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"Praise by name. But, criticize by category." - Warren Buffet
This works. Praise by name. Sometimes we fail to praise an individual because we may be concerned that praising an individual may affect the team dynamics. As long as we over do it and make our praise gets into the head of that person, that's ok.
Cheers!
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"It is better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than buying a fair company at a wonderful price." - Warren Buffet
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"Stock market is a voting machines in the short term. It is a weighing machine in the long term."- Warren Buffet
Gem of wisdom from one of the best investors of all time. In the short term, some stocks are so hyped that it feels as though it is a popularity contest among stocks than anything else. It's only after a long time, real value rises up to the top after the fancy has faded. This is especially true of so called new age stocks. Go back and see what has happened to many high flying stocks of last dot com boom etc.
Buffet does not get caught up with voting contests. He weighs them. In order to weigh a stock, he would like to understand them. Because weighing a stock here means finding its intrinsic value over a long time. That's why Buffet does not invest in stocks that he does not understand. Look at his holdings. All boring companies. Soft drink company (Coke), a few insurance companies, metals, food etc. Basically bread and butter kind of stocks. Despite this,his holding company has beaten market over and again. He too has had a poor streak over last few years but his performance has not been worse than the market in general.
This is not to mean that you should stay away from new age companies. Important thing is to understand what you are trying to accomplish. If you spot a good opportunity with a fancy stock, go and buy it. But, be sure to know when to sell it as well because popularity wanes as fast as it rises.
By the way. Buffet's new biography 'Snowball' is a great read. I listened to the audio book recently. It is the first book by any author that Buffet has authorized. He has spent several hours with the author and that shows up in the authenticity of the book. Several nuggets of wisdom from this man's life. You may enjoy reading or listening to it.
Cheers!
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Wrong time, wrong action = Disaster
Wrong time,right action = Resistance
Right time, wrong action = Mistake
Right time, right action = Success
It is just enough to do the right thing. Timing also needs to be right. If either the action is not right or if the timing is not right, desired outcome won't be success. Always examine above set of equations when you see why you are not getting what you want. Most of the time, we pay a lot of attention to action alone and try to refine the action a lot. Even when we execute the best action if the time is not right, at best, we will encounter a lot of resistance. Timing is influenced by a lot of factors. When I thought about this, this seems to apply very aptly to organizational changes. Many organizational changes fail because they are implemented at the wrong time. On the other hand, when timing is good, we should attempt to try several actions because when the timing is right even if the action is not the best, worst thing that can happen is not a disaster but just a mistake from which one can learn and recover.
Cheers!
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There is a good place to buy Kannada books, CDs etc. online. You can order from - http://shopping.totalkannada.com/shopping/vpasp/. I have bought several books, Kannada movie VCDs etc. from this web site and have been very happy with their service. They have a full fledged store in Bangalore. If their rep in the USA does not have what you want, they can get it from India quickly and send it you. They accept payments by check or by PayPal.Very convenient.
I chose to write about them because some visitor to my blog left comments asking where they can buy some books such as 'Dadagiriya Dinagalu' or Ravi Belegere's recent books.
Hope your buying experience will be nice.
Cheers!
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"Mere information is not knowledge. Mere knowledge is not wisdom."
Even better- start with ' mere data is not information.'
Data, information, knowledge - easy to obtain if you have right tools, put in enough time and energy. Wisdom - different story. Wisdom is a very rare commodity. One way to check for wisdom is if the person 'walks the walk or merely talks the talk.' Why is wisdom so hard to come by despite we having all the knowledge required? If you refer to our sacred scriptures, they say wisdom is hard to come by because of our conditioning (called 'samskaras'). Our conditioning is so deep that it takes sometimes multiple lives to fill those giant craters. Think it this way. There is a field with variety of channels for water to flow. As soon as you release water to such a field, water follows that channel. How you want water to flow does not matter? Based on your understanding, you may water to flow in certain fashion but unless you change those water ways, water will continue to flow in those pre-defined channels. That's what are 'samskaras'. Our conditioning is similar. Our vital energy continues to flows in the predefined channels. We may read a lot, based on all that reading we may decide to make a few changes to our lives but life may not change much. Unless you gradually close out existing waterways and create new waterways to direct the water in the way you want, water will continue to flow through existing channels.Weds will continue to grow. This is one explanation why we continue to do same things despite knowing very well that we need to change things. When our knowledge and actions do not match, that's the sure sign of lack of wisdom.
