“If you try and still the mind,
it will be the mind
trying to still the mind.
Rather become aware
of the mind.
Become aware
of the flow of thoughts. Continue reading
personal transformation
The Role of a Parent
Thought for the Week – 23rd of May 2016
Quote: Alan Watts
The brick walls are there for a reason….
The black dot
One day, a professor entered his classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They all waited anxiously at their desks for the exam to begin.
The professor handed out the exams with the text facing down, as usual. Once he handed them all out, he asked the students to turn over the papers.
To everyone’s surprise, there were no questions–just a black dot in the center of the paper. The professor, seeing the expression on everyone’s faces, told them the following:
“I want you to write about what you see there.” Continue reading
The Difference Between Pain and Suffering
There is a Buddhist teaching that says that when you get hurt, say, by an arrow, that is pain. The arrow hitting your arm, it hurts. Pain. However, there is a second arrow, which is your reaction to the arrow, the getting angry, the planning revenge, that is beyond pain, that is suffering.
Sleepwalking is a fascinating phenomenon……
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
What makes a good life?
Equanimity
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
The Perfect Vision of Dr. V.
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?
ONE TUSK 