Business to the Buddha

Category: Buddha

  • Farewell 2016







    Wish you a Very Happy New Year.

    Cherish the moments you enjoyed and learn from the mistakes made – that he how we must move on in life and celebrate. Isnt it? The year 2016 was eventful. Every year is eventful though New Year blog 2016, New Year blog 2015, New Year blog 2014, New Year Blog 2013, New Year blog 2012, New Year blog 2011  😉

    Terrorism – There is a new common for the world – terrorism – so that was as usual, religious extremism has not only kept its target India but added Europe to it. These apparently look like some unorganized terrorist attacks, but the end of many of these thread is common. The list is not small – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents,_2016 We need to ask ourselves – when are we going to be “human” behave like humans? Did we learn anything from this in 2016? In fact I wrote this and heard 2017 has started with terrorist attack in Turkey! Waste! These good for nothing parasites on the face of earth do not understand what nonsense they are involved in, if some religion teaches this that is not a religion at all.

    Business & Economics – There were few big developments in the year, first UK voted to leave European Union, second Wells Fargo of US was found out to be involved in a big scandal and third India demonetized high denomination currencies. Here is a wonderful Ted Talk on UK’s vote to leave EU.

    Wells Fargo scandal has no lesser words for taking strict actions against the high, mighty and decision makers who looked for Q-o-Q results and made up books, profits and rewards the culprits. You must watch this video to know how

    Demonetization in India shook many within India, and to utter surprise three others countries planed to follow suit – http://qz.com/867724/three-countries-across-three-continents-after-modis-india-demonitisation-has-spread-to-other-countries-too/

    What banks did post demonetization in India must be a subject matter of scrutiny same as Wells Forgo in the US.

    Another battle happening currently in India is Tata group Vs Cyrus Mistry (the story is yet to unfold fully in 2017). As of 10th Dec 2016 (source), Investors of Tata group have lost about Rs 81,000 crore (810 Billion INR) in seven top Tata group companies since October 24 as Mistry was replaced by Ratan Tata as Tata Sons chairman.

    Politics – Donald J Trump the next President of USA. It was most surprising and unthinkable when campaigning started last year. I wonder if what inspired Trump was mockery by Obama in white house in 2011.

    Corruption – There was enough and more hue and cry about Panama papers. Corruption of many rich people worldwide. What is Panama papers? Watch the following video to know more. We must ask each one of these filthy rich people – what would they get by making, hoarding and rolling so much money all over the world? Remember we all leave everything here, including the wealth.

    Somethings caught my eyes, were AT&T’s acquisition of Yahoo, LinkedIn’s by Microsoft and the phenomenon called Pokemon Go! https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/11/crunch-report-pokemon-go-mania/
    Pokémon Go added $9B to Nintendo’s value, global rollout continues within a week
    Pokémon Go has an estimated 7.5M U.S. downloads, $1.6M in daily revenue within a week
    Will 22K people turn up to catch Pokémon in San Francisco and what less – Robbers target Pokémon Go players in Missouri.

    What all these events have taught us? Humanity is important than a religion and terrorism. Globalization needs a perspective of interdependence at times we need to let go of some control, at times be need to think of inclusion. Every company has to be responsible, whether its Wells Fargo or Tata group. Never mock anyone, even if you are the president of the worlds most powerful, economically strong country. You will leave your wealth here only, pay your taxes instead of evading it. Legitimate money will make you and your money more respectable and in the end you would leave your body too here, wont take anything back with you. If you are doing something, put your heart and soul in it, make it awesome like the Pokemon Go!

    This was LBC topic for farewell to 2016, I am late, was bit occupied with a preparation for a workshop on IPR held yesterday 31st Dec. You can read other blogs of other Loose Bloggers Consortium members at Ramana Uncleji and Shackman.

