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Showing posts from 2012

discipline with power...

its interesting to see the responsibility and discipline people exhibit when provided access to power: the mid-life crisis ones provided unsolicited advise, the young and ambitious, seek to know how things operate, the young and not so ambitious, just bitch! people don't realize that they exhibit their personality most when they are placed in positions / provided access to power. 

satsangha...

some times we meet people for the first time and continue a conversation, it is a continuation of a conversation that we have had already with ourselves at different times in different situations...when few people meet who have all had similar conversations with themselves, particularly of a higher order of truth, then, their meetings become a satsangha...

what makes men great?

1. conviction of the power of goodness 2. absence of jealousy and suspicion 3. helping all those who are trying to do good and be good... often it looks like these co-relate to the modern obsession with vision - mission - strategy.  modern corporate is caught in a vision statement making where the vision statements are never an articulation of conviction rather a assertion of self-value, which is not the same as having conviction. mission is always an action value, however, to state what one will not do makes more sense than what one may. strategy has always been used in the competitive term, thereby depriving it of its possible higher humanist dimension - 'helping all those...' seems such a simplistic yet one of the toughest strategies to adopt. at the corporate level if it was interpreted as, 'helping all those who are trying to do and be good to humanity through selling / servicing /...' it would place the value of goodness of the customer above ...

speed...

...another day with ideas and people. "we are used to speed", states a friend, giving the universal value-obse ssion that has resulted in most problems of today...ho w to overcome the obsession, how do we s-l-o-w down to raise consciousn ess, how do we stop and observe to move forward? and how do we make these non-negoti ables?

hardship...

read from HH Dalai Lama today...and of course, much to think of (emphasis is mine) -  Hardship, in forcing us to exercise greater patience and forbearance in daily life, actually makes us stronger and more robust. From the daily experience of hardship comes a greater capacity to accept difficulties without losing our sense of inner calm . Of course, I do not advocate seeking out hardship as a way of life, but merely wish to suggest that, if you relate to it constructively, it can bring greater inner strength and fortitude . Conversely, one can say a life with no hardship of any kind, perhaps deprives one of a channel to develop greater capacity within oneself? interesting thought. goes with the old Samurai maxim - "a warrior is always supposed to live on the border of poverty" (I read it many years ago)...border is the key word, holds one against complacence and yet sustain with comfort. 

punctuality: tradition & modern

this last week have thought and observed a lot on the lack of punctuality in people.  always knew that traditional societies measured time in different slices, in some cases in a bracket of 4 hours, in others in a period of the day, hence, when someone said they will come at 10, they can turn up at 12 and it is fine by their standard as it is the same time slice within which they have arrived. the reasons are because their time measure was based on the interaction with nature - you did certain agricultural activities at a certain slice of time in a day and certain other activities at other slice of time. their world view and understanding was based on the natural eco-system - human interaction. modern people live in different eco-systems and their eco-systems are often self-created. their idea of punctuality is based on the understanding of the power of the eco-system, someone is more loyal to powerful forces, hence prioritizes to be punctual in front of power and not-punctual...

ego stilts and vanity dance!

friend, long ego stilts holds your own pedestal tall, to hold your show of vanity dance tread mildly on the familiar land below when the stilts can't stand the wild vanity and give up holding aloft the pedestal tall its the relationship to land that will cushion the fall!

leader in crisis - a manifestation!

when is a leader in an institution becoming a crisis for the institution's good?  one recent instance i have encountered.  'personalize institutional concerns if it is from others (and reflects badly on the leader), institutionalize personal limitations if it from oneself'. 

"institutions don't change"

Changing perceptions through understanding,compassion,obser vation or sharing is easy with non institutionalized individuals...the more embedded into institutional thinking the less people seem to want change, the institutions become them. 

cloaks and daggers

...respect and trust seems so difficult for people who wear spiritual, moral, 'more' professional and other cloaks...they conceal a deeper malaise of dis-trusting personalities.  ...aggression as an attitude to attack the other while wearing spiritual, moral, 'more' professional and other cloaks is a veritable assassin. it conceals dis-respect and attacks self-respect among others...could hurt in team work, can cause damage in a project and can destroy institutional relationships as well.

choices...

