arunb's Golden Nugget: Triple Filter Test to Live in the Excellence Zone

This week's Golden Nugget comes from Ancient Wisdom of Socrates.

Referring to the popular saying "Silence is Golden", once a disciple asked Socrates, when shall one speak. Socrates replied that everyone should apply a triple filter test before speaking anything.

First filter is the filter of "Truthfulness" i.e. what you are saying it is absolutely true? If you are not certain then you will end up promoting something untrue. Many times we keep promoting hearsay without knowing the truth.

Second filter is the filter of "Pleasantness". What you are going to say, is it pleasant?  This filter eliminates empty remarks and vain statements made to hurt others or just spoken for no reason in idleness.

Third filter is the filter of "Usefulness". Is the statement we are going to make benefits the listener? Will our words bring comfort and joy to someone?

If what you want to say does not pass this Triple-Filter Test i.e. it is not true, not pleasant and of no use, then those words are better unspoken.  Only the words that are carrier of truth, provide comfort to someone and result in some benefit to the listener; are worth speaking.

Triple-Filter Test not only create extra time for desirable activities, it also helps in maintaining peace of mind as well as healthy relations with others. I invite you to reflect on this golden nugget and use triple filter test to live in the Excellence Zone. 

Degradation of Values and Our Future

One thought is very close to my heart - "It is the degradation of inner values that is causing the destruction of outer environment". Please give it a thought. All unfortunate events that we see today (or we ourselves cause) are a result of degradation of inner values.

Nurturing of Values in a society has two dimensions - first, the right values need to be inculcated in the growing minds (and by the way it is proven that our mind grows beyond 75 years, Ref: Neuro-plasticity);  we need to make sure wrong values do not corrupt the growing minds. 

With parents getting busy and grand-ma; grand-pa living in a distant town; the tradition of moral story telling to kids is vanishing. The story telling these days mostly is through television or video-games; which are mostly oriented towards getting kids hooked on to junk-food and toys representing violent or romantic characters. 

As we grow up, we get exposed to more television and movies that will test anyone's determination of living a virtuous life. I fail to understand purpose of Big-boss and similar shows; and item-numbers in movies. The only contribution they can make is erosion of values.   

If money, education or power could compensate for lack of values so many of known, rich, highly educated and powerful people will not be sitting behind bar losing all the respect they had earned. 

So what then helps to build a society with values; and how can values be protected / nurtured in increasingly vicious environment? 

As there is no single answer, I am leaving this as a open question for you to provide your thoughts and view on "How to build virtuous India and how to prevent degradation of inner values"?    

Golden Nugget: Ancient Wisdom From Hitopadesha

As the year 2012 came to an end, and 2013 ushered in; I wish you a year of peace, prosperity and joy. This time, the Golden Nuggets are based on Ancient Wisdom of Hitopadesha. Written in the form of stories and advice couplets, Hitopadesha captures the essence of Ancient Wisdom from Indian scriptures including Gita and Panchtantra. I hope you will not only enjoy reading them, but meditate on them and may the ancient wisdom from these golden nuggets make 2013 a joyful year for you.

The wise will strive for wealth and learning, As if to time and age immune;

But not delay good works, realizing, that death may strike one anytime soon.

We often procrastinate on projects where our passion lies, waiting for some event in the future to happen. I pray that 2013 inspires us all to do things that we always wanted to do, especially sharing what we can with those who are less privileged.

To worthy people what you give, and that on which you daily live.

That alone your wealth people merit: The rest you guard, others inherit.

Someone asked a saint, “Who is RICH?”  I invite you to give a thought – “Who do YOU think is rich?”

The saint responded, “The one who after taking care of his needs and responsibilities; shares his / her resources with others – WITHOUT expecting anything in return”. I pray that in 2013, we all will experience “The Joy of Selfless Giving”.  

If you have a contended mind, wealthy yourself you will find.

To one with shoes on his feet, all roads are covered with soft leather sheet.

A king once had a whim that his kingdom roads should be covered with carpet so his feet never fall on dusty roads. The wise minister knew impracticality of the whim, so he asked the shoemaker to make shoes with carpet lining. And now wherever the king went, he always had carpet under his feet. I wish that 2013 will bring contentment to our life, so we can enjoy what we have; instead of wanting to have something more to enjoy.

Even after studying the sacred knowledge, or by going every day to college

You will gain little just by doing this; unless you put your learning into practice

A well-made medicine for the sick, cannot do any magic trick

The suffering you cannot tame; just by uttering the medicine’s name.

I hope you will reflect on these golden nuggets and put to practice what you find good out of them. I wish your family and you a very happy new year!

Why we need work life balance...

Have you ever wondered how important it is to enjoy time at work for Joyful Living (read "iRecharge with Joyful Living" for Joyful Living context)?

