Business to the Buddha

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  • Peace of mind







    I was wondering, peace of mind comes from owning something or being at peace is independent of owning anything? I was under and impression that peace of mind comes from achieving one’s goals for example owning a car. However, achieving one goal results in creation of another goal and so that may not be the answer. If we extend the example of owning a car as goal one, next goal could be owning a bigger or perhaps a personal jet.

    Another thought was peace of mind comes from doing what you enjoy doing, however after some time that doing something may become a routine and so on. So the series of question and answer was not ending with a specific answer. Recently, I came across a site and a possible solution. Why am I calling it a “possible solution” because mind accepts the solution however, practicing and living that solution would take some time.

    According to that site the Buddha concluded that everything in this physical world is marked by three characteristics – the Dharma Seals. These three characteristics of conditioned existence are Anatman, Anitva and Dukkha.

    According to those Dharma Seal – Anatman is the concept of self. The Buddha emphasised on the changing character of the soul. Anitva means that nothing is constant. All the things, feelings and experiences are inconsistent and impermanent. There is no such thing that lasts forever.  When we fail to grasp the first two conditions truly, we suffer and that suffering is known as Dukkha. We always crave for permanent satisfaction (in my thought process peace of mind), but forget that everything changes, not even satisfaction last forever.

    So, I concluded that peace of mind is not in achieving something in life. However, peace of mind is being at peace with our mind in the present. Because the more we think more we complicate life – life is, simple!

    Source of Dharma Seals – http://www.buddhist-tourism.com

  • Bit of commitment, that’s it!







    For a month I was in a kind of self imposed exile from blogging. I had ideas to write yet as a couple of people earlier suggested, I wont be able to continue blogging with time. I think their ideas ‘kind-of-caught-up’. It is my 100th blog so I was thinking about writing something special and thus waited to write a necklace (blog) having different blogs (as its beads and thread) in the 100th blog.  I’m keeping my idea of connecting my previous blogs in a necklace for future and writing on commitment. It only require small commitment and consistency to do something e.g. blogging.

    Yesterday evening, I was travelling from Nasik to Mumbai. I took a bus and therefore I had a chance to see farm lands, small villages and small water ponds on either side of road. During rainy season we see – at times – naturally created water ponds. It is surprising that in the summers we see acute water shortage. I was wondering about it. Simultaneously, my sister was reading a blog post of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Guruji) – Knowledge sheet. Here I am thinking about water-shed project concept and listening to my sister reading – austerity, what Guruji say – “…Austerity is often mistaken to be poverty, self-denial. It is neither. Austerity comes out of maturity. It is a sign of social health.

    Often people who practice austerity are resentful of richness. This is a very pitiable state. Such austerity is not born out of maturity but out of compulsion. The true austerity has tolerance for richness and is never resentful…”

    I see two connections here in my thoughts – commitment and austerity. The “austerity measures” being talked for a long time are not based on “social health” and therefore are opposed – because there would be a handful of people losing their “facilities” for doing service for the society. This austerity has come from compulsion. Isn’t it? There is lake of commitment in the actions of austerity.

    It was true in my not blogging too that I waited to write a very special blog on connecting all dots of my previous thoughts in the line of the concept of my blogging. We observe lack of commitment is the case in water-shed also. I remember my days as a kid in Dhar (MP). There I have faced water shortage problem and I personally used to travel long distance to bring water in summers. When we shifted to Indore I suggested few officials for rainwater harvesting, they did it. In the building where my parents live now, they have done rain water harvesting and that is not rocket science. I was wondering why we all are not doing it? We can fight and die for water but taking a small step is not possible. Why? because it requires “a-bit-of-commitment”.

    I have lost hopes from politicians and therefore not writing about that. Dhar where I used to live as a kid, had a king – King Bhoj – about 1000 years ago. He – unlike our politicians – knew the problem and worked to solve it. There used to be 12 lakes in Dhar, these lakes were connected, water overflow from one would end up collected in another and so on. We – as an Independent Indian – are fighting for “NOT CONNECTING RIVERS”, because it requires a bit of commitment. With Team Anna coming in the front I see a ray of hope that things would fall in place.