  • Resonance







    We were sitting in chairman’s room of a big corporate house. He had gifted me a signed copy of a book written by his family member – the book was related to work, spirituality and family life. I wish I had met the author once, because the book is on aspects of life which I am exploring. The book has a straightforward message similar to Bhagvat Geeta – work is worship and how to achieve a content life even after being fully involved with material world. I had been writing for close to 6 years now on spirituality and business, this was the first time I had met a Chairman of a successful and listed company who spoke so eloquently on spirituality.

    During our discussion I asked him, how does he balance spirituality and work? How can he pass on the message of spirituality to his line managers, executioners’ et al? This question was in my mind because when a person has basic needs fulfilled (shelter, food & clothing) then only he/she may think of higher pursuit in life. So, it sounds tough to send the message of spirituality, work, and growth and still balance in life to those who are struggling to make ends meet, isn’t it?

    His response was pretty interesting. He asked me – “Have you studied Physics?” I said yes. He continued – “So you must be aware of resonance” He further added, “we all are made of same energy. So laws of physics apply to all of us. If someone reaches the resonance frequency of source (s)he starts resonating on the frequency. It does not require for an object to know physics to resonate on its natural frequency, isn’t it? This is how message has to be communicated; this message does not require reading books spirituality, if environment is conducive person learns. That is how the message goes to every level.”

    It was interesting to speak with him, he spoke about business, spirituality and added another dimension to my thinking – science! Even if a person is atheist, the natural law of physics will apply to him; gravitational force will pull him down, right? That is how spirituality is, it does not differentiate. Spirituality is the science which is essence of everything, even if one believes or follows any religion.

    I believe when more and more people become spiritual, the organizations and economy will take a more interesting turn worldwide.

    PS – What is resonance? Every material has its natural frequency of oscillation. Once another object oscillating in same frequency comes near this material, the material starts oscillating or comes into vibrational motion.

    Note – this is more than a year old article published after modification.

  • Lady’s Finger Recipe






    Nope, this post is not about how to make, it is inspired by a grandma making Lady’s Finger.

    When I was in schools, my brother once told me for the subject of history that I did not like – “You have to study it irrespective of your choice. Our system is such that to graduate to the next grade you have to pass each subject, even if you don’t like or enjoy one subject. So better be sincere for the subject, forget scoring well in that at least get passing grades.” After that he added – “Do not think too much about liking or disliking the subject just give it some time to sink in. Just study it do not be feverish about it.”

    This was a good start for some of the things I did not like. It does not mean I enjoyed taking every subject sincerely. I never enjoyed History as a subject, until I had to pass the subject upto grade 10 (include English language upto 12th). Reading anything on history later on was interesting though. There was no pressure to “passing” the subject anymore, no need to remember anything. This point made me somewhat more sincere to “what I did” and somewhat in learning rather than the grades. Well, it still does not mean that I became a great student – I was just an above average student. After all these exercises, I learnt one thing – put some efforts, dedicate time and energy to what one is doing. Sincerity and dedication were two takeaway words from there. The lesson is on and off with me.

    My wife is always interested in cooking new stuff. She keeps on learning new dishes and experiment with those. Recently, she was watching ‘Lady’s Finger Recipe’. Out of curious I too started watching the video with her. To my utter surprise, the cook was not working in a high profile kitchen. It was some open space, not on a good quality burner, but on a chulha, an open air temporarily made fireplace. The first glance made me even more curious. I started watching the recipe. What made me stuck to the video was the dedication of the cook.

    I and my wife spoke to each other – wow! She is so content, no pressure of running to office after cooking food and packing it in tiffins. No pressure of cooking, dinner, washing utensils and sleeping to get ready for the next day either. She looks so peaceful making this. This kind of devotedness one needs to be happy in life, isnt it? No worries of getting passing grades and dislike for doing what you are doing.

    This kind of work ethics remind me of meditation. Work does not remain work, it becomes a prayer.

    Isn’t there a lot of learn from grandma in this small 8 min video?

