Business to the Buddha

Category: Business to Buddha

  • I’d Rather Be







    The topic is esoteric for me. If I can just “BE” I would just want to “be”. Unfortunately until my mind runs round I would keep on BEcoming rather than just being someone/somebody.

    I am a wanderer, not physically as much but yes the mind does not stay at one place. You can check – I have found relationship between spirituality and business. I have written how technical methodology (TRIZ) can be associated with business. These are signs of just-be-597091_640my hyper active (rather wanderlust) mind. Can I just “be” – if yes I would just “BE”.

    A final thought – how about BEing the Buddha? The Buddha of this age?

    This topic was suggested by Shackman, 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 eight other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Rummuser,  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 – http://pixabay.com/en/just-be-being-i-am-existence-597091/

  • Left Vs Right economics







    [Tweet “The problem with economic analysis is – it is always dependent on me Vs you or internal vs external. Would we be able to see a view where the analysis is done on a single monolith?”]

    https://images.duckduckgo.com/iur/?f=1&image_host=http%3A%2F%2Fcarolynbaana.files.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F06%2Fbalance_scale.jpg&u=https://carolynbaana.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/balance_scale.jpgI was reading an article which states that leading economists are now tilting towards left centric economic practices. Just to give you a perspective – There was a time when governments tried to reduced its control on many fronts such as reduced taxes, regulations and privatization et al. This resulted in perceived Free-Market and growth. At times I wonder growth for what? And growth towards where?

    [Tweet “At times I wonder growth for what? And growth towards where?”]

    Flashback to 2005-2008 – When these activities went berserk we saw financial crisis one after the other, we can blame that some were more created than “systemic risk” as the “experts” call it. Recession of last decade was an example of the same. Until things were going great everyone was saying it works, suddenly something went wrong and everything crumbled. Alan Greenspan who was at the center of last decades recession stated this – “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.” He further said – “I really didn’t get it until very late”.

    Fast forward to 2012 onwards – we are seeing economists are talking about left centric economic practices.

    The problem with economic analysis is – it is always dependent on me Vs you or internal vs external. Would we be able to see a view where the analysis is done on a single monolith?

    If we do the same mistake (of leaning too much towards the left) which was done in 80’s (leaning too much towards the right) when more laissez-faire capitalism was proposed, these activities of leaning far right to far left will end up being into a pendulum kind of moment. We would see more recession or other social challenges.

    My opinion of Economics is – learning about the sentiments, action and effects of individuals (micro-economics) and groups (macro-economics) to create theories. These theories will replicate how the world is likely to behave. In proposing some theories we state – “everything being equal”, “rest of the things being constant” etc. However as we move on the irrationality of human / group activities take place. These irrationalities will always be there when economic theories of complete left or complete right are applied. The irrationalities will be more troublesome (as the case we saw in last few decades) if one sided approach of economics are utilized. The irrationalities can be reduced (managed) by approaching the economics in more centralist way – The middle path.

    Should there be a way to reduce the causes of irrationality?

    What I wrote earlier here [blog – cause…]- The macro problems I wrote above, can be solved when we start solving micro problems, it is collective wisdom which would play a major role when we are individually wise.
    Image source – http://carolynbaana.com/2012/05/01/defining-balance/ searched via http://duckduckgo.com

  • Dreaming big







    cliparti1_dream-clip-art_04.jpgI was just turning a teen, back in 1993. I was studying in class 8 in a Govt school [Govt School Number 9]. This school was (still is) run in a temple – Anandeshwar – at the heart of a town Dhar in MP. A new student had enrolled in our class – Ramesh. We did not know much about him. One day one of my friends and classmate – Varun – told me more about Ramesh.

    Varun said – “You know what, Ramesh is an orphan, he lives in Pipalkheda orphanage”.

    I knew that Pipalkheda village, the orphanage was about 8 KM from our school that too on a state highway. Those days riding a cycle on those roads was not an entertaining affair because roads were only two-lane without divider and not as good as a highway we see now a day.

    Varun continued – “Ramesh could continue after class 7 because he scored the maximum among the kids in his orphanage, he scored 56%. The orphanage does not have a lot of funds to fund education of every kid when education becomes expensive.”