Cheers!
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You probably know how cinema works. If you take reel of cinema and see, you will see a whole series of static pictures. Then, how do we see continuous sequences in cinema? Explanation is probably known to you as well. When those static pictures are shown on a screen at a high speed (using projector), brain tends to interpret them as a continuous sequence rather than standalone still images rolling one by one. You can even simulate slow motion by slowing down the speed of the projector. Same thing with electricity as well. What we call today alternating current goes up and down but at the rate of 60 cycles per second, it is too fast for eyes and brain to notice, adjust and see the difference. Else we would be seeing flickering all across.
Recently while reading one of Easwaran's books, a light bulb went up when Easwaran used this simple analogy to explain the thought process. Thoughts all occur one at a time but our mind is sped up so much so that they rush on our mind's screen like those still pictures being projected from a cinema projector. That angry feeling you get about someone, how does it start? Take a moment to dissect it. First thought, mind goes back 10 years, then second thought, kicked up by memory, comes up. That's when you remember the first part of the incident that is making you angry. That follows with few other memories and so on. All these are independent discrete thoughts are arising in your mind. They are coming at such a high speed that you start developing that anger emotion in you. Within minutes you are full of anger about that person. It does not stop there. Mind is on cruise control, it is going where it likes. You start thinking about all that you could have and should have done to pay him or her back right then and there. It probably takes good 15-20 minutes before you realize what a waste of time it has been to get angry about someone for something he or she did 10 years back. If you regain your composure in 15 minutes or so, congratulate yourself. Sometimes, people can carry such process over very long time. Thus ruining days and weeks at a time one such incident.
So, using the cinema reel analogy Easwaran beautifully explains if you slow down your thinking or the mind which is causing such rapid thinking, you will first start seeing thoughts for what they are. Individual and discrete. Once you start seeing them like that, you can edit the thoughts the way an expert cinema editor edits the movie. He cuts a scene here, add something else there and the result is a master piece. I am sure you have admired razor sharp editing in some movies. At the right time, right scene comes up. When a particular catchy beat of a song is heard, some major scene is shown. Can we do same thing with our thoughts too? Absolutely. First step is to take the reel and using the steady mind start editing the thoughts so that a beautiful masterpiece emerges. This is exactly happens when we have positive emotions. Positive emotions are nothing but a series of same rapid thoughts one after another. If we have that capability, why not use that to edit out negative thoughts?
All this can be done but only when mind slows down. Projector has to slow down to let our eyes see individual still images. Else, we will be seeing continuous sequences all the time.
Another good thing to remember is to think less. It is absolutely possible to think less or think less about things that we know are harmful. After you have made some conscious attempts to slow the mind down, you become aware of your thought process. First negative thought comes, you deliberately ponder over it. That pondering helps because instead letting that thought escape, you are putting it under scrutiny. Despite the scrutiny, that negative thought may still continue but its power has been considerably reduced. You keep on doing this exercise for a very long time and no doubt one day you will be able to think only when you need and think only what you need. That too with full focus and only on things you really need to think about. All other time your mind is free and calm. But, ever ready to engage in important thinking.
Meditation helps. Spiritual reading helps. Selfless work helps. Keeping fully occupied with family helps. Doing what you enjoy helps. All these help to ward off unwanted thoughts. Solitude helps a lot too. Being occupied all the time may help you ward of negative thoughts. But, the moment you have a minute of free time, untrained mind is back to its basics. However, if you allow yourself some solitude from time to time and challenge yourself to steer your thoughts in positive direction, you are exercising your mind to go against conditioning. That is going to pay off a lot.
Cheers to minding your own mind.