    Related blogs – Truth is something you really do.

     

  • My Favorite Fictional Character







    Have you ever thought about fiction and reality? Fiction is something untrue, made-up or imaginary. How can I say that the Buddha or Krishna or Jesus was someone who actually walked the face of earth. Is it a possibility that these were imagination of someone? This thought puts me to another thought, what if I myself am is some imagination and a reality is somewhere, something else.

    Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world? Morpheus The Matrix

    What makes something real? Is it because I think, see, feel (perhaps smell or hear) and my mind makes me feel that this is something real because I can sense it? Or something is real because it exist without someone’s ability to sense it or no. Take an example of light – we cannot see light beyond a certain frequency range. Does it make the light non-existent?

    These questions remind me of a very interesting movie – The Matrix.

    “…The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth…”

    I have had a couple of Morpheus in my life to teach me. I have written about almost everyone on this blog. I would want to be Morpheus too, for someone or few in future. I love the character of Morpheus from The Matrix the most. Morpheus is a believer, he courageous. The best part is, the kind of confidence Morpheus has in Neo, it makes me feel that I want to be Neo too. Laurence Fishburne played the role so well that I keep on watching his teachings (dialogs) whenever I feel I should. There are a lot of learnings in those dialogs – “Do not think you are, KNOW you are.” I have written on the movie (red pill) earlier too. I was so fascinated with the movie that I used to tell people that I am fine being a spot-boy for the movie – alas I am in India :(. The movie is so philosophical and spiritual to me that I repeatedly watch it.

    Instead of me talking (writing), I would want to share some videos of the movie (Youtube), not sure about the copyright permissions there.

    I see many of my teachers in Morpheus – they are indeed my Favorite (they are real) human beings, this blog post is dedicated to all of them. This was the title of this weeks Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium. Con You can read other LBC bloggers thoughts here – Rummuser and Shackman.

  • Free will







    I was watching this link of Time magazine – 100 photos of all time. These are 100 photos that are kind of defining in our recent past. These photos include photo from first man on moon and Mohammad Ali winning against Sonny Liston to Tank man (China democracy demand of late 1980s) to other atrocities based photos et al. These photos also include photos of AIDS victim, Somalia, burning monk & Terror of war (Vitenam war) and black power salute (against discrimination in the USA).mahatma-vs-hitler

    After watching all these pictures, I could think of one thing – choice is always ours – should be dream of man to be on moon, or be a winner of games or winners of the games with demanding the respect a community deserves which the sports person belongs to. The choice is always ours if we want to demand peace, prosperity, development and compassion.

    Choice is always ours – to be the Mahatma or Mushroom Cloud creator Over Nagasaki. This is “free will”.

    Everything is perfect in this world (authors old blog post 🙂 the world is imperfect), only thing is we need to change our perspective. The choice is ours – if we want we can see beauty of the chaos or the order also seems meaningless & confusing.

    Whenever we talk about Free will, question of fate crops up. Concept of free will applies to our industries too – global warming and environmental damages are representation of our free will. The fate of our coming generation is at the cost of our present free will. This is why the emphasis on Business to the Buddha. I remember in one old talk by Guruji (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar) somewhere when he said – “All your past was your fate (Karma), all your future is free will.” Interesting, isnt it? There is a balance. So always choice is yours – take current action (free will) such that your fate (karma) becomes good for you.

    This week’s Loose Bloggers Consortium blog was titled – Free Will. I have written a couple of times on this title earlier too, read them . You can read other LBC bloggers thoughts here – – Rummuser and Shackman.

  • Everything is ephemeral







    Water was boiling, I stared at it for a while, brought sugar and tea powder. We make tea/coffee rarely at home, mostly on weekends. Soon I was adrift with many thoughts and boiling water started evaporating. I quickly added more water to the kettle, added sugar, tea powder and grated some ginger. Again the same oblivion cropped in. This time around the thoughts were about effervescent boiling water into steam vapors. So suddenly water was lost everything the kettle was empty. I could add more water here, how about us? We die!

