
Thought for the Week – 29th February 2016


I once read about a whole family afflicted with this problem. On one occasion everyone got out of bed, still sound asleep, to go to the kitchen for a midnight snack. In the morning no one could explain where the food in the refrigerator had gone.
The Buddha would call all of us sleepwalkers. Continue reading

Good and bad, wealth and poverty, praise and blame go together in this world. You cannot derive happiness out of happiness (Na sukhat labhate sukham). Happiness comes only out of sorrow. A wealthy man today may become a pauper tomorrow. Similarly, a pauper may become a rich man some day or other. Today you are being praised, but tomorrow you may be criticised. Continue reading
It is the only mystery worth solving: the mystery of leadership. And here’s the question that’s wrapped around that mystery: Why is it that even leaders who have the most-beautiful intentions create projects and organizations that don’t come close to resembling their original vision?
Between the idea and the reality falls a shadow. This obscuring cast has given us a graceless DOS, crappy cell-phones, brain-dead customer service, hollow-hearted TV programming, and idiotic airlines. Worse, it robs us of pleasure in our own work and lives. Settling for “good enough” makes us all feel small and mercenary.
What if it doesn’t have to be that way?

Lomas published 216 of these so-called “untranslatable” words in the Journal of Positive Psychology last week aiming to both “help expand the emotional vocabulary of English speakers” and “provide a window onto cultural differences in constructions of well-being”; the words are also neatly laid out on his website by theme.
Here are some of the loveliest, alongside translations by Lomas into their nearest-possible English definition: Continue reading