Let us do some math - 24 hours in a day. We are in the office for at least 10 hours in everyday. Living in SF Bay Area and Bangalore, my experience is that we spend average 2hours daily in the traffic - that makes it 12hours out of home. Doctors suggest that we need at least 8 hours of sleep to be healthy - that is 20 hours of no interaction with our loved ones. We also spend at least 30min in the bathroom or other activities where there is no interaction with the loved ones. That is startling.....

OUT OF 24 hours in a day; you spend at least 20.5 hours away from your loved ones OR just 3.5 hours with your family. This is without even accounting for occasional business trips.

Nice realization, isn't it? On an average working day, you spend 3.5 hours with your family whereas you spend 10 hours with your office colleagues.

In a 5 day week you spend 50 hours in the office where as only 17.5 hours with your loved ones. Even if you spend every minute of your active weekend with your family, it would still mean 31 + 17.5 = 48.5 hours.

Look at that number in your own context. You spend more time with your office colleagues than with your loved ones. So when you go to office tomorrow, don't just think "Yet another day"; think of how to make every minute of the day more enjoyable to achieve Joyful Living.

Meaning of Character

This week’s Golden Nugget “Meaning of Character” is inspired Vedic philosophy and books published by Sri Ramakrishana Math.

“Personality is who we are when everyone is watching; and character is who we are when no one is watching”. The meaning of character proposed by Vedic philosophy can be beautifully described by taking analogy of a lake. In a lake, winds create waves, and those waves not just disturb the surface of the water, they also affect shores and bottom of the lakes as well. Over a period of time these waves gradually build banks of sands and rounded pebbles on the lake bottom. The shapes of sandbanks and pebbles created by waves are much more permanent and solid than the waves themselves. Now taking this analogy to humans, the mind (like lake) is continuous flow of thoughts (waves). And over a period of time these thought-waves create tendencies, capabilities and habits, which are more permanent than the thoughts themselves. In Vedic terms these are called – samskaras. Samaskaras build up by the continuous thought-waves; and samaskaras also create new thought-waves. Hence, there is a continuous cycle. If you expose your mind to pleasant thoughts and perform selfless acts of kindness, you will experience joy in your daily life. A person with selfless-giving samaskara will be known as “a kind person”. If you expose your mind to constant thoughts of anger and resentment, you will find that these anger-waves build up anger-throughout your daily life. A man with well-developed anger-samskaras is said to have “a bad temper”. The sum total of our samaskaras is our character at any given moment. As the sandbank can shift and change their shapes as the tide or the current changes, so also the samaskaras may be modified by the introduction of other kinds of thought waves into the mind.

The seeds of good and evil are latent in all of us. It is up to us to decide which ones we want to cultivate. The ones nurtured more by our thought-waves will become our dominant character. Yoga offers the process of reflection and meditation to ensure we are building intended samaskaras.

I wish that all of us will feed the goodness with our thought-waves, so we can look forward to a better future of Joyful Living.

Intelligence Trap

This week’s golden nugget comes from Edward De Bono’s views on responsibility of being Intelligent.

There are some aspects of a high intelligence that become a sort of trap.

A person with a high intelligence can take a position on a subject and then use their intelligence to defend that position very ably. The better the defense of the position the less does that person see any need to consider alternatives or listen to others. That is not good thinking.

Someone who has grown up with the realization that he or she is more intelligent than most people around wants to get the best reward for being so intelligent. The quickest and best reward is to prove other people wrong. This is a risk-free demonstration of superiority. It is also relatively easy.

An intelligent person takes in information quickly and can reach a conclusion in a short time. A less intelligent person has to wait to take in more information and may, occasionally, reach a better conclusion.

Like the engine of a motor car, intelligence is a potential. There may be a fast car with rather a bad driver. There may be a more humble car with a better driver. Intelligence Trap is like the driver of a fast motor car getting into bad driving habits. We just need to be aware of the trap and ensure that we do not get caught into it. 

Spirit of Learning

This week’s Golden Nugget is inspired by Buddha. Very often we start following routines and form habits. Over a period of time these habits lose meaning behind them yet we keep reacting to the new challenges of life - in the old ways.

Buddha in one of his sermons said, “Do not believe what you have heard; do not believe in doctrines because they have been handed down to you of generations; do not believe in anything because it followed by many and majority; do not believe in the truth to which you have become attached by habit; have deliberations and analyze; and when the result agrees with reason and is conducive to the good of one and all, accept it and live unto it.”

When we hear motivational talks, there is very little that we already didn’t know. What is spoken is universal truth; and what differs is how the information is made relevant to the audience and made sticky so we can remember it when in need. Yet, most of us forget about these collected words of wisdom when we need them the most. This is because we only collect information and seldom deliberate on it or internalize it to make it part of our wisdom pool. The value of knowledge is when it is put to practice for the good of self and humanity.

In summary, Spirit of Learning is in being curious to acquiring new information, deliberating to get relevant wisdom out of it; and utilizing the wisdom by putting it to practice. Let us watch ourselves if we can put this golden nugget to practice J

Wishing you a very happy Vijay Dashami !