    [Tweet “Whatever has a beginning has an end too.”]

    Drop meeting OceanOur life – similarly – is also ephemeral. You take a lot of time to understand and by the time you feel you are getting a hang of it, it is over! Wonder how many people even get to understand or even give it a try to understand. Though I am not an expert, but think about life. At times when I see no clue, it comes in mind as if the end (death) itself is the ultimate truth when everything of what we perceive as “reality” ends. Perhaps there is some meaning beyond these perceptions. When we hear enlightened masters, they say everything is “here and now”.

    When a person dies, does the world become useless for him/her or the person become worthless for the world? The question was weird going through this little mind. The other point in this small complicated thing was with so transitory life, we have so many things to be proud (arrogant) about. I ranked this, I did that great thing, increased revenue by X% and traveled around so many places. In fact the Indian postulate on life/death is, we come back – rebirth. That is even more interesting, convoluted and thinks of even higher mind.

    In all these thoughts, the tea was ready, thankfully this time around I was bit alert. I poured it in cups. We sat on the dinning table sipping our tea. You know this cup of tea will end soon. At times it happens such that by the time you are aware that this tea was awesome, it is over! Whatever has a beginning has an end too – the Buddha said it. It is true, be it being a Chairman of Tata Groups or a note of 500/1000 rupee in India. How long can one hold on to position? How long can the currency keep its value? Everything changes with time, some end some improve some extinct. Why worry? If things are improving why interfere? There were hiccups in Infosys recently, it looks like it is going back on track. One shouldn’t be too attached to anything. My water evaporated, my tea finished in some time. The currency notes of 500 and 1000 are out! Instead of attachment or being possessive one must know that things are evanescent, life is ephemeral, if something has a beginning, it surely will have an end too.

    [Tweet “Flow is the name of life, stagnation is end.”]

    Flow is the name of life, stagnation is end.

    All this rambling started with boiling water of tea, ended up at Tata group and currency notes of India. The tea was over, but thoughts were not. Though I could add water in my boiling kettle, whats the use of adding more water in our life?

    We witnessed end of currency notes, we see people dying, but unfortunately we keep on thinking that we are immortal. My question is, if we accepted that “I will die some day”, what next? What we should search for, what we should strive for? What is the quest? What is that, that keeps one up at the night, and pushes you out of bed every morning? What is that?

    Sadhguru on Things We must do every Morning


  • Broken pail







    Once upon a time in India, there was a farmer – Ram. In those days there were no facilities of having water in nearby areas. So, Ram used to go long distance to bring water for farming. He used to tie one pail (Ghada in Hindi) each on two corners of a stick and used to take it on his shoulders to the nearest water body. He used to fill these pails and bring them back to his farm.

    FarmerOne of the two pails was broken and Ram was poor so he wouldn’t afford to buy new one. He used to fill both the pails but by the time he is back, the broken pail used to get empty. It kept on happening for long time. The other pail used to feel proud of himself.

    These were old times, when non-living things too used to have sentiments – now even humans seem to have lost the emotions. Much to his chagrin, the broken pail used to feel because it is broken, Ram’s efforts get wasted.

    Once, out of compassion, the broke pail told to Ram – yes those were the days when people could hear murmur of non-living things too. Alas we dont listen to ourselves and fellow human beings – “I feel bad for you that I am broken and your hard-work goes in vain when by the time you reach home, I am empty. I am sorry for that.

    Ram too felt bad for the pail, however he said to the pail – today When we come back with water, look around en-route, there are a lot of flowers dont worry about water.

    The pail followed, there were a lot of different colored flowers with many different fragrances. it was happy seeing the flowers allover the route. When the famer reached his farm the broken pail was empty. Pail again felt sorry for loss incurred by Ram because of him. He again asked for apologies to him.

