crest and trough of the waves not to create an epic tale, surrendering to the ocean wind regardless of its direction or fierceness not to become completely desultory, and embedding grace and gratitude in hearts comparable to saints. Yet, understand at all times that our wakes are wiped clean, sometimes immediately, because impermanence in all things precedes importance. The bounty and the prizes during sailing are primarily anomalies. There is little gain in aiming for any specific outcome; nothing short of an obsession is paramount to keeping the mast steady.
NOTE:
Ēkbār is a Bengali word meaning once. Pronunciation: “Ek” as in echo without the “o” and “bar.”