Business to the Buddha

Category: Buddha

  • Terrorism – Silent Majority doesn’t count – Solution please!







    If you are unwell, you cannot think of anything better, do anything better. So it become very important to get well first. If we as a humanity needs to grow, we cannot talk about spirituality in isolation. We have to find a solution to the problem of terrorism. A hungry man should not be taught religion – he needs food, a sick person needs a doctor / medicine.

    I think, In my previous blog the premise was completely incorrect. Fanatic followers of anything do not listen to the argument of others. I was trying to find a solution of Islamic world through the Buddhist teaching. However naive that attempt was, it was a genuine and earnest attempt. Somewhere fundamentalist and even other moderates need to learn from the Buddha.

    I have been thinking about solutions with reference to terrorism. A small guy, sitting in one corner of world wonder how many and who would listen though – yet thinking about a solution! We cannot talk about business, economics, human development or spirituality if we are facing a threat to life on a daily basis. So a solution to terrorism is of paramount importance. For argument sake – lets assume whole world becomes Muslim. The next question will be – which Muslim? Shia or Sunni or Ahmedi? There are 70+ different division of followers of Islam. So don’t you think the next fight would be who is a “True Follower”? Well, the stream of questions would be endless.

    Recently someone sent me a video on whatsapp, it was worth a thought. I can’t corroborate the statistics so I am not commenting on the same. Question is excellent and so is the answer worth introspection.

    The point in this video is – Silent majority does not count. So whoever it is (currently the whole Muslim community) needs to think. The Buddha taught to “question and experiment with everything, once you are convinced accept it otherwise do not”. When I read about the Buddha’s life story I read – he told his followers to even refute and go away if they are not convinced.

    Here Richard Dawkins says the same (the following video was a suggested video when I searched for above video). I am impressed with the point of view of Mr Dawkins (55 sec onwards).

    I know people – specially Muslims friends – will question about what is happening in Myanmar. Muslims are being killed there so is it what the Buddha taught? Well the Buddha did not teach that and Buddhism has no history of violence, lets ask about other religions, does any other religion – except Jainism – has similar roots of non-violence? Certainly Islam spread through violence – Indian history is full of that.

    If you’re a silent majority – in this particular case of Terrorism and Islam – you do not count! Raise your voice and teach your fellow followers what is wrong with them. The whole humanity is at risk who knows these random acts of terrorism will convert into full blown world war and every person will have to take side? Last word – Raise your voice.

  • Paris attacks – Solution please!







    PeaceHow would the Buddha look at the scenario of Paris attack? Or any other terrorist attack? I was wondering with the same sadness and anger as any other person. I twitted also regarding the Paris attack. However, there came an afterthought, what would the Buddha do? How would the Buddha react to such incidents? Well, I cannot think as the Buddha may think. So I started thinking on the basic lessons of the Buddha. There are four noble truths –

    1. There is suffering,
    2. There is a cause of suffering,
    3. There is an end to suffering, and
    4. Sufferings can end if one follows eight fold path

    Everyone agrees, there is a problem of terrorism (suffering). What I think is – The Buddha will approach the problem of terrorism by analyzing it – what is the cause of this suffering. No doubt if there is suffering we can safely assuming there could be an end to it. In this case I believe the Buddha would try to analyze the problem and suggest a solution (as he suggested eight fold path).

    So, I tried searching for possible reasons for Syria issue (I am not touching the terrorist activities of Taliban and Pakistan sponsored terrorist activities for this blog). There were various impacts I tried analyzing such as – why ISIS came into existence? A first level answer to it was Iraq war. Is it really an issue of 2003 Iraq war? Then I read this – You Can’t Understand ISIS If You Don’t Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia so I started questioning on the very purpose of existence of ISIS? I started creating analogy of creation of Taliban (by USA) to fight former USSR and ISIS as one sub-section of Saudi Arabia. I may be completely wrong in the analogy however who gains if the ideology of ISIS gains more ground worldwide? Is it a problem of religious supremacy or political and power struggle? Perhaps it is both – I could not conclude on that with fair bit of confidence. I left the question aside for some time.

    The other side I heard of Syria crisis is power struggle of Shia and Sunni faith of Islam which is contesting of supremacy. Sunni Muslims of Saudi Vs Shia Muslims of Iran are fueling the fight in a third country Syria. So, it is getting more garbled within the religion itself.