    Ram laughed this time around, he said to the pail. You know what? Those flowers exist because of you, I know you are broken, and water spill out of you all over the route. Knowing this I had put seeds of the flowers in the route. These flowers have made the road beautiful. People pluck the flowers to confer it to gods during prayers. You are broken but see, this helped a lot of people.

    —

    In my innovation consulting engagements, we used to talk about – utilization of available resources. This was a good example of utilization of resource. Can you learn from Ram how to utilize the shortcoming of his resource to his benefit, or society’s benefit?

    Is it the case of strategic decisions – get rid of loss making or less profitable business and utilize the resources on other higher RoI projects? Does our Farmer in this case looks like Mr Ratan Tata?

    No, no, I have my opinions on the corporate (mis)governance, recent development in Tata group and Mr Dholakia of Shri Ram Krishna Exports. I hope to write on these some other time.

    Source of this Jataka Tale – http://www.hindisoch.com/jataka-tales-in-hindi/  (translated with freedom by KRD Pravin)

    Image source – http://mindry.in/blog/2011/05/29/civil-society-asks-government-to-acquire-highways-and-make-them-arable-lands/

  • Religion Vs Spirituality







    There is nothing as “versus”, there is no fight. It is always “and”, togetherness a company. It is our perception that creates this division. My first impression on the title “Religion Vs Spirituality” was this. This was the title for last week’s LBC (Loose Bloggers Consortium) topic. You can read other LBC authors opinions here – Rummuser and Shackman.

    spirituality-vs-religionIt was a Diwali weekend so I came home and thus the delay. Wish my readers a very happy and prosperous Diwali and hope you inhaled less polluted air this Diwali.

    The title for this week was interesting, I met my art of living teacher Dr Shrikant Agashe; and asked him how he would define religion and spirituality. His answer was very clear and straightforward. He said – “There is some Truth, what that is, one does not know. Spirituality is experimenting and finding the Truth without getting biased; religion is accepting a path which is suggested by others with faith (and with perhaps assumptions) and trying to fine the same Truth.” In a way there is less opportunity of trials and exploration in religion whereas spirituality is full of experiments.

    I went on a very different line to define spirituality and religion. Excuse me for my words but this is how I defined it – Spirituality is like love and religion is like sex. There can be sex without love, but love has every flavor beyond sex too. Spirituality is like love, it can exist without religion. Spirituality is the essence of our existence wither religion exists or no.

    I reviewed couple of websites on evolution of religion and came to understanding that the Abrahamic religion (Christianity, Jews and Islam) and Eastern religion (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism et al) started / started evolving / documenting the teachings about 2500 BCE. What is a religion? It is “a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally followed by its followers”. In the end, what remains or leads religion to the end is spirituality.

    According to some sources religion word is originated from Latin religare which means “to bind”, again a Latin words religio which means obligation or bond. This makes religions to be exploited such as present day terrorism is mostly based on interpretation (or misinterpretation) of Islam. There are religions that are no less than businesses. In many cases religion is distorted to such a level that it seems more of an organized crime. Thus, to sane people it becomes more important to either not get bound to the religious dogmas or experiment and find out own’s interpretation, way of life or truth.

    My take – The religion binds makes things (rituals) as obligations whereas spirituality liberates. That is where we may say versus. Yet, religion is a set of path followed by many (and suggested by some masters) towards spirituality towards liberation.

    Image source – SlideShare

  • How can I be liberated?







    The business of “I” is unique. We think that it relates to “me” but that the catch-22 situation. Whenever, I say this word “I” it reminds me of two consecutive chapters of The book of Mirdad. Mirdad is unique as his book, On one page he says – don’t use the word “I” it is forbidden word on the Noah’s ark; on the very next page he says “I” is the most creative word” (it is source and center of all things).