    What it requires is a commitment? Take one project complete it, whatever constraints are there resolve them. Next time I would write about commitment and theory of constraints.

  • Ideas Vs reality







    Recently found an interesting story in a book – ‘The prayer of the Frog’ by Father Anthony de Mello, S.J.. The story I am referring here is from ‘The prayer of the Frog – Volume 2, Page 113, Part – Human nature

    A group of tourists, stranded somewhere in the countryside, were given old rations to eat. Before eating the food they tested it by throwing some of it to a dog who seemed to enjoy it and suggered no after effect.

    The following day they learnt that the dog had died. Everyone was panic-stricken. Many began to vomit and complained of fever and dysentery. A doctor was called in to treat the victims for food poisoning.

    The doctor began by asking what had happened to the body of the dog. Enquiries were made. A neighbour said casually, “Oh, it was thrown in a ditch because it got run over by a car.”

    The author concludes –

    Human beings react, not to reality,
    but to ideas in their heads…

  • …because there are only means!







    On Saturday I read a twitt of Paulo Coelho – renowned author – “A warrior of the light knows that the ends do not justify the means. Because there are no ends, there are only means”. I inferred from the statement that – means are values on which we base and live our life. Some time back I had written on integrity as one value for organization and individuals. Another article I glanced through in Outlook India – “How Not To Court The Law” by Uttam Sengupta. At the end of the article Mr Ranjan Mondal commented – “…where is our Ethics in law?”

    Recently, I happened to meet and discuss the same with Mr Abhaynath Mishra. He is a trainer, consultant and is extensively working on value system of individuals and organizations.  He said, sustainability of an organization is based on values and ethics it follows. In short run there may be loss but the long run success of an organization is assured by the belief and sticking to the values. Also, I had a few telecon with my MBA Professor Ms Mala Kapadia – we too discussed on Values and Business. Mala Ma’am suggested “…somewhere I feel interpretation of Bhagwat Gita too has been wrong, in saying that war for Dharma is justified.”

    I asked this question to myself – do ends justify means? and What are the values business follow, do the businesses really follow these, values? I stopped at a very good question – where is ethics? We seldom talk about it in debates, in our closed rooms and perhaps in boardrooms. Ethics are there in closed door – safe, not touched by anyone! In practice – well, we practice everything except ethics because for a long time we have imbibed lessons such as “ends justify the means.” Now is the time when we – as a community – are questioning the means used to achieve goals, ethics in business and values of individuals. The reason to ask such questions is the problems we face today – recession, political unrest and other personal problems. The biggest identified cause for these problems is  ‘greed’. The problems can be resolved when we learn what Paulo Coelho twitted recently – ends do not justify the means. Because there are no ends, there are only means. Be ethical …because there are only means!

  • What more you need?







    I was watching Padosan (Old Hindi Comedy movie). The movie is interesting and I came to know that it has been made in different Indian languages. In that movie the protagonist (Sunil Dutt) repeats a couple of times an ancient concept of Hindu culture.  The concept is Ashramas of human life. According to these Ashramas there are four stages of life each divided in roughly 25 years duration. These duration and our current life style made me think. I have always been wondering about what we want? We all have been running, some know why, some do not know why are we running? Many of those who know are running behind money, other few are behind fame and so on. Yes money is required to fill our stomach on a daily basis, is required for basic amenities. Beyond a certain point do we still need money? Yes!

    When we are not satisfied with what we have. We run behind something either closing our eyes or because we can not think of anything else.

    Rajat Gupta

    Whole life we have been running behind money, if one day at an age of 60 we are told – ‘stop it!’ For some time we would feel uncomfortable what to do? Then since whole life we have been doing just one thing we would start the race again. Unknowingly money becomes purpose of life, if this running around wont be there we wouldn’t have any reason to survive, right?

    Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

    With due respect to those who have made a lot of money, I was wondering about a recent case of insider trading, involving Mr Rajat Gupta. Mr Gupta made it big in the corporate world, proved how successful a person could be. Yet in a recent court case sentenced for 25 years imprisonment. The reason – an  inadvertent (probably) or wishful (probably) – sharing of boardroom discussion. I was seriously wondering what more a person needs? You are famous, you are rich and you have had a very successful life, what more?

    Maslow‘s needs need hierarchy theory seems to have failed us repeatedly. There seem to be no end to the level of ‘Esteem’. What more we need to move beyond Esteem to self-realization?

    Image source – Maslow’s need hierarchy – Wikipedia, Mr Rajat Gupta – The Hindu

  • “Social Strategy” – a step in the future!







    A couple of days back I was on Facebook. Yes it happens when you are too occupied with work and commitments are such that you are socially cut-off – even if you do not want to. I checked Facebook update of one of my friends – Nishant Jain, a Supply Chain specialist with HCL – “Outsourcing is dead. Co-sourcing is the only way to go” by Vineet Nayar. This comment of Mr Nayar and subsequently sharing the statement by Nishant makes an statement that we are going to grow together, there is no other way out! I wrote on this earlier – Collaboration in logistics… What we call competition or what we see as “servicing clients” is actually helping client perform their duty better and there needs to be more ‘open-ness’ and involvement in what service/product we are offering. I started writing my blogs with the same concept (Refer – Why this title?).

    …“When Ferrari and Honda run on the racing track competing for the first spot, they are not eying at the first spot, they are racing to offer best product to their customers.” The Buddha’s teaching on ‘Dependent co-arising’ teaches me this. “Each one of us is a rung of a ladder to the other and vice versa, hence for self development and moving higher up, one’s ladder should be strong enough, even one’s competitors.” I believe this will be the extension of P&G’s present approach of Connect & Develop in future; working on various fronts with the competitors such as IPR – strategically innovating – besides others…

    I requested Nishant that would it be fine if I refer you in the blog? He is kind enough to say yes. Around the same time, when I was drafting this blog I happened to read an article in McKinsey Quarterly – The social side of strategy.  This article, Nishant’s facebook update and my owns earlier blog connected all the dots. I could see the relationship between Business and the Buddha in another dimension yet again.

    According to the McKinsey article companies are trying their hands on social strategy. Further it states that such strategy planning efforts would be more inclusive, action oriented, detailed and of course measurable. The other advantage of such efforts would be enthusiasm people would have; it would provide ownership to the execution. The reason for these strategic initiatives to be far more measurable is that these would increase accountability. Everyone in the organization would review progress of each initiative resulting in improved quality.

    Effectively, we are moving toward a more inclusive society and more inclusive organizations. Caution – the idea of open strategy or social strategy is to provide a platform to the organization for brainstorming, yet the whole idea is not yet completely evolved. So, companies need to open up slowly in some regards such as intellectual property.

    As Indian philosophy states – Vasudhev Kutumbakam (one-world family), I sincerely hope to see that happening.

    I would continue this in future blogs, too. Until then thank you for reading.

  • Inner revolution







    Recently heard that UK has declared recession, Spain and Italy has done so earlier, Greece has once voted against the austerity measures and Sarkozy is no more French president – which is a dent on austerity measures of Eurozone. This is the story of Euro! USA employment numbers are not that encouraging, employment should be about 250,000/month however last time I noted it was 150,000 or so. China showed reduced production and Indian GDP is down.

    The picture looks gloomy, however have you seen importance of stars during full moon?  No! The importance and glitter of stars is prominent during darkest of nights. I believe this tough economic time is hinting of such nights when we would realize the importance of small things which impact us in big way. Take an example corruption! Take an example Greed! Though it seems a lesson on moral science but what else we are saying when we talk about the “Moral Hazard” as the biggest reason of recession and financial turmoil! In Indian context we need to work on reducing corruption (byproduct of greed) which is the biggest moral hazard here. In Europe and US Greed is the problem.