    I am sure you know, education does not mean only school fee. Education included uniform, books, notebooks and for Ramesh a bicycle for commuting 8 KM. School fee for our school was about 5/- (INR 5) per annum. Yes that is it; I had a receipt of my class 5 – year 1990 – with me for long time wherein the fee paid was 1/- (INR1).  Perhaps that orphanage could not afford all those things for every kid and therefore the decision to continue education of only one after 7th might have been taken.

    Though Ramesh could have studied in other School [Govt School Number 10] saving his one way travel of 2 KM daily, he decided to join Anandeshwar. Pipalkheda had no school after 7th.

    Ramesh’s story moved me. I still remember a lot of the incident because that time I decided to adopt an orphan when I grow up. The dream also grew when I grew up, the idea shaped into adopting an orphan (specially a girl child). In later stage that dream grew into starting an orphanage with a school in it. I questioned orphans do not have a family, how can they have a family like growing up? When I came in Mumbai I saw old age homes. For a town guy this was something strange. The dream further evolved into having an orphanage, school and old age home. The elders who can teach can become teachers and others can become family for the orphans. This dream is just a dream currently.

    It remained my dream because I never wanted to take money from anyone (investor, philanthroper) for realizing it. I said to myself – It is “my dream”, and I have to work towards realizing it. The dream evolved on the lines of how to make the cause a self-sustained cause. This evolved into adding plans of having a community hall with the orphanage, school and the front of the place facing main road as commercially rented shops et al. This can help generate some funds for the dream to become self-sufficient, even if only partially. The ideas have been evolving. There was a time and occasionally comes a time when I start running behind money, so much that I can do what I dreamt (and evolved that dream) as a teenager.

    Mine is an arrange marriage. I met about 24 girls for finding an alliance. Well we can make an Indian version of “How I met your Mother” on that [It was massive 9 season series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. But that is not the point right now. When I met girls these girls and discussions became somewhat serious, I shared this dream with couple of them. Perhaps few rejected me because of that. Well, my wife knew this dream before our decision of marriage, in fact she also was planning to adopt a child in coming time J

    I am still growing and learning. One of the lessons from the two decade old dream is – remove “I” and “My” from it. Would it hurt me if someone else (who has funds) executes it? I would be happy that someone did it or doing it. If someone executes and I come to know, I can help share my skills for the same, right?

    Note – Names changed (obvious reasons – Varun didn’t understand what I am writing. Generally it seems difficult for people to think the other person is thinking on what lines. I’ve no contact with Ramesh. Varun told me Ramesh’s whereabouts, which I didn’t disclose here.)

    Image source – http://clipartzebraz.com/files/1/24044_dream-clip-art.html

  • Waves of peace







    Last week I wrote (The fish will fly in next birth) about a research done at Stanford University on Buddhism. This research was on impact of Buddhist concepts on individuals irrespective of their belief system. Though, I tried being little “story teller” type in writing which might have gone awry – some people did not understand what the whole blog is all about. The story and its title got precedent over the point of view of research. Here is another incident I want to share regarding the same. First a brief on the research –

    Old path white cloudsSome researchers did a research on the impact of Buddhists words on individuals irrespective of the religious background these participating individuals have. Participants included – Western Christians, Westerners who practiced Buddhism and Taiwanese with a Buddhist/Taoist. According to that research, if people are exposed to Buddhists concepts people reacts to things positively more often.

    Why this research seems plausible to me has another story besides the story of Fish. My wife has not been very spiritual person. After our marriage in Dec, she had opted for leave. In this leave period she read about 1/3rd of the book Old Path White Clouds.

    When I used to comeback from office I started noticing that she is very calm and used to get into silence. Yes literally that was the case, it was obvious, no extra efforts required to notice it.

    Initially when I was worried about what went wrong she said nothing, and that bothered me even more. I asked her to go out for walk, meet people in our building, go to nearby Gurudwara and go to market just to get mingled. She was new to Mumbai so her being silent worried me further, whether she is nostalgic or not happy [both cases seemed improbable because of her demeanor]. Yet that worried me.

    Her silence had depth, I observed for a couple of days then I asked her what is the reason, and she showed me the book – she said I get into kind of meditation when I read this book page by page. I have become so calm and at peace!

    I first read Old path white cloud in 2007, since then it has become a treasure for me. I have donated this book to a couple of people. I am not a Buddhist, and in fact I somehow try to avoid getting attached to any -ISM (religion).