    I moved to analyze the other thing – what is the impact of refugees fleeing to Europe? Does Europe need to show that much mercy to the fighting clans? Is Europe responsible for the mess and therefore it is moral responsibility of Europe to provide shelter to the refugees? Or it is economical requirement of Europe to have working hands for its economy? If these 500,000+ refugees are coming to Europe would it impact the religious balance of Europe? I think the growth rate of European Muslim population is already alarming. So, what is the impact? If the impact of this is intolerance and terrorist attack by fanatics, Europe may close the doors to refugees who knows?

    Many refugees are coming to save their lives and other for improved standard of living. The – currently unknown – leaders sitting in their offices / mansions are letting people die (whether a Christian, Jew, Hindu, Sikh or a Muslim) to have a last laugh. All these are “craving” in the opinion of the Buddha. Method for working on these craving can be same (eight fold path) however for each type of craving the approach may differ.

    The question is – would the leaders, refugees and the terrorists follow the path of the Buddha?

    1. Perfect Vision,
    2. Perfected Emotion,
    3. Right speech,
    4. Right action,
    5. Right livelihood,
    6. Right effort,
    7. Right mindfulness, and
    8. Right meditation

    If the answer is even a 1% “NO”, this is what an after thought could be –

    Related Terrorist meets The Buddha.

  • Work is worship







    I was speaking with Fateh uncleji for more than 1/2 an hour. We were talking about many things from Indian politics to my work. When we were to conclude the talk after these long discussions, I told him I called you because I connect with you on spiritual level, I didn’t want to talk about Indian politics, corruption and my work.

    The voice from the other side said – “Work and spirituality live in the backyard of each other” The conviction in the voice was tremendous. I asked “seriously? Is that? It never happened to me.” (I was not sure if it had happened to me)

    When I blog on business to the Buddha – I see the relationship at a macro level. The daily struggles of activities does not make me realize if operationally it is happening.

    The conviction was tremendous. I was puzzled. It was already a long call so we concluded the call. But the resounding words were enough for me to lose my sleep. I felt is it really happening with people? I could not find the relationship at operational level. Am I missing something? Am I missing something in my daily execution? How do I achieve it? What do I do differently?

    As usual, I called Saxena Sir (Dr Anand Saxena, my Engineering college professor), in general and specially to discuss this one sentence – “Work and spirituality live in the backyard of each other”. I have always found that he adds a perspective on my questions; opinions that I never thought. He changes my paradigm of thinking, always.

    I called Saxena sir and told about my meeting with Fateh uncle and my telephonic conversation. When I said “Work and spirituality live in the backyard of each other”, and continued that it has never happened to me as such. He responded without a second’s delay – “Pravin, do you remember the logo of MITS?” [Madhav Institute of Technology and Science is my engineering college where I studied and Dr Saxena was HoD of my Department]

    MITSI responded – “yes of course.” I had the pictures in my mind, snakes and sun, water, it’s easy to remember pictures.

    He asked – “what is written on the logo?” I knew what is written on the logo. I got the drift, because until a second back I was thinking of the pictures on the logo but now I was thinking – “Work is worship.” I understand where he is going.

    It was a very small, straightforward and simple explanation. Saxena sir always surprises me. He makes things look easy, adds a perspective and takes me to a different plane.

    Perhaps, these discussions were very commonplace for you; however these two telephonic conversations made me unclutter myself a bit. There is still a lot of room to do that.

    Saxena sir and I concluded the call. And I questioned myself – am I making things complicated? Is it really too simple? Perhaps.

    That is where the real Business to the Buddha lies. Is not it look so simple? The Buddha also suggested that what he achieved could have been achieved without taking Sanyas. Perhaps that is why he proposed The Middle Path. What is your take?

    Did it occur to you – “Work and spirituality living in the backyard of each other?”

  • Clinging to wealth







    prayer of frogThere have been many Messiah, and many have learnt to have peaceful life because of them. There are many who have learnt violence, the lessons were given and listeners have learnt what “they wanted” to learn. It is up to you what you learn.

    The invention of this story is not to hurt any religious sentiments. Here goes the story.

    A wealthy farmer burst into his home one day and cried out in an anguished voice, “Rebecca, there is a terrible story in town—the Messiah is here!”

    “What’s so terrible in that?” asked his wife. “I think it’s great. What are you so upset about?”

