http://forums.thinkarete.com/forums/the-big-ideas/topics/razor-sharp en-us 60 <p align="center"><em>&quot;Iron is full of impurities that weaken it;</em></p><p align="center"><em>through forging, it becomes steel and is transformed into a razor-sharp sword. </em></p><p align="center"><em>Human beings develop in the same fashion.&quot;</em></p><p align="center">&nbsp;</p><p align="center">~ Morihei Ueshiba, Founder of the Martial Art of Aikido</p><p align="center">from <em>The Art of Peace</em></p><p>This wisdom echoes Mevlana Rumi, the amazing 13th century Sufi poet and mystic:</p><p>&ldquo;<em>This discipline and rough treatment are a furnace to extract the silver from the dross. This testing purifies the gold by boiling the scum away.&rdquo;</em></p><p>&ldquo;<em>Burdens are the foundations of ease and bitter things the forerunners of pleasure.&rdquo;</em></p><p>&ldquo;<em>If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?&rdquo;</em></p><p>We need to COMPLETELY redefine what it means to live at our edge. We&rsquo;re only going to grow and become to the extent we can tolerate the heat of our own evolution.</p><p>Let&rsquo;s.</p><p>&hellip;</p><p>Ueshiba also teaches us that <em>&ldquo;Failure is a key to success; Each mistake teaches us something.&rdquo;</em></p><p>Are you failing often enough?</p> Fri, 11 Jan 2008 22:43:10 -0000 forums.thinkarete.com:503:115:115 brian http://forums.thinkarete.com/forums/503/topics/115