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There are so many banks. They offer so many savings and certificates of deposit accounts with varying rates. How can you find the best deal? Won't it be great if somebody can announce your intention to open a new savings or certificate of deposit account and ask banks to bid for your money? Won't it be super cool if the banks are also FDIC insured so that you can invest without stress? How about if you can also access reviews from other customers? All cool things. OK, no good idea goes unexploited by smart people. As a result, we have MoneyAisle.
MoneyAisle is really cool. All you need to do is to go to their web site and provide some basic information like amount you want invest, duration of certificate deposit etc. and start the bidding process. The system talks to several banks and finds out the highest possible interest available for your amount for the period you specified. Then if you like, you can accept the non-obligatory bid and choose to open an account with the bank that won your bid or just move on. No commitment from you at any stage.
Before you open your account with any of the banks, please do check the rates offered by your own local bank. Since this is a new service not all banks and more importantly credit unions are not participating. For example, in my case, my credit union offered better rates than any bank that bid for my money.
In the era of failing banks, credit unions seem to be fairing better. I have mainly banked with a credit unions for last 10 years so. I had not-so-great experience with one of these large banks in the earlier days. No personal touch to their service. Callous attitude etc. So, I chose a credit union and been banking with them even though I have moved several times in last 10 years. Most of my accounts remain with a credit union in Boston area. With their excellent Internet portal, I have found no reason to bank elsewhere. I was not sure if they were offering best possible rates. Checking on Money Aisle kinda proved it. So, why bank elsewhere? Credit unions are also insured by something similar to FDIC. So, you money is safe up to $250,000.
Savings accounts and CDs are fairly safe investments. Safety also comes at the expense of investment returns. Highest possible rates for say 3 year CD are in like 3% APR which is less than annual inflation. So, your money is earning less than inflation. But, if you want the safety of your principle, bank deposits are better.
For long term investors, stock market is still a better place to invest. Agreed that definition of long term has definitely changed over years now. Earlier they said 5-10 years. Now with stocks close to their 12 year lows, probably horizon now is 20 plus years. But, that's ok. Ask yourself if you believe in the basics of capitalism. If you do, then act like a investor and stay put invested in a diversified portfolio of entire US market plus some exposure to international market. Chances are you will create enormous wealth for yourself and your next generation in next 30-40 years. If you want the safety of retaining your principle, then open certificates of deposit and sleep soundly that your $1000 remains as such although today's $1000 may be less than half after few years of 4% inflation.
Cheers!
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Have you ever wondered why geese and many other migratory birds fly in V formation?
They have found that flying in inverted V shaped formation accords birds the best aerodynamic configuration reducing air resistance and getting boost from the wing flapping of birds in front of them. Granted that benefits increase from first row to the last row. First row, there is only one bird. It does not get any other help. Flapping of its wings, helps two birds in the row behind it and so on. So, after a while the leader is tend to get tired. That's when some other bird which was coasting along nicely benefited by all the wing flapping of other birds, replaces the leader and the leader takes the most benefited position to rest and fly with maximum aerodynamic benefits. Pretty smart.
Some birds while flying also make honking noise. That is not random either. It is the sound to encourage each other do their best and help themselves as a group.
If a bird is injured mid-flight, two or more birds accompany the injured bird to safety and recommence their journey after the injured bird recovers or dies. Sometimes they join another flock of birds to benefit from aerodynamics.
It is no wonder that only with such smart tactics, these birds are able to cover thousands of miles from one place to another for migration.
Don't you think we can learn a bit from these birds and make our team work more successful?
Cheers!
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"When I am good, I am very good. But, when I am bad, I am even better."
Hard to get the meaning out of this right away. What can this possibly mean?
One thing that comes to my mind is about people who have our best interest in their hearts. When they are good to us, it feels good. But, when they are bad to us, if we set aside our preoccupation with feeling good all the time, we see that they are better when they are bad. Because they are acting out badly just out sheer frustration of not being able to see us delivering our best. Probably you have had this experience with your best teachers, good mentors etc. They sometimes snap at us. Scold us. Scowl at us. What not....It is easy to get hurt by such behaviors from people we have come to admire and consider as our friends and family. When such things happen, always examine the motives. Chances are, when the fog clears, you see that they still harbor best of best intentions for you and your well being. It is just that their best interests for your well being are coming out that way. They do not intend to hurt you anyway. They may be frustrated that you,despite being very talented, are not living up to your full potential. So, do not move away from them just like that. Try to dig a little deep why are they acting the way they are. Always give benefit of doubt to everyone including someone who you consider as your adversaries. Benefit of doubt is one benefit we should learn to shower lavishly on everyone. It is going to be paid back in multitudes when it comes to you. Like everyone else we feel that everyone should give us a benefit of doubt and listen to what we have to say. So, why should it be any different for other? What goes around, comes around. So does benefit of doubt you give to others.