    The Stanford research has – time and again – proved to me [without that research itself, any reference of priming or social psychology] that there is something in the teachings of the Buddha that brings positive changes to an individual.

    Related blog –

    Old path white clouds

    Why this title? [of the blog Business to the Buddha]

    Eating for the sake of eating?

  • Economics concepts and equality







    I was thinking about this strange experiment. What is we conclude end of day today that, everyone is given a new currency DMV (Digital Monetary Value) 2000. Any currency anyone has in his /her account is NULL except DMV 2000 after end of day today. Any other assets whatsoever are also NULL.

    maxresdefaultThis will bring everyone on the same economic level.Socialists want that, right? Next day onwards everyone has to work in DMV equivalents only. What would happen? Would we see equal socio-economic status of the world in say 20 years? Because everyone started off afresh with same amount of currency? Would the world be same as it is today (without DMV), after 20 years? The inequality will creep-in. Socialism seems to miss something in that sense of the world? The inequality in the world is not only because of the madness human-beings are involved with, but also because of the way soft things are build. The lobbying would continue, even after the DMV, and citizen’s representatives will make laws to favor few. Education will also make an impact the inequality generated. Relationships will play another role in creating the difference. Result? We would end up with the same The Price of Inequality.

    Capitalists will disagree to the starting point of the experiment itself. However, if capitalists understand the basic flaw of socialists approach they can understand last three sentences of the previous paragraph.

    I noticed on the net that If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism. [Tweet “Albert Einstein said – If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be #Buddhism”] Though my opinion is – one must not even accept everything in Buddhism also as  panacea. I would suggest two point if not anything else of Buddhism – 1. compassion & knowing interdependent co-arising and 2. meditation.

    The problem is the way we think, we need to change the way we think (what we think we become) [Tweet “what we think we become”]. Here is an example – Asian shares climb after dismal U.S. jobs report. This is the situation when one side of the world is in trouble the other half enjoys and makes profit. Are we going to understand the true meaning of equality? Forget meditation for some time, are we going to learn – interdependent co-arising?

    Image source – http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hdr6vSYZXGo/maxresdefault.jpg

  • Shopping malls







    [Tweet “The world with a lot of abundance (perception of abundance) makes people feel miserable.”]

    I was in grade 8 when one of my teachers – Mr Maltare told us this story – A donkey becomes fat in summers and looses weight in rainy & winter season. Reason is that the donkey feels that it has eaten a lot and that feeling makes it psychologically feel too full & gain weight. In rains & winters it feels it has not eaten enough & there is more than what it can feed itself. This causes the donkey to feel helpless, miserable & underfed. The results are what I wrote above.

    If we take the same example of the donkey, we would realize that the developed nations have lot more psychological illness than they should have. Abundance there is more compared to the developing or underdeveloped nations. apparently, I see the same issues with adults in developing nations as well. I don’t think my father or many/any of his friends suffered psychological/heart related serious issues. However, these problems are more prevalent among the young generation now. We may argue that earlier there were no sophisticated instruments or people did not even know that there is a problem therefore visit a physician. Agreed, so here is my own’s example! This is what happens when I visit shopping malls –

    When I go to big shopping malls, I realize that I don’t have enough money (to buy all the luxuries of the mall/world). However, when I look at myself (in terms of monthly salary I earn), I think I fall in a top 25% of earning population in India. But this complex that I do not have enough money to buy, does not go. Similar to the story of the donkey above. Believe it or not, this must be the feeling of many Indian people. I checked the following statistics of The Times of India last Friday. Which apparently proves at least on thing – I fall in top 40% at least [Rural India has 60% or more population of India.] Yet that psychological issue of buying more/consuming more/wishing for more and “limited resources” create a kind of misery.

    Urban Rural Poverty

    [Tweet “The world becomes miserable not because there are lack of things but because many things make people feel miserable.”]

    Image source – The Times of India Mumbai Edition Friday 20th March 2015.

  • Follow this







    This is a daily prayer in a school. This is worth it, everyone should follow this.

    Everyone is special, one must realize this and follow these simple instructions.


  • Drop meets the ocean







    In 2006 I was new to Mumbai city, when I met Anisha. She was studying in 9th standard. My distant relative asked me to meet her and guide her for preparing for IIT-JEE (I’d prepared for JEE too). When I met her, I felt as if she has accepted the things the way they were. I scolded her for the lax attitude and said – “…this is the problem with Mumbaikars, they accept the things and are comfortable in traveling in crowded trains, getting pushed etc. Why you people get angry when outsiders come here and make good money? Outsiders are new and they may feel uncomfortable and they would want to have a car instead of traveling in crowded trains. I never catch train, because at times it hurts my ego!..”