we all are bound by the choices we make -  the more we are sure about WHY we made the choice, the easier we can change because something else came about which was better;  the more we are sure of the choice because WE made it, the less we are bound to change the more we understand WHAT the choice represents to us and our relationship with the universe and all other beings, the less we are bound to make mistakes in picking our choice! IT'S OUR CHOICE...

honesty in hard times...

in the current world, honest is an endangered human trait. to oneself it demands much, with others it ends up isolating...both ways it makes one incompatible with the current world order! but it continues to fetch the eternal satisfaction of being human.

learning at the farm

farming is a lifestyle, not a vocation.  perhaps all vocation define a lifestyle at some level, some make us better humans, others make us more like animals and some help us to become better machines.  farming seems to make us better humans.  humanity is strange, it has invented so many technologies, practices and strategies to invoke the animal and machine rather than human in farming. 

blind to fact...

if i see in everyone what i want of them alone, i fail to see what they are, they may deliver what i want and i will never know them, nor care to. being blind to fact, if i am fortunate to get often people who deliver what i need, i may never know my blindness.

absolutes and relative...

human obsession seems to be to define the absolute in relative terms and most relative in absolute terms...time and space are far too relative, we are as close to someone as we feel or as far away, we can be here or many years before or after in our minds...the physical space and physical present time is a small dimension which defies defining the whole. it is highly relative. love is absolute in its capacity to bond, heal, change...yet we prefer to call it relative?!

how do you take praise?

an old technique when being praised in public i have found to be useful - start to think of all those whom one has admired, been inspired by and have shaped ones thought and actions...any praise to the self is a moment of gratitude to all such souls, a moment to say 'thank you', not to those who praise, but, to those who contributed to the reason for which one is praised. 

greed and suspicion

greed is wanting more of everything, suspicion is thinking everyone else wants to grab all that one has. they seem to occur in the same persons all the time - turn it from in to out - it is greed, from out to in, it is suspicion...greed is also selfish while suspicion can occur in self-pity or obsession...both as self-centric and represent a sense of inadequacy in a person. contentment and sharing is the other side of greed and suspicion. contentment and sharing happens when the person finds a adequacy in oneself...

know, say, be...

knowing the million reasons for a child's smile (or cry) may not stop one from enjoying the smile...relish the moment, but, to listen to a few reasons at the same time can deprive the moment of the magic...at times knowledge is an impediment that deprives life's magical moments of its very aura. knowledge articulation ought to make way in such moments with reverence to silence.

touching earth...

touching earth, observing, feeling what goes above and beneath the soil, feeling the raw soil and feeling its life and energy is a sure way of understanding life and all the wisdom that is required for life on earth. 

practice, patience and perseverance has a chance

it is possible to win over the mediocre, insensitive and corrupt by sheer practice of excellence, patiently and persistently. it may not always be a visible change, however, change definitely does happen and can only be sustained by practicing excellence as a discipline, as a meditation and way of life. while material excellence often spreads rapidly through force, human excellence spreads gently. Compassion is the key.

sanity and humility in activist life!

ban something or other, protest against something or other, sign a petition to stop something, stand in solidarity for someone or some group, attend meetings to show protest, sit for a fast for a few days/hours, make a contribution to save some one or something...as the voices of human conscience grows against what is perpetrated as common human aspiration by a few, a new form of aspiration is being articulated, if the language is negative today, it is so because it is still weak, couched as it remains in the reactionary idiom of a generation that only saw changes made through violent, centrally driven, power mongering methods. by and by this will make way to a newer language of positive energy, powerful articulation, constructive work, celebration of diversity, perpetuation of peace...the language will be the revival of the original human aspiration of co-existence. we ought to find that in the crowd of the prevailing negatives to retain our sanity and humility.

space and time for children's growth...

materials can't make space, yet, in the absence of space for children, we crowd them with materials consumption can't make up for time, but, we surround our children with consumables for lack of quality time we ought to give them the absence of space results in fear of the unknown the presence of materials, in possessiveness the absence of love time, results in carelessness and increased consumption, the beginning of illness security, spirituality, quality and well being are today obsessively sought by yesterday's children who didn't get space and time to address their fear, greed, lack of care and love and ailments of one kind or another. 

in a public forum: 'suitably low quality' said the speaker...

in a public meeting, the good samaritan, with all well meaning intentions was talking about avoiding plastic bags,  he went on to add, 'we need to replace them with some suitable low quality cloth bags'! got me thinking, why do we say such things in public? should plastic be replaced by 'suitable low quality'? he probably meant price, but, why did he use the word 'quality' and 'price' synonymously? doesn't it represent a deep rooted problem. and why should such things be stated in a public podium? should on challenge it at that time? 

can growth and learning be remote controlled?