    “What am I so upset about?” the man exclaimed. “After all these years of sweat and toil we have finally found prosperity. We have a thousand head of cattle; our barns are full of grain and our trees laden with fruit. Now we will have to give it all away and follow him.”

    “Calm down,” said his wife consolingly. “The Lord our God is good. He knows how much we Jews have always had to suffer. We had a Pharaoh, a Haman, a Hitler—always somebody. But our dear God found a way to deal with them all, didn’t He? Just have faith, my dear husband. He will find a way to deal with the Messiah too.”

    Source – Prayer of the Frog Vol I and Vol II by Father .

  • Think it over!







    This is a wonderful video. I just got it on Whatsapp thought to share it without any opinion, just watch and ponder, writing anything regarding the thoughts of speaker would make me wander in very many directions. So better just watch it.

    “Oh my god!” Have you ever thought about those things, speaker is speaking?

    This video made me literally say – Oh My God! the topic for LBC (Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium) blog. But I thought that those who can understand must think seriously on what the speaker says. So, I didn’t title this blog – Oh my god. Other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok,  gaelikaa,  Lin,  Maxi, Padmum,  Ramana Uncleji,  Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. This time I was the one who posted very late, do visit blogs of others they must have posted their opinions too.

  • Arrived… where?







    I checked the Whatsapp message, it was Jay Jiju (Jay Phadke my brother in law), my cousin sister’s husband. He had just sent a messagealien-house2 – “I was having lunch with Soham and we were discussing ‘what is home?’ ‘what is school?’ How do you define home/school etc”

    Soham is my nephew – 9 year old. Smart kid and at times grown-up to his age.

    Instantly I could relate his questions to the Book of Mirdad. The following are the lines from the same book

    ‘Happy are the staff-less,
    They stumble not.
    Happy are the homeless,
    They are at home.
    The stumblers only – like ourselves, Need walk with staff,
    The home-chained only, like ourselves,
    Must have a home.’

    Have you ever questioned yourself – what is home? My brother in law’s question of school some other time. Just concentrate on home. Home in day to day words is a place where we stay, live and dwell. We live even if  there is no place to live; we stay anywhere we go and dwelling is in a way dwelling similar to living or thinking about a point. So effectively what is a home? Is it a place where we get peace of mind, feel we have arrived or perhaps every end of day we run to reach there. But have we ever ‘arrived’? Have we ever really ‘stayed’ there? Home is at times a place where we spend some time.

    All these weird thought about arriving, staying et al remind me of The Buddha saying to Angulimala – “I have stopped long back, now it is your turn to stop”. Because even if we think that I have reached home, the exercise of going and than rushing back HOME never ends. Have we really arrived?

    Jay jiju send another message to me later. In this message he said – HOME, relates more to an experience/feeling. That feeling can be achieved at any other place. The point – it seems – is just ‘be’ – remain arrived.

     

  • Convenience or simplicity







    I had just landed from a developed nation back to India. The first experience at Mumbai airport was as usual – Humidity! I came out from the airport and boarded taxi to home. The driver – though driving taxi in Mumbai for about 2 decades – took a longer route. Exposed me to very shabby roads and potholes etc. I reached home to find out that there is some issue in water distribution pipeline of Municipal corporation. Corporation would not do any work until end of the rainy season! Just imagine – there is water all over on roads but not at home. All this made me almost utter to myself – “What the #@%^&*#” you know what I mean?

    Drop meeting OceanThough, this thick skin got in the groove of the problems quickly – actually there was no option :). I told my wife (her name is ‘Simple’) and in a way to myself too – “Simple, during summers, I – as a teenager – used to go about 1/2 KM or more to bring about 50 lts water on my bicycle about 4 times daily. We are far better off now, don’t worry this time will pass. Also, the quality of water we use to flush our toilets is far better than potable water at some places!” The real problem was storing water when our society ordered for tankers. We did not have more than 2 buckets – 15 lts each. When we shifted to this locality we were told there is water 24X7 here, so there was no need either.

    These things connected a number of dots in my mind. I did not write last week about it because of our Independence Day. At times I wonder – how long we (average citizen) will try to save these corrupt politicians in the name of patriotism. Just imagine countries of northern hemisphere have a lot of snowfall, but their roads don’t have potholes, their airport function. Wonder what happens when the temperature is in negative, how does water supply work in there during winters? In India that – too one of the most developed city – in Mumbai we observe – water on runway so flights are delayed, its raining so we wont fix pipeline!