Cheers!
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Scriptures - such as Bhagvadgita, Bible, Quran etc. - I regard them as user manuals written by God to explain how we should use his marvelous creation called universe.
Common complaint about scriptures - they are hard to understand. Bland to read. Written long while back with scenarios of that day which are not applicable any more. So on and so forth. All in all, scriptures are hard to read, understand and make sense for today's life. Some smart people have written commentaries on major scriptures. Commentaries may be easier to read and understand. It is not a bad idea to read them to begin with so that at least the wisdom of some people can trickle down into us.
Recently read a very inspiring small story in some blog about this very topic. Can't remember the address of that blog. So, if you read it somewhere else, all credit to the original blogger.
Story goes like this. There was an old man who was very pious, religious and spiritual. He always used to read Hindu spiritual classic 'Bhagvadgita'. He used to say that everyone should read Bhagvadgita and that it had solutions to all the problems. He had a young grandson who use to see his grand father always read Bhagvadgita and praise the glory of the Lord. One day, young grandson picked up Bhagvadgita and started reading. Within no time, he got bored. Grandson was a smart young man. But, he could not make sense out of cryptic stanzas and could not see anything useful in them. He told his grand father that he tried reading the Bhagvadgita but he could not keep himself absorbed and got bored because he could not make head or tail.
Grand old man was a smart chap. He pointed to a bamboo basket at the corner and asked his grand son to go out and get water from river in that basket. This bamboo basket was used to haul coal. So, it had accumulated coal residue and become very black inside. Due to black coating inside, it seemed to have no gallery like porous appearance and seemed solid to hold water. Son left with the basket and filled water in that and headed back home. It was a bamboo basket and unlike a solid vessel, all water leaked out of small pores by the time grandson reached home. His grandfather asked son to go back and try it again and again. Diligent grandson tried and tried but every time by the time he reached home there was no water in the basket and it had all leaked out.
Grand son was ready to give up. He was tired of this meaningless exercise. He said so. Grand father now asked grand son to bring that coal basket and asked to see. After having brought water so many times, it was clean now. All the coal black had been washed away. Now it looked like any other bamboo basket. Grand father explained that all though bamboo basket did not hold back any water, the very act of bringing water in it had cleaned the basket nicely. Water had washed away all the coal dirt out of basket.
Moral of the story - when we read spiritual classics whether in original form or as a commentary by some learned men, we are not going to understand all of that. In fact, we may not even understand much of it.But, in the process we start washing away the mental dirt. Our basket starts becoming cleaner and cleaner. We start seeing bamboo basket for what it is. Full of pores from where all the water is escaping. Once we realize that we can either start using a different basket or more appropriately block those holes so that water does not leak out.
When we take to spiritual reading, we are taking the first step. Initial years may mean nothing but cleaning process is going on. After some years of spiritual reading we will start seeing all those pores from where our vital energy is going away. Most common outlets for vital energy are our meaningless pursuits of material happiness, wealth, people etc. We start seeing those clearly. We become alarmed at this colossal waste of our vital energy. We start changing our ways and make sure that we start retaining as much wisdom as possible. That's when we either get a new solid vessel or paint the basket from outside plugging all those pores so that we can retain all the wisdom.
Great little story. That's what I felt when I read it. So, next time spiritual classics start boring you, you can remember this story.
Cheers!
