Hot Oil Theory & Play Dead

     Many years back, at a conference on Management Theories and Practices, I heard the concept of ‘Know when to step off a fast moving forward momentum track’. This is particularly true if one is on a thrust upwards, in career, success, business etc. So beguiling is the idea of being on an upswing that we forget that in time the momentum will slow off and grind to a halt or simply eject us out at a particular curvature.

Then the problem starts: how to energise once again from inertia to momentum.

      I called the concept shared by the Management Guru “The Hot Oil Theory of Exiting from Success.” Simply put one should know when to step off before you are thrown off, or locked down. This is especially true of relationships, retirement from career, in a discussion. Quit while you are ahead. I have applied that maxim to my own decisions and exited when necessary without feeling owed or useless.

      Years ago at a Satsang I heard the phase ‘play dead”. It was the first time I heard of this at a Vedanta discussion and I wondered if we were going to do some Yoga. Play dead is switching off in the midst of a group. I am there but I make myself indistinct. I listen and hold back my responses, reactions. Wonderful ideas flood my mind but I let them flow. It does not matter if I do not articulate. The Total Mind from where it came will hold it, channelise it. Play dead is completely different from being withdrawn. It is being participative in Being, fully alert, Consciousness, Silence.

       The Hot Oil Theory and Playing Dead have been amazing companions in developing composure.