    The other thought was – before my marriage I was more of a nomad total stuff I had with me were my 3 C’s (cloths, consumables and certificates) and 6 carton books. After marriage I started buying required things e.g. a bike, washing machine and fridge. Now, when we faced water shortage I realized this list will grow and the things we will own will include things we never imagined we will buy. One is here – water container. Now, next time if I get robbed – read what happened last year – and this water container is missing I know someone needs it more than I do and municipal corporation is responsible for this.

    These seemingly different points – comparison of India & other countries and my owning up things (at times having limited usage in my life) made me think about convenience and living life with simplicity. The water container was a requirement, which sooner or later may not be. I have learnt – from Mahavir and the Buddha – “no hoarding, no stealing etc. They taught that we have forgotten, we will leave everything here but still we want to own stuff.” Now, I am calling all those things written above as – “convenience”, “required to make life easier”. But how long we would keep on mending the definition of convenience?

    This blog relates to LBC (Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium) blog topic but not exactly the same – simplicity. Other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok,  gaelikaa,  Lin,  Maxi, Padmum,  Ramana Uncleji,  Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. This time I was the one who posted very late, do visit blogs of others they must have posted their opinions too.

  • Love







    Note – This blog was initially drafted on Oct 16th 2011 and was incomplete. The author thinks – however – that love is never incomplete.

    I have heard that “I” cease to exist in Meditation. I was thinking about it and heard a song on radio – Jane kyun log mohabbat kiya karte hai?… English translation of the title of the song is “I do not know why people fall in love?” ‘I don’t know’ is implied here. It’s a sad song from Bollywood Movie Mehboob ki mehndi staring Rajesh Khanna and Lina Chandavarkar as leads. I’ve heard this song umpteen number of times since childhood but I don’t remember watching this movie. No doubt Music by duo Laxmikant & Pyarelal is very good, lyrics from Anand Bakshi are to the point in many sense and Lata Mangeshkar cannot go wrong with single note ever. The song might fit in situations of many people’s life; therefore a very famous song of that time.

    These two things collided in mind – meditation & ceasing of ego, and love. The thoughts went in the direction love and analyzing the song. As a student of Hindi language I read different nature of love; but when I did image search on Google for LOVE, I saw either girl / boy or similar concept. Wonder what is the difference between lust and love in such search result. I searched on net for the Hindi lessons we learnt as student and found these 5 nature of love (read more here) –

    1. Santa-rati (reverence, neutral)Love Quotes
    2. Prita-rati (service)
    3. Preyo-rati (friendship)
    4. Vatsalya-rati (parental)
    5. Madhurya-rati (conjugal, sexual)

    What I learnt as student and what I get on Google made me think even further, for example check in the above quote image which I found randomly on Google Search. However good this quote sounds but there are points to ponder 1. we have “I” & 2. some result gets some importance! Love if it binds (forget blinds), makes one get attached to someone or something. This definition of love which binds or outcome becomes important is a problem. We have more ownership issues with love. Then whatever type of love – as mentioned above – that is a trouble. Love is an entanglement – a wonderful entanglement but an entanglement. Read more on entanglement here – Entanglement of an undergarment.

    I was thinking about the song (Jane kyun log mohabbat kiya karte hai?…) – and the way it represents the pain one goes through in love. At the same time, I was thinking about existence of ego – I.  I questioned myself – If the ego does not cease to exist in love, is it love? In a simple sentence “I love you”. I shows ego, you shows – you are separate from me. So, if both these words stay in the sentence is there any meaning of the word – LOVE?

    Than I remembered a quote from The book of Mirdad – (My blog on the same, The Book)

    ‘Less possessing – less possessed.
    More possessing – more possessed.
    More possessed – less accessed.
    Less possessed – more accessed.’

    Net net I thought – if love causes you to own someone / something, that is a problem and yes there is a relationship between Love and Mediation. Than I read this quote by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar “Love is not an emotion, it is your very existence.” If love is actually our existence, than I think “I” ceases to exist when someone is in true love, isn’t it?