    I asked myself – are we going to see a revolution in the world? This revolution I believe would be on a tangent – it would not only happen in the society, not only by the society but also it would happen on the self! We have seen societies changing, cultures evolving  however these changes die down slowly and moral hazard starts again.

    Guruji

    I was attending an Art of Living (with Guruji :)) session today and the idea of ‘inner revolution’ stuck to me at that time. This makes a perfect sense – if everyone becomes righteous, we would not need to change the society, it would change itself.

    We need to get ready for inner revolution and help change the world for better today and tomorrow! Remember this would start from each one of us.

  • Pocahontas – “Colors Of The Wind”







    I heard these lyrics and liked it, specially few lines, thought to share it on my blog. Though, I do not want to take beauty of  lyrics yet cannot stop myself  from writing

    “…And we are all connected to each other” – this relates to interdependent co-arising

    “…Come roll in all the riches all around you” – I felt it often, that (at least in metro cities) we are so much bogged into  our daily commitment that we don’t even look up in the evening at these beautiful constellation of stars. We are running behind the ‘riches’ of pockets and losing on the wonders around us

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvvZ1TEQRB8]!

    You think I’m an ignorant savage
    And you’ve been so many places
    I guess it must be so
    But still I cannot see
    If the savage one is me
    How can there be so much that you don’t know?
    You don’t know …

    You think you own whatever land you land on
    The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
    But I know every rock and tree and creature
    Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

    You think the only people who are people
    Are the people who look and think like you
    But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
    You’ll learn things you never knew you never knew

    Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
    Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
    Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?
    Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
    Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

    Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
    Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth
    Come roll in all the riches all around you
    And for once, never wonder what they’re worth

    The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
    The heron and the otter are my friends
    And we are all connected to each other
    In a circle, in a hoop that never ends

    How high will the sycamore grow?
    If you cut it down, then you’ll never know
    And you’ll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon

    For whether we are white or copper skinned
    We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
    We need to paint with all the colors of the wind

    You can own the Earth and still
    All you’ll own is Earth until
    You can paint with all the colors of the wind

    Source – http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/classicdisney/colorsofthewind.htm#.T70bBkXzsZw

  • Bhavachakra – the wheel of life







    On this buddha Poornima (Sunday 6th May), came across detailed explanation of Bhavchakra. I thought to share it on blog.

    Life seriously is a wheel, is not it? For individuals – Wheel of emotions, wheels of personal development and wheels of social interactions. For organizations and society too this wheel goes on – growth, development and destruction. Check any Indian Soap of prime time, you would come to know what we are surrounded with. It is up to us to learn about this wheel and help ourselves to get out of this – app dipo bhava (be a light unto yourself).

    The following content as well as image on bhavachakra is from this link, which explains it well.

    Bhavacakra or Wheel of Becoming/Wheel of Life is a form of a mandala or tanka (painted wall hanging), used primarily in Tibetan Buddhism.  The painting of a tanka is itself a form of mediation.  Its meaning is very complex, and can be read to represent at least three different realms of manifested effects ofkarmic actions.  It can be read as a diagram for the six different kinds of existence into which one may be born into during the middle rounds of samsara.  It can be read as symbolizing each of the different realms of human existence, lived out by certain kinds of people according to their karmic fortunes of personality type and socioeconomic status.  Or it can be read as a description of situations or states of consciousness that everybody passes through again and again in the course of a single day.

    Its iconographic meaning is correspondingly complex as well.

    In the background are varied Buddhist symbols, such as the moon, clouds in shape of swastika, and always a representation of at least one Buddha orBodhisattva, seen attempting to help sentient beings to find their way to Nirvana.

    The wheel is held by the jaws, hands and feet of the demon, Yama, the judge of the dead, who turns the wheel.  Yama represents the ignorance that comes from greed and “selfhood,” that keeps the wheel of suffering turning.

    The outer rim of the wheel is divided into twelve sections, called the Twelve Interdependent Causes and Effects – 1. ignorance, 2. volitional action or conditioning, 3. consciousness, 4. name and form, 5. six sensory organs (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind), 6. contact or touch, 7. sensation, 8. desire, craving, thirst, 9. grasping, 10. becoming or existence, 11. birth, and 12. decay and death.

