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On Jan 13, 2016 satyagrahi wrote on Be Cool to the Pizza Dude, by Sarah Adams:
This is a tough lesson for me, because of the 'pizza due' being very impactful to me. While on my bicycle, i was hit by a speeding pizza dude on a motorcycle and spun around, my bike damaged and some long-lasting injuries. Then the pizza company strung me around for 3 months passing me from store manager to store manager to legal counsel (who yelled at me) ... Dominos definitely does not deliver!
Agree with the 4 points with any 'delivery dude'.
Living in Bangalore, we need to add a point #5. The delivery dudes are taking all the hits so the ordering family can stay indoors and avoid all the traffic and pollution. Now with online shopping and groceries taking off, the delivery dudes are becoming the frontline in facing the worsening environment, as people are pushed indoors for safety and entertainment. Hats off to the frontline!
On Sep 21, 2015 satyagrahi wrote on Awareness is Profound Interest, by J. Krishnamurti:
This is hard for me to digest.
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others" said the Mahatma. But to serve others means that we are trying to improve their situation. So clearly, we are making several judgment calls here in trying to improve others and improve ourselves.
What about seeking inner transformation (or external transformation)? Do we have to thru a phase of observation first? Or in practical terms, do and master vipassana (insert any other technique with similar goals(?!) here) and then step out?
My experience in -- doing what JK says -- "interested in watching your child, your wife, your plants, the trees, the birds" is different. Watching a child, i am trying to ensure they are protected (looking around for danger) and ensuring they have the richest experience (tweaking their environment). And learning from their actions and reactions too. And often times with condemnation/approval. I can't say i have been in communion with the observed -- bird or child.
My interest increases when i can interact, influence and be influenced. It reduces when i just watch, for example a group of rocks.
Sorry to disappoint JK and others.
On Aug 4, 2014 satyagrahi wrote on Staying In Your Own Business, by Byron Katie:
Or, be grateful for someone being interested in your life and work. There may be a good reason for them poking in, from shaking up a routine to providing a hand to providing an insight. At the very least you will learn to deal with them calmly, with a smile (something i want/need to learn).
On Jun 18, 2014 satyagrahi wrote on Staying In Your Own Business, by Byron Katie:
Maybe the Dhamma says 'Mind your own business'. The Sangha says: 'Make other people's business your business'. Today we live in quiet isolation and i see unhappy people alone with the TVs and always looking for solace on the mobile. Thru 'intrusion' we can create the opportunities for relationships and become the shoulder others need.
I lived 8 years in a NJ apt without knowing my neighbours, except to pick up package deliveries. In Oakland, my neighbour had a stroke in the shower and then was bedridden for 6 weeks and i found out after they vacated. I resolved to 'intrude' thereafter and made friends with people i would have no other opportunities to connect with.
And now i live in a place where its everyone for themselves - and the commons and public health be dammed, because everyone feels no business other than their own.
It seems that most folks feel that we first work on Buddhan and Dhamman. Sanghan will happen in the future.
On May 20, 2014 satyagrahi wrote on Staying In Your Own Business, by Byron Katie:
If we only focus on cleaning ourselves and leaving the rest to God, we will have the situation in India where every home is clean and the outside is an incredible mess. We can pollute the Ganga because its God's business to clean it.
There is 'our' business and there is also the overlap in our individual business. Also, there are extroverts who improve by getting feedback from the 'sangha'. Yes, there are yoga practioners who practice and improve on their own. But many find it better to go to a class, get feedback, watch others, make friends, share, comment, ... and improve yoga thru interaction. Often, someone who find it 'their' business to comment on mine, help me grow and learn (even if the feedback is often negative or negatively given). I have found it difficult to work only on myself, by myself.
Service does give me a path, and sangha gives me enormous support and courage.
On May 20, 2014 satyagrahi wrote on Staying In Your Own Business, by Byron Katie:
Buddha has 3 gems: buddha, dhamma, and sangha. Sangha is ignored nowadays or not considered as important as the other 2. Gandhi and others have indicated that service is a path, so it is possible to 'self-clean by involving yourself in others.'
On Apr 25, 2014 rajesh wrote on The Question of Being, by Adyashanti:
Oh! i so much more resonate with the words: "awareness" and "vigilance" than "hang precariously" and "teetering" even though my English teacher would say that it was too much a stretch of the imagination to consider them synonymous :) Thank you @harmony1
On Apr 25, 2014 rajesh wrote on The Question of Being, by Adyashanti:
Thank you all for your thoughts and love.
While we can always distil a message that resonates with us from any of the readings or simplify to one idea, lately i have been trying to understand the author's (or translator's) choice of words and maybe a deeper or different intent and meaning. Sometimes its not easy (often its an excerpt that does not stand well in isolation).
This passage's words really hit me, as they were different from previous readings and experience: "precariously", "teetering". I wonder what the intent was; this passage has an urgency and a dark side that i have not seen before. I have always assumed that moving towards light was not easily reversible and if one got close to the ultimate state of 'being' one was in a safer zone.
Thanks for your responses and support.
With metta,
Rajesh
On Apr 23, 2014 rajesh wrote on The Question of Being, by Adyashanti:
Please help me understand this passage better. For example: "Your life hangs precariously in the balance, teetering between a state of unconscious sleepwalking and eyes-wide-open spiritual enlightenment." I believe i am on a journey from somewhat darker to somewhat brighter. I don't understand this teetering nor hanging precariously.
I also believe that this journey may not be all stillness, it might also be in doing, in constant motion (not agitation, but deliberate, slow action) - one step, one prayer at at time.
And i am not sure of: "awaken to being or sleep an endless sleep." I accept my 'being' and am happy to awaken. But this life has also some meaning and is part of the awakening. To me, it might not be an endless sleep or a full awakening, but somewhere in the middle. It is a mystery and most likely will remain a mystery after all.
On Nov 14, 2013 rajesh wrote on Why Do We Shout In Anger?, by Unknown:
Another point to consider: we yell in anger only to those we are close to. If the anger-triggering agent is a person we don't know or care much about then we may try and express ourselves or we may try to rectify the situation, but we almost never will yell at strangers.
Also, maybe that anger builds up?
On Mar 22, 2013 rajesh wrote on Serving Is Different From Helping And Fixing, by Rachel Naomi Remen:
While i am trying to move towards not being thanked, i must say being acknowledged today does motivate me. And i don't just mean getting thanked, but if i get a chance to talk about it in a circle or mention the (sum of) experience(s), even as people acknowledge that this is 'just what i do' i do thrive on the positive feedback and use it to keep going.
It might be an ego game, and it might include a part of establishing a connection, even a temporary bond.
What i was trying to see from the receivers viewpoint was that the semantics do change. If we are making a distinction between serving and helping, and i can see how that can be important, we also should see the distinction (if any) for the receiver. The same words reverse. I would (and feel that others would) rather say "Thank you for helping" than "Thank you for your service". Even if the service was done anonymously, we are still inclined to say "Thanks for the help i received today" than "Thanks for the service i received today".
I should want to move towards my prayers including "Thanks for the ecoystem services provided today"!
On Oct 3, 2019 Rajesh wrote on My Neighbor's Corn, by Naren Kini:
The next year a neighbor of the farmer won the prize. And the reporter went and interviewed photographed him. After that he went to meet the earlier farmer: "Your strategy to win appears to have backfired. Your neighbor won this year."
The farmer replied: "Don't you see? When my neighbor wins, I win. It is some of my corn that pollinated the winner's. And next time I will get some of that back. The community always wins, that is the important thing."