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"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." - Alexander Pope
"Fools rush in...." - I think this is the title of a book which described in gory details what happened during the merger of AOL and Time Warner a few years back. I think it was the largest merger back then. Also a very special one. A new economy company was buying an old economy company. AOL which was only few years old had astronomical valuation due to its stock price which was not anywhere close to earth. With that kind of valuation it was not difficult for AOL to make a bidding for Time Warner which is a large solid brick & mortar company. What followed is a history! That merger like many mergers did not work out. Destroyed billions of dollars worth of market value of combined company. AOL was anyway a dot com company. But, Time Warner was a solid old economy company which got sucked into the madness. It took several CEOs to clean up the mess. Despite all that Time Warner never regained its old stature. Funny thing is that Time Warner, after a few years, had enough. By then it was also clear what was real value of AOL. Reality and common sense prevailed. Some smart heads in the company started seeing AOL part more of a liability than asset. They decided to spin off AOL and be done with it. Thus ended one of the largest corporate jokes of all times.
"Fools rush in" is a great read.
Cheers!
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"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." - Sir Winston Churchill
Honestly, I admire pragmatists more than pessimists, optimists and realists.
As Churchill says above 'pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity.' We do not want to be pessimists.' Optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty' - I am not sure if I buy that fully. What's the point in looking for an opportunity in every difficulty? Even if an opportunity exists in every difficulty, is it worth our time and resources? As they say 'It does not make sense to fight every fire. We probably are better off fighting only those fires that are on our way.' So, I am ok not to become a pessimist but do not want to become a pollyannaish optimist looking for opportunity in every difficulty. More on that later.
Churchill does not speak about two other types of people. They are realists and pragmatists. Realist see it for what it is. Sees opportunity as opportunity and difficulty as difficulty. Sometimes, it is a great quality. That is seeing it for what it is. It helps to take stock of situation. Being a realist is also the necessity for becoming pragmatist.
Pragmatist is my favorite type of person. A person who has right balance of optimist and realist. But, this right balance alone is not enough. Pragmatist takes it one step further. He acts. Acts with capital A. He seizes the opportunity and does away with difficulty. Every difficulty does not require a solution that you have to personally deal with. Many times if you have right resources most of the difficulties can be expensed away. 'If you can buy yourself out of a problem, it is not a problem but just an expense.' Many times dealing problems as expenses is the right thing to do. This is because by trying to deal with every problem in your own signature way requires way too much effort. What is the opportunity cost? What all you could have accomplished while trying to deal with a problem which could have been merely expensed away?
Cheers!
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"Humility is the embarrassment you feel when you tell people how wonderful you are." - Laurence J. Peter
How do you act when somebody praises you? Are you able to maintain your balance and receive the praise with grace? Not seen many people who are able to do so with grace.Some people act as though they did not deserve your praise. Some care less about your praise. They are nonchalant. Some are embarrassed and make you feel guilty. Some immediately start thinking what may be your hidden agenda even if you do not have one.
"It is hard to be loved than to love." I believe same thing holds good for dealing with praise as well. We do not seem to know how to handle praise at all. It is not all our fault. Let's face it. Praise is hard to come by. We are reprimanded or scolded more than we are ever praised. So, we do not get to experience praise as much as we experience other forms of judgment. So, who can blame us if we are not good at something that we do not that often?
It is really a skill to deal with praise showered on us. We certainly want to be careful but should not be very paranoid that everybody who praises us has a hidden agenda. Agreed we have been back stabbed by people who have praised us to get something done from us or just to get some other form of reward. It hurts to realize later that people had some hidden agenda.
When we receive praise with humility it does not necessarily have be an embarrassment. It can be done gracefully as well. Most effective way is to look right into the eyes of the person praising you and say a solid 'Thank you.' Say a genuine 'Thank you' regardless of what you think the motive of the praiser is. Your genuineness only makes the person good if his or her praise is genuine or miserable if they had some other agenda. Let them decide how they want to feel.
See, basically, we do not depend on other people's judgment for our sense of security. Feeling good when someone praises and feeling down when someone else reprimands is not helpful at all. If we depend on others like that, we will be bobbing up and down like a buoy. Where is the sense of balance in living like that? Do not get me wrong. It is not easy. But, if we have to mature as people, we just can afford to let others control us. "No body can offend you or hurt your feelings without your permission." They can say anything they like but making yourself happy or miserable is all in your hands. You do not control the stimuli but you can surely control the response.