    Image source – http://www.picturequotes.com/every-moment-spent-with-you-is-like-a-beautiful-dream-come-true-quote-16541

  • Gratitude by coincidence







    I had to make a decision, however stupid it sounds while reading, but these small decisions in Mumbai’s roads full of traffic are key decisions. The decision was – should I take Mahim or Sion route? I was in Dadar west, traveling on my nondescript two-wheeler to Tilak Nagar, while driving back home from South Mumbai. This kind of decision making happens every day with many people in Mumbai; I’m sure it must be happening daily with many people in many cities across the world.

    You know, if one has to travel only 12 km (~8 miles) and it takes more than 45 mins – these small decisions of taking one road over the other can help you save about 10-15 min. These small decisions also save the headache of braking, accelerating and abusing few people on your left, right and ahead. So, I decided to take Mahim route instead of Matunga-Sion road. At first it sounds ok what is so great in this? This decision resulted in a small incident which taught me a lesson on gratitude.

    Mahim Sion roadSo, I took the road and was at a junction waiting for our signal. A boy in a school uniform reached me and asked “Uncle can you please drop me at Dharavi depot?” I said why not. He sat on the pillion seat.

    Since the kid was in uniform so I asked him – “which class you study in and in which school?” He said he is in 10th. For a class 10 student he looked too young. I initially thought he must have been in standard 7 or 8 when I offered him lift. Anyways. For school he said – “I study in SSRVM, Dharavi.” I know SSRVM school (why read it here), but he felt I might not be aware so he said its – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Vidya Mandir, Dharavi. I told him that I know the school. I asked him who is your teacher? He said “Renu Deva”. I dropped this kid near Dharavi Depot. The kid thanked me. He went on his way, I on mine, yet my mind was traversing the decision of taking Mahim route.

    I never thought that this may happen. I never thought that I would offer a lift to a kid. Let alone he being a student of SSRVM and on top of all this – the kid being a student of Renu Didi. When I shifted to Tilak Nagar I started going to weekly follow-up of art of living in Chembur where Renud Didi is a regular teacher. Renu Di is  a teacher in SSRVM too. It was a big coincidence for me.

    I was moving towards my home, my mind was not willing to move on. I was feeling a great sense of gratitude. How and why of the emergence of this gratitude in beyond me. The kid was thanking me, however I thought I should have thanked him. He might have got lift from someone else, but I reached there. We started a conversation which ended up in me thinking about Guruji (Sri Sri). Sometimes some things are beyond explanation. If you understand the feeling of gratitude for the kid and for the master (Sri Sri), you know what I am saying.

    The master sees it all. Many a times the “Thank yous” are meant for the other side – that is perhaps gratitude!

  • This and That







    When you see me as different from you, you get into the idea of “This” and “That”. When there is an “Me” and “other” there is a question of “This” and “That”. In Indian philosophy we call it dvait (द्वैत) or duality. There is a whole philosophy in India on duality – Adwait Vedanta. I am neither an expert nor have I read much about the vedanta so I wont be commenting on those lines.

    crossroadsWhen Maria suggested this topic, I felt this is a unique and interesting topic. However, my line of thought did not go beyond the Indian philosophy of Adwait Vedanta. The mind suddenly moved to “free will” and choices when This Vs that came to my mind.

    Are we really free to make choices? Science may suggests now that our perception of free will is a kind of illusion. Perhaps, in future we would prove with big data analytics that there is no free will. I am sure we can do this with analytics as I have been involved with analytics on various levels and have personally seen what decision and output we may get when it is rightly done. So how a person would react in given situation may be predictable and the choice of “This and That” may not be the “choice” actually. Our choices are influenced by what we have been exposed to, how our mind is conditioned. I think a game of chess can explain how we make decisions – we make one decision and if that works we may say this was right. If that decision fails we may say the other option we skipped would have been better. [relevant blog here]. So the free will of This and That makes us rational individuals but that rationality is also under question.

    I love how the Buddha has put things across for such kind of situations. Free will seems to be an illusion – “Go meditation”. Free will is not concerned with you. Does God exist? “Go meditation” that question is irrelevant. Though I am not Buddhist (This) nor I am staunch Hindu (That) or follower of any other religion as such but somehow I love the way The Buddha has explained his line of thought. It is “This” and “That” together – Interdependent co-arising.

    This topic was suggested by Maria, for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently nine of us write on the same topic every Friday.  I hope that you enjoyed my contribution to that effort.  The seven other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Ramana Uncleji, Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too!

    Image source – https://pixabay.com/en/crossroads-signpost-directions-wood-303896/