    The areas between the six spokes represent the six forms of unenlightened existence.

    There are six wedged-shaped sections, with each representing a different realm of life –

    1. realm of the Gods – Devas (who are blissful but dangerously complacent; always at the top of the wheel)

    2. the realm of the titans, demigods and fighting demons – Asuras (lowest rank of gods, who are powerful and wealthy but infected with envy, jealously, and greed for more; always in the upper half of the wheel)

    3. the realm of “human beings” (always in the upper half of the wheel)

    4. the realm of “animals” (sentient beings, less intellectually advanced than humans, driven by instincts and have little freedom, but can still experience suffering and project karma; always in the bottom half of the wheel; inclusive of birds, fish, and even a worm)

    5. the realm of “hungry ghosts” – Pretas (whose huge bellies but pinpoint mouths and eyes suggest insatiable craving; always in the bottom half of the wheel)

    6. the realm of “hell beings” (who are consumed with relentless rage; always at the bottom of the wheel; beings brought to hell for  past karma, but beings who can escape it through good deeds and reincarnation).

    At the center or hub of the circle is a smaller circle containing the Three Poisons, within a rim of binary demarcation of black and white. The black section represents the Dark Path on which sentient beings are moving downward to the hellish realms. The white section represents the Path of Bliss on which beings are moving upward to the Godly realms. The Three Poisons are personified as a rooster or fowl, a pig or boar, and a snake, chasing one another around and around. They symbolize the forces that keep people caught up in the samsaric round of existence: the rooster stands for greed, the pig for ignorance or delusion, and the snake for hatred.

    The wheel can thus hold distinct meanings, each speaking to different sensibilities.

  • Where is growth?







    The mobile was ringing, suddenly phone was picked and the statement – wait! Mumbai Indians needs only 5 runs to win in last 6 balls. I said ok Sir I will call you in five minutes. The turmoil of thoughts continued in my mind. What am I thinking, what are the questions in my mind, so many things how do I connect all these dots etc. Mumbai Indians eventually won, Prof Mankad informed me in next five minutes.

    We started talking – the market is steady, if not bull than not bear too. Indian Prime minister and Finance minister both are making statement that “We are going to grow at 6.9% if not at 8%”. Still, there is some uncomfortable feeling. I told Prof Mankad, “Sir I am not convinced. Further to it I said – news is Facebook is licensing the AOL patents – owned by Microsoft now – for close to 550 million. Next thing which I forgot to ask him was – news of bribing in Mexico by senior executive of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart was running behind growth – sometimes in 90’s – and got in this trouble recently when the case was surfaced. I further added that Italy and Spain are showing -ve growth (to be precise signs of recession), where is growth?

    As always these questions were simple to answer for Prof Mankad. What he said very closely resembled to my thinking of inclusive growth. He said – hold your horses, the questions are right, this growth is notional and specific to IT and finance industry, largely to few services industries so to speak. The questions are pertinent, sir said. If I remember correctly he also informed me that Italy not only Spain has declared recession, French election would surely put more light on the already tough Euro crisis. Sarkozy is likely to lose, and then there are more elections coming up in Europe e.g. Germany etc. Political parties in Holland have agreed on austerity measures. Growth would happen and thus recession would be arrested only once we see growth in all the industries otherwise we are in a bad shape. It is not possible to say that we are growing at so and so rate when only one or two industries are showing signs of growth.

    This reminded me of my most loved theory of the Buddha – Interdependent Co-arising. I have written on this often and the current situation shows us yet once again that we are all connected, nothing can be isolated and growth is a collection of small growth in each industry. Each industry is a building block for the overall movement of the engine of economy world across (with few riders). No China can survive without US or Europe, no India or Philippines can grow its service industry until there is overall growth in the demand of service industry in developed nations.

    Where is growth? There would be growth when we all learn that we need to think about each other and help each other grow – we are all interdependent and we would successfully grow only when we grow together.