Praise or reprimand - let's take it. Both are better than being ignored. "Love me or hate me, I got you. Ignore me, I lost you."
"It is better to be looked over than overlooked."
Cheers!
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"Frugality without creativity is deprivation." - Amy Dacyczyn
In these days of economic problems, 'frugality' has come back in fashion. Everyone is trying to be frugal. Sometimes stupidly frugal. Going several miles off to get gasoline at few cents less per gallon is an example of stupid frugality. Buying items in way too much bulk is another stupid frugality. By buying several items to last for an entire year can result in few thousand dollars up front. That is money locked in without any interest. In the mean time, prices of some of the goods may go down. You may end up throwing away some items if they have expiration dates. Long live stupid frugality!
Desperate times drive people crazy. People who have splurged all along get suckered into all sorts of frugality gimmicks and lose out big.
Why not be frugal all the time? That way hell or high water, your financial situation is always manageable.
It always helps to stay a few steps behind the curve in terms of purchases especially electronic goods. Electronic goods go down in price sharply year after year. Simple example - a decent GPS navigator cost more than $300 in 2005. Now excellent GPS navigators can be purchased for less than $100. Same with iPods, digital cameras etc.
What are the items now selling at premium? iPhone, Kindle, Flat screen TVs etc. Do we need these right away? Nope. Wait for the prices to go down.What is the necessity to keep up with changing technologies? Are the new features in those gadgets must have? People do not use most of the features anyway. For example, Cell phone - as long as you can make and receive calls and access your contact list, that should suffice.What other feature you really need? So, it does not make sense to upgrade. Live with your gadgets for few more years. Rule of thumb - use all your gadgets for 5-7 years before buying a new one.
Cash is king - anytime and all the time. Cash or cash equivalents should be amassed if you need a sense of security. All other items can not be converted into cash easily. But cash is versatile. Cash can get you anything in a minute. Worst case scenario is to make sure you have a few credit cards with a combined credit limit that can cover 5-6 months of your living expenses. This not ideal but last resort.
Also, if you want to be frugal, start shopping online more. First it is easier to compare and shop online. You can find several deals and compare. You do not do much impulse buying online because it takes some time to register with the web site, enter credit card details, provide shipping address etc. These slow you down. If you are lucky, while you are doing all this extra steps, you may decide not to buy the item at all.
You know, they said roof over head, food and clothes are the most basic necessities of life. It has not changed at all. If we can simplify our lives and focus on basic necessities, life becomes simple, life automatically becomes frugal and your money worry goes away automatically. Reducing most of your purchases to basics does not mean that you live a spartan lifestyle. You just need to be creative to make sure you meet your basic needs in style. Have we not all seen people who dress nicely with a limited wardrobe? And there are people with tonnes of clothes but can not seem to have one good pair for Monday morning. Either their wardrobe is full of ill fitting clothes or they have accumulated so many clothes that they can not manage their wardrobe anymore. Once again simplification. Few pairs for work and a few pair of leisure is all you need to keep a tidy wardrobe. What more?
It is simple to be happy. It is most difficult to be simple. One way to simplify is to start eliminating all that you do not need. Hesitate to throw something away? Fine. At least start sorting things out first. Sort all your possessions into two pools. 'Keep' and 'Trash'. After a few months, look into items in both groups and re-evaluate. By then, you must be able to say whether items in 'Trash' are really trash. If yes, get rid of them mercilessly. Simplify, simplify, simplify.
Simplify your paper work. It is mind numbing to see how much paper people accumulate. First step is to reduce the amount of paper work you get. These days most of the service providers happily provide only electronic receipts. Opt in for that. Eliminate paper at the first step. Then for the papers that you must keep, maintain a simple filing system. Few files at most. That's it. If you still feel compelled to have copies, scan your paper documents and get rid of actual paper. As long as you have some sensible way to store soft copies somewhere securely, you are well off on your way to reduce the clutter.
As less you carry in your head simplifies and rejuvenates your brain, so will simplifying everything around you. Somebody said 'renounce and rejoice.' I would modify that to say 'renounce junk and rejoice.'