    When I was new to Mumbai, I tried avoiding crowd, traffic and trains. The way people told me & what I observed – crowd and packed trains was actually amazing experience in itself. Well, over a period of time, I got used to traveling in local trains. Though mostly I traveled the opposite direction of traffic so that was not that painful to me.

    Recently, my wife joined her office. She had heard stories of packed trains as any new person hears in Mumbai. She was scared to travel. I had tried to help her travel in most comfortable trains – starting from our nearest station, early morning and first class etc. However, at the time of dropping her at station I realized this –

    Drop meeting OceanIn whatever circumstances when one becomes a part of the crowd and goes with the flow, he/she does not need to make way and things just happen naturally. One can get in the trains effortlessly and get out also effortlessly. This analogy is similar to drop meeting the ocean or drop become the ocean itself. An individual is drop and the crowd is ocean. A very spiritual connection I could make, however incorrect it may be in terms of example. When an individual becomes part of the bigger consciousness, he/she may leave his/her ego!

    I dont know what conspired (God knows inspired), Anisha has completed her Engineering and now pursuing her Masters from a good university in the US. She is becoming somebody not part of crowd (nobody).

    Image source – https://www.flickr.com/photos/alex_hill/4010380393/

  • Matter of choice







    prayer of frogIt’s no good having our prayers answered If they are not answered at the right time:

    In ancient India much store was set by the Vedic rites which were said to be so scientific in their application that when the sages prayed for rain there was never any drought. It is thus that a man set himself to pray, according to these rites, to the goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, begging her to make him rich.

    He prayed to no effect for ten long years, after which period of time, he suddenly saw the illusory nature of wealth and adopted the life of a renunciate in the Himalayas.

    He was sitting in meditation one day when he opened his eyes and saw before him an extraordinarily beautiful woman, all bright and shining as if she were made of gold.

    “Who are you and what are you doing here?” he asked.

    “I am the goddess Lakshmi to whom you recited hymns for twelve years,” said the woman. “I have appeared to grant you your desire.”

    “Ah, my dear goddess,” exclaimed the man, “I have since attained the bliss of meditation and lost my desire for wealth. You come too late. Tell me, why did you delay so long in coming?”

    “To tell you the truth,” said the goddess, “Given the nature of those rites you so faithfully performed you had fully earned the wealth. But, in my love for you and my desire for your welfare, I held it back.”

    If you had the choice, which would you choose: the granting of your petition or the grace to be peaceful whether it is granted or not?

    Source – Prayer of the Fro Vol 1, Prayer of the frog Vol 2, by Father Antony De’Mello

  • Ek Omkar Satnam







    You know what? Whatever you are thinking is not your thought! This thought is the will of God. There is no FREE-WILL.

    when I thought about the last lines of Ek Omkar Satnam Gurbani I felt helpless. The last line means – “O Nanak, it is written that you shall obey the Hukam (order) of His Command, and walk in the Way of His Will.”

    Check some distorted meaning based video from the movie Rang De Basanti and read a better English translation of the Gurubani here.

    When I tried comprehending the meaning of Gurubani, I felt as if I am egoist. I questioned myself – then what am I doing? Why am I doing it? And why should anyone even have ambition or goals or anything? Is everything is what THE God wants me to think do and act? What is my CHOICE then? What if the thought and CHOICE is also implanted by HIM? Who am I? Am I a dead weight that should just flow with the river of life?

    Things get complicated when such questions come in mind. The mind doesn’t want to accept its “non-existence” and heart says that is right, who are you? [check the hearts reasoning universe and Two men in a room – Ego] Why do you go on and on, where do you want to go, where will you reach – remember it is a treadmill you are running to stay wherever you are. More your mind runs faster you will have to run. Just leave it to His WILL.

    Are you a swimmer? If you can not swim and kind of drown, the more you try to save yourself more you get into trouble. That is how the FREE WILL and HIS Will business seem to work. The harder your try miserably you fail.

    Today when I learnt the meaning of Ek Omkar Satnam, it made me realize that I am just “an insignificant nothing”, but the mind doesn’t accept it.