"i want to run a school, remote control it, while i travel around the world", said a good friend in a conversation. i wonder is it possible? how do 'you' run a school if it is remote, how can it be 'yours' then? and why 'school'? one can remote manage a machine. learning, like growing a plant or cooking or caring or loving is a process in which you need to be there to claim ownership. 

'corporatized' communication

every communication is not a contest of minds,  every sentence needn't be a show off of wordsmithy,  each transaction need not be treated as a performance nor its after thought as a performance review, trees and plants and roots and shoots live looking their organic space, not competitive market, and they express life as well.  flowers bloom to their capacity and as the epitome of beauty! 

'inspirable' and not 'replicable'...

it will be characterless world that is filled with human endeavours that are all 'replicated' from the same model. somehow, those who would rather not 'replicate' someone else and pride themselves of their uniqueness, prescribe, 'replicable' model to the poor and seek such feature in social projects.  it is demeaning to the human intelligence that nature has bestowed on all humans that are born to ask them to 'replicate' someone. human hearts are capable of being inspired by hardwork, enterprise, knowledge or valour and capable of adapting the same in its own way, such adaptation leads to strength while mindless replication leads to dependency and weakness.  to replicate is to shrink and inhuman, to be inspired and act on the inspiration is strengthening and healthy. it is better to use the word 'inspirable' rather than 'replicable'.  

sustainability dialogues

G - 'stop thinking of the global sustainability, start thinking of a sustainable home' A - 'home has too many thinks that are from the rest of the globe, what to do?' G  - 'start thinking of replacing them with home and what comes from nearby' A - 'i don't know where they come from in most cases, i am too busy working on my next assignment on global sustainability' G - 'then know where things come from first' A - 'where do i start?' G - 'maybe with the basics - your food?' Sustainability Dialogues  - dialogues that ought to happen, but, often don't!

frogs & gods: since Rio

Old saying: for the frogs in the temple pond, the grass is tall, for gods in the himalayas the elephant is small. Since 'sustainable development' came into existence: for frogs in the temple pond, sustainable is 'local and small' for gods in the himalayas, sustainable is 'carbon credit and trade' neither the frogs carry martyr signs nor the gods the super human gloat

aspiration and responsibility

to aspire for acceptance as an equal amongst those one respects (for whatever specific values/skills/knowledge/perception) is to commit to work hard in that sphere to achieve being accepted as equal is to commit to work harder, it is a responsibility!

Drop Outs

people who drop out of any programme are indicators of its irrelevance, to coerce them to continue is to stifle their choice, to concentrate on the act of 'drop out' is to look wrong side of the issue, to review the relevance of the programme is the honest way forward.

on limitations...

understanding ones' limitations is the beginning of knowledge, accepting it is beginning of wisdom. understanding others' limitation is the beginning of a relationship, accepting it is the forever bonding of the same.

did you know?

how does someone feel the thought of someone else close to them? how do we manifest the presence of someone not here at a moment's intensity? we do. but, can we explain it?

keeping things in order...

sometimes you are a bit lazy and don't keep things in the order they ought to be, you come back and do it later. when working as a team, sometimes others too feel a bit lazy and don't keep things in order they ought to be, maybe, they meant to comeback and place things in order. if you are around and can help by putting things in order, you do. it doesn't make you any better nor the other any worse. its just human.

solution providers...

'solution providers' to social problem often are conscientious consumers that are trying to justify their consumption by 'solving' a problem they didn't create. easier is to stop being the problem, become a producer rather than a consumer. 

being sensitive and responsible...

occurred in a classroom talk recently - "if we grow in sensitivity, we become compassionate, if we grow in responsibility, we gain in ethical behaviour...the small learning environment that provides for developing sensitivity and responsibility, contributes towards developing a more compassionate and ethical larger environment, both in short supply just now!"