Cheers!
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"Don't let people drive you crazy when you know it's in walking distance."
Funny indeed. Why would you let anyone drive you crazy? It's really walkable. Life has become like that. You do not need someone else to drive you crazy. You yourself are capable of walking yourself to craziness. They say - idle mind is devil's workshop. On the flip side, I dare to say - occupied mind is God's workshop. Mind occupied with good thoughts and plans for doing something good for the larger humanity is a very fertile ground.
We drive ourselves crazy in many ways. One way is to always think only about you and your needs and wants. This is a surest recipe to make oneself miserable. I agree we all have a life and it does worry us from time to time how the things will be in the future. More bigger and complex your life is, more the worry. How will I pay for this or that? Job? My money? My family? - there is no end. Despite all this, we have to remember that if we want peace of mind, we have to stop or at least reduce how much time we spend thinking about only those things that matter to us. Remember a time when you were free of all worries. There are only two times. One is while you were sleeping soundly like a log. Second is when you were fully occupied doing something you truly enjoy. We are designed in such a way that we truly enjoy those things when we do things that benefit larger humanity.
Not to worry about our life is not meant to say take a fatalistic approach. That is not good either. If required, be genuinely concerned about yourself and your life. Concern results in planning and consequently action. Worry is a serious immobilizing force. Does not let you do anything. It freezes you to death. Anxiety is worry at its worst form.
If not for anything else, stop thinking about only yourself and your needs and wants for your own sake. They have found that people who think only about themselves are prone to all sorts of allergies and minor but debilitating illnesses. Minor aches and irritations are aggravated when our immune system is unnecessarily excited. It anticipates some attack when there is none. Our mind has manufactured some fictitious attacks by its mindless thinking and immune system goes into overdrive and thus results in such symptoms. Simple exercises such deep breathing which provides much needed oxygen to brain cells, thus calming them, goes a long way in reducing such minor irritations. Always remembering to say some simple positive phrase when you are free or doing activities which do not require full attention will also help. Watch those elderly people in rural India. They are always saying the name of their favorite God when they are doing mechanical tasks like doing dishes or their daily chores. Most commonly said is - Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare. You do not have to choose this if you do not like this. You can choose any such simple prayer that works for you. Or you can make one up for yourself. Say it whenever possible. Say it loudly when you can. Say it silently when you can not. Just before you have to switch tasks or stop praying, take a few deep breaths and resume. Keep doing this and watch how it has soothing effect on your nerves. It calms you down before important encounters, it lets you sustain yourself during encounters when you need all faculties to be at their best and calms you down after an encounter.
Cheers!
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"Is there anything worse than being blind? Yes, a man with sight and no vision." - Helen Keller
What an irony it is to have sight but no vision. Where do we go to get our vision? Where else? Back to basics. RTFM - Read the Fine (?) Manuals. God gave us manuals he meticulously put together to use his wonderful creation - this universe. As we do with other appliances, we hardly ever refer to those manuals. It takes extraordinary circumstances to force to even remember that manuals exist. You know - I have come to believe that all the hardships we face are meant to serve as reminders to go back to basics and read those manuals.
What are those manuals? All holy scriptures. Ever since I picked up Bhagvadgita (specifically Sri Easwaran's three volume commentary), I have come to rely on it as my manual. I am no where close to understand even a fraction of wisdom densely packed in that spiritual classic. So, adapting it to daily life is far from anything close to reality. But, one thing is certain, at least when I read it, there are several times, some kind of epiphany happens and at least for a moment some solution seem to appear. It is a different matter that many of us revert to our old behavior. Hopefully we learn from mistakes.
Sri Easwaran said somewhere - we are all busy making 'To Do' list. What we should be focusing on is to make 'To Be' list. What do we want to be? If we can start nailing what we want to be and use that to drive our 'To Do', that will go a long way. 'To Be' is our vision. 'To Do' is a list of steps we need to get to where we want 'To Be'.
Cheers to your visioning!
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"How come we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved." - Mark Twain
Mark Twain quotes are funny. What's new?