    When we say “I” it is largely the Ego talking, whereas when Mirdad says “I” (the creative word) it is the source of and frobuddhapixabaym the creator of the world. The question is – “Is ego ‘purpose of existence’ or a problem?”

    Here is what The Buddha told Sariputta on the same.

    ————————-

    Sariputta came to Buddha.

    He asked Buddha, “How can I be liberated?”

    Buddha said, “Do not come to me, go elsewhere – because I cannot liberate you, I can only liberate you from this ‘you’.”

    Buddha said further, “‘I’ is never liberated. One is liberated from the ‘I’. So if you are looking for your liberation, go somewhere else. But yes, if you want liberation from yourself, you have come to the right place. I will make you free from yourself. So do not ask how you will be liberated. You will not survive in your liberation. You should ask how to be free from this ‘I’ – how to be liberated from this ‘I’.”

    ————————-

    Liberated from what? If the “I” is dropped, the question ends, isn’t it!

    We can at most get attached to the actions we do, not the results. That is why I write about myself – “I’m passionate about my work and actions and empathetically careful, attached and committed to them.” Experts (read Lord Krishna) suggests do not even get attached to the actions! That is difficult, just imagine how difficult it is to detach from the “I”.

    Source – Osho, Finger Pointing To The Moon, Image source – Pixabay

  • Neighbors, festivals and social animals







    “You know Atharva plays tabla very well.” She asked who is Atharva? Well this would have been a question few days back had I not attended our building’s society function recently. In Mumbai we are so busy, with our mobiles while walking, watching TV at home or with our daily chore that we hardly know our neighbors.

    Ritesh, our neighbor 12 year old kid, is a very good dancer. I bet she didn’t know that either. I watched him dance in the same function.It is not her fault, we do not get much time to interact with the community either.

    Almost for last so many years my perception of Ganesh utsav or Navratri used to be a lot of noise, drunk people, small time politicians making few bucks etc bad stuff. I never thought about these functions as a social gathering. The new area where we shifted after our marriage changed a lot of my perceptions. Two year back, I wrote on Ganesha festival, now my opinion has changed considerably. I watched not only people preparing for the festival sincerely but also saw it as an opportunity to provide kids a platform to perform. We may argue about devotion, blind faith and the pollution however, if we look positively eye we can see a lot of good things in these festivals. (If the video is slow to load Watch here)

    When was the last time when you danced with your neighbor or an acquaintance on road or in a community hall? Forget with any neighbor, when was the last time you danced yourself in your drawing room? We are so busy with our jobs and social responsibility that we need special occasion for that. In fact we miss attending those special events too. Yes, I am talking about Navratri. Navratri is the time when 3X condoms are sold in Gujarat (Source – thatspersonal.com check research slide 12), but the same is a festival of music and dance too. My perspective has moved from condoms to music and dance.

    Holi used to be a dreadful festival for me, I am afraid of those chemicals. I am dislike of the dirty ways it is played now a days. However, when I try to think of how it would have been in past, it reminds me of an Indian movie – Utsav. It feels good that this festival bring everyone together.

    My opinions are changing – of course with riders – but now I see these festivals with more acceptance. In India we have reasons or occasions to celebrate everything. This everything includes start of each season. I think that was the way Indian society tried bringing the whole community together. Wonder if our society had realized that a time would come when people would just cross each other without looking (bothering to look) at each other. We need an invitation to talk too – Tube chat, however bad it feels, but we must mend our ways sooner. This is the case in Indian metro cities too, we fight for seats in local trains or in buses rarely speak with each other while commuting, except long distance local train commute where the network is very strong.

    We are social animals and will behave like that. We not only will be on social network to be social but also will be around real people to be social.

    Happy Dusserha

    “Neighbors” was last week’s LBC (Loose Bloggers Consortium) topic, I couldnt write last week due to personal commitments and truth is last week I didnt have idea to write on this topic. Read thoughts of other two regular LBC authors – Rummuser and Shackman.

    Video source – Scroll.in