Here is wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - 2010 ;)

Doers and Dreamers

I was having this short chat a few days back with a small group of people - one of whom was an HR Consultant, another with the background of Organizational Behaviour (OB) and yet another who was running psychometric tests for students. They were busy slotting people into different categories based on innumerable parameters that included everything between emotion and intellect, and how this profiling could help understand the behavioural dynamics of people. I am not so sure I understand the accuracy of psychometric profiling and the mapping of skillsets to job descriptions yet, but for an unthoughtful person like me, the world is divided very simply into the doers and the dreamers.

For the doers, the status of mind on a given day in one's life is derived directly from the status of the to-do list for the day. For them, all that matters at the end of the day is the number of ticks in the check-boxes of their to-do lists. The focus on getting a tick in the box is so sharp that all their conversations with others around them revolve around each item in the to-do list. Even all moments in a day that have no relation to this to-do list get completely intertwined with the completion status of the tasks in the list. Life is a straight line and any deviation from the straight line leads to frustration and anger.

On the other hand, there are the dreamers! The dreamers focus on everything that is in between the check-boxes. Most of their thoughts and energies are focussed on what is not the task, what is not the present and what is not practical. They enjoy the lack of focus on the task at hand and like to soak in every moment in its fullest. They do not like straight lines and look for distractions and deviations. They struggle badly in being up to speed with the doers.

I do not get along with either the doers or the dreamers. I guess I am somewhere in between. The doer and the dreamer. Wish someone taught me the right balance.

Clinging Causes the Pain - Tenzin Palmo

Genuine love and kindness is desperately needed in this world. It comes from appreciating the object, and rejoicing in the object, wanting the object to be happy and well, but holding it lightly, not tightly. And this goes for possessions too. You are in an extremely materialistic society in which the possession of more and bigger and better is held up as the total criteria for being happy.

What we own is not the problem, it's our attitude towards our possessions. If we have something and we enjoy it, that's fine. If we lose it, then that's OK. But if we lose it and we are very attached to it in our heart, then that's not fine. It doesn't matter what the object is, because it's not the object which is the problem. The problem is our own inner grasping mind that keeps us bound to the wheel, and keeps us suffering. If our mind was open and could just let things flow naturally, there would be no pain. Do you understand? We need our everyday life to work on this, to really begin to see the greed of attachment in the mind and gradually begin to lessen and lessen it.

There's a famous story of a coconut, which is said to be used in India to catch monkeys. People take a coconut and make a little hole just big enough for a monkey to put its paw through. And inside the coconut, which is nailed to a tree, they have put something sweet. So the monkey comes along, sees the coconut, smells something nice inside, and he puts his hand in. He catches hold of the sweet inside, so now he has a fist. But the hole is too small for the fist to get out. When the hunters come back, the monkey's caught. But of course, all the monkey has to do is let go. Nobody's holding the monkey except the monkey's grasping greedy mind. Nobody is holding us on the wheel, we are clinging to it ourselves. There are no chains on this wheel. We can jump off any time. But we cling. And clinging causes the pain.

Captions invited for pic below :)

I am ALIVE !!

ZINDAGI KHATAM BHI HO JAYE AGAR,
KHATAM HOTA NAHI YEH DUNIYA KA SAFAR!!!

Mind, execution and random thoughts!

From past few weeks I have been running around - at home and at work. My mind has never stopped thinking, it has been continuous in thought process - in making castles, in making plans but execution has always failed and that is what torments me. I was reading an article which said,” Execution is everything. Plan all you want, dream all you can, then turn that key or you've accomplished nothing. Execution is what separates those with lofty ideas from those who end up winning the game. It's about taking strategies and making sure they are implemented with power.” Ahh! When will I learn to execute things!! That is a big mystery which I am sure will get resolved sooner or later.

Its 12.30 AM which means 4th October, 2009 has passed and new day has already started. I see all my family members deep in slumber. Few more hours and it will be bright and sunny but right now the drawing room is dark, empty and silent. It is windy outside and I can hear the buzzing of the mosquitoes. The collage on my cupboard reminds me of good old days, of the moments spent with family and friends. Some books lie on my bed side reminding me that I need to go through them as soon as possible. I can see the curtain of my room moving to and fro. I lie in discomfort thinking of the day - how it started and how it came to an end. My eyes are tired. How I wish – there should be better understanding between people and better way of executing plans. I need to work on it - soon.

Void

Sometimes, I wonder why one finds a void, some uncertainty creeping up when life goes on and on. It’s a sudden rush when one is busy with the mundane of life, with daily chores - one feels as if there has much to be achieved, so much to learn, so much to ask for, so much to live but time seems to be a big constraint. The question sometimes is where to start and what to do?

Some questions which often call for an immediate attention and which keep on disturbing are – “I don’t know who I am anymore? What is that I have achieved till date? and many more.” Perhaps each day I spend with family and friends is taking me closer to end of my life and questioning not only who I am, but who I have been - I feel disturbed, petrified, I feel some void, something missing. No matter where I am in life’s journey, such questions usually evoke confusion and when there is no ready response, the ensuing silence is more frightening, the silence is more devastating.

While I was flicking through the pages of a book I came across some interesting lines - mind creates defense mechanisms to deal with any number of pressures put upon the psyche- trauma, information overload, frustration, indecision, despair. It works the subconscious mind while you work the conscious. But sometimes it so happens that we are totally unaware, with no resolution or answer ever to be given. There are some immediate concerns which cannot be answered by mind too and that is where you find a VOID!