However, birth and death are two loaded terms. Most of us do not seem to think much about birth or death. We all remember our birthdays. But, do we think anything more about our birth itself? Not about the biological process. But, birth as an event. What does it signify? Is that a distinct event at all? Or birth and death are imaginary markings on a continuum called life. Time is continuous. Days, weeks, months, years, calendars are all imaginary markings created just so that we can frame time for our convenience.
Engravings on Osho Rajnish's tomb, it is said, read as "Visited this planet between this date and that date." I think that is right. It ties well with another quote "we are not human beings on spiritual journey but spiritual beings on human journey." It is all goes back to the concept of soul. Soul has to evolve from life to life. So, it needs a vehicle. That vehicle is body.
Buddhist philosophy explains concept of soul very beautifully. Although essence is same as the one found in Hinduism. Buddhism has explained it much better. Soul is on a long journey. It is so long that one vehicle is not enough to complete the journey. Every time the soul takes a new vehicle, we are born. After many years of driving that vehicle, vehicle reaches its end life and soul discards the vehicle and that is death. What happens to the soul after death? Buddhists say that soul rests in a resort like place called 'Bardho' waiting for right vehicle to show up. Then comes right vehicle, right circumstances, right parents, right family, right race, right society - all just perfectly right for soul to complete its next leg of the journey. Soul hops on and begins the next life.
This explanation is beautiful.This helps understand why we are the way we are, why are our circumstances the way they are and so on. We have everything perfectly right for us to complete our journey. Since we are not capable of knowing the truth and the whole truth, we may not understand everything but explanation seems to make sense. Right circumstances and right means for right journey. Our problems, worries, hardships are all part of that right combination perfect for our soul to complete journey. At times it may feel very hard but if we have to evolve, all this is necessary and firmly believing that we are perfect the way we are and our circumstances are perfect goes a long way in alleviating suffering that we create for ourselves. That's why it is said -pain is inevitable but suffering is optional.
Cheers!
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"God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages." - Jacques Deval
"Any relationship should be like that between fish and water. Not like fish and fisherman."
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"You must not think me necessarily foolish because I am facetious, nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave." - Sydney Smith
Facetious - this is not a common word. So, needs some explanation. Here is the dictionary meaning of word 'facetious'
1 : joking or jesting often inappropriately : waggish <just being facetious>
2 : meant to be humorous or funny : not serious <a facetious remark>
Once we know the meaning of facetious. The meaning of this quotation is pretty straight forward.
Another quotation to warn us not make judgments based on someone's external appearance or impression.
Some people are by nature very easy going and jolly. Similarly some always keep a serious face. We should not judge jolly people to be foolish and serious people to be intelligent. There is no proof to that.
Regardless, on any given day, I will take a jolly person who can work hard than a person with death like seriousness dancing all over his face. Serious people make things more complicated than they really are. When things start going south, serious people get all the more serious and put the entire team into some kind of depression. Jolly people on the other hand lighten things up with their humor and funny nature.
'If you do not feel good. At least try to look good.'
I always admire people who can laugh things off. It is a real gift. I think jolly people who can laugh at the problems are really philosophical even if they do not realize. Great scriptures say 'life is nothing but a dream that we see while we are awake.' If that's the case, then life should be handled the way we handle dreams. We all have serious dreams. While we are having the dreams, they do seem as real as anything in life. Ask people to watch you while you are sleeping for some days and ask them if they noticed anything. Chances are they tell you they noticed that you were mumbling and doing some gestures with hands etc. Dreams seem utmost real while we are actually having them and our responses are also equally real. In the same way, life is nothing but a dream. We fail to see it that way and that's the root cause of all our problems in life. If we can start seeing life as a dream and start taking it in little lighter vein, all our problems start to look trivial as like the problems we may see in dreams.
Sometimes I feel God makes us dream to teach us this very important lesson. The lesson that life is also a dream. God makes us dream to show that dreams can get as real as we want. Still after all that turning and tossing in sleep, dream remain what they are and last only as long as we sleep. Same is true with life. We are in a different sleep mode and call that life. Learn to treat life as another kind of sleep and dream pattern and you are free.
Cheers!
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