The world as I see it...

We are all endowed with five physical senses. That’s obvious! I would like to maintain that we have sixth physical sense, namely the mind. We tend to separate the physical senses from the mind which we term as a mental faculty. But in reality we use the mind and the other five physical senses to see, feel, hear, touch, taste and perceive the external world.

Some may argue that the mind, in reality, does not require an external world. It can still be ticking and conscious in the absence of an external reality. But regardless, we perceive the world outside through these 6 sense organs. The mind with the brain is the 6th sense organ. I would like to consider the brain as the hardware and the mind as the software since the mind is essentially is made up of thought processes which operate on the brain.

I perceive the world through these 6 senses. The mind is made up of facts, ideas, experience, reasons. Based on our experiences we draw conclusions, form opinions and create ideas. We compartmentalize the world we experience into nice little partitions based on our past experiences.

Every waking moment I see the world through this apparatus of mine which is made of the mind and the other 5 physical senses. I create new experiences, I form new opinions. I form new biases. I react to this external world of events through this mind of mine which is repository of my past experiences.

So I look, hear, touch, taste, smell, conclude, reason and react to the external world of events. But then “who am I”. Am I my mind and the physical senses or is there more to me? Clearly I am not this apparatus of mine. Behind this apparatus is the life force which energizes my body and my mind and the other 5 senses enable me to perceive the world as it is.
Given the fact that I am beyond my senses and my mind with this experience do I need to be affected by things that are only perceived through my mind. Clearly not! While this understanding is important to our handling of pleasure and pain we need this physical body to actively participate in this world of ours.

So while we should not be affected by pleasure or pain which we only perceive through this physical body of ours, this very same physical body is what we have to actively live in the world and do service to others.

Key strategies to power your career

Success in professional life is rarely accidental. It is the result of a well thought out plan carried out to perfection as one moves from rung to rung in the organizational hierarchy. Here are some key strategies, which if pursued, will give a better control over your career and will make your rise in the organization fairly smooth

Learning to learn: This is by far the most important quality we need when we enter the professional world. We need to learn how to learn. We need to be able to absorb the essence of our task, assignment or project. Any work that we perform we need to know both what to learn and how to learn. We need to able to look above the immediate project requirements and appreciate its function in a holistic way. We need to fully understand the product, the technologies involved, what problem it solves and how it ultimately benefits the end user.

Depth over breadth and vice versa: If you are in the technical ladder make sure that your swim deep and long. Spend time learning the implications, intricacies and nuances of the technologies involved. Learn to appreciate the various tradeoffs that have to be taken in the work being done. On the contrary, if you are a project or a program manager focus on breadth rather on depth. Understand the benefits and shortcomings of the involved technology and various allied technologies. Understand industry trends and how the project fits in the organizational business plan.

Make the right moves: At every stage one has to be aware of where one is with respect to the goal. We need to monitor and make mid course corrections. It is quite likely that as you move along in your professional life you may want to switch technology domains or shift to management. These are conscious decisions that you will have to weigh and take as you go along. As you grow you have understand where you want to go and how you want to get there. This is the mark of a true leader. We will hit several crossroads during our career. Our decisions should be directed towards our long term goal. Make sure the choices you make contribute to your professional, monetary and emotional accounts.

Look from the other side of the fence: If you are technically inclined learn the basics of project & program management. Understand and appreciate the challenges of people management. Don’t pigeon-hole yourself into a technical-only slot. If on the other hand you are a project manager you must spend time becoming tech savvy. Try to get an all round view of all related technology. Technical people prefer managers who are tech savvy.

Plan for Success: This is critical for career growth. Make sure you plan for success. In the words of Yogi Berra “If you don’t know where you are going you might wind up someplace else”. Bring focus to both short and long term goals and work towards achieving them.

Understand and appreciate “Management Speak”: This is something that is very critical to your career growth. Make sure you understand the jargon that senior management tends to use “for e.g. 10,000 ft view”, “project risks”, ”quality improvement”. Do not shy away from this type of management jargon. In the early years most of tend to take management jargon lightly. Put yourself in your boss’s shoes and understand and appreciate the challenges he faces. It is good idea to understand the direction your organization is heading with respect to other peer organizations

Network: Networking is a critical to your success in the long run. Get to know your peers, subordinates, your boss and his peers. The more you network, the better are the chances of your success. It is imperative that you not only grow your professional network but also keep it well-oiled. You will learn a lot of people skills by networking. Networking will keep you abreast of all the latest trends in the industry, besides many organizations prefer referrals while recruiting.

Visibility speaks: Success in the professional world depends a lot on your visibility to the top management. Make sure that you help or lead any effort that is organization or at least department wide. It is very important that you grab opportunities to lead. This will not only increase your visibility but will also improve your organizational skills and make you understand the challenges of making things happen.

You will spend close to a quarter of a century in your professional avatar. Having a proper plan and working towards your career goal is important to both your financial and emotional well being. So ensure that you make all the right moves in your career.

What drives us to do better?

What is it that impels us to do things better? What is it that goads to excel in certain things? We often hear the word ‘passion’ being bandied about. In fact passion is often used as an excuse when we are confronted with new learning new skills, domains. For example we will stay away from learning a musical instrument, or learning programming by conveniently saying that such skills require passion. But then what exactly is passion. Does passion just come about or does it have to be built in small steps?

In my opinion passion has to be patiently built in small stages. There are two essential ingredients in developing passion for anything. They are

Attitude: This is the first criteria when we are about to embark in learning something new. We need to have the right attitude. We should not assume that something is distasteful even before we start. We have to have an open mind when we are trying to learn something new. It could be painting, writing or playing a new musical instrument. We should free from any or all biases. We should approach the skill with an open mind. This is the most fundamental requirement to plant the seeds of passion in us.

The taste of progress: As we learn something new the taste of progress is what drives us to do better in any new skill. In whatever we are trying to learn when we start to see signs of progress we will be motivated to do better. As we learn the new skill our minds are constantly sending back feedback on our own progress. When we are able to perceive our own progress we will start to experience the thrill of learning. The taste of progress can be internal. It can be progress that we ourselves perceive. For example when we are learning to swim and we successfully are able to propel ourselves in water, for the first time, we will feel the flush of excitement.

On the other hand we can get feedback from others about our progress. For example when a person learning a new musical instrument is appreciated by others he/she is bound to feel the thrill of success. What goads a teacher is being able to see “the moment of understanding” in his/her students. An orator or an artiste would like to capture the complete attention of their audience and be able to feel their pulse during the performance. When a performer gets this feedback from the audience he/she is impelled to excel.

Hence passion does not happen by chance. It requires an open attitude and patience while learning. When you begin to taste progress and the ability to improvise at will you will be propelled to further improve and excel.

A Strategy for Happiness

Kenichi Ohmae in his classic book, “The Mind of a Strategist”, on organizational strategy, poses a very important question. While the book is devoted to strategies for solving organizational issues, the question he poses is pertinent even in our daily lives. This question that Kenichi Ohmae poses to us is this: Are the questions we ask designed to address the symptoms of a problem or are the questions so framed so as to point to possible solutions? In most cases, he says, we err towards asking questions that try to remedy particular symptoms.

This is what this post is going to focus on. There is an art to questioning. As Abraham Lincoln famously said, “I would prefer a man who asks the right questions to a man who knows the right answers”. With regard to happiness, we should not ask ourselves “Why am I unhappy?” rather we should ask ourselves, “How can I make myself happy?”

The former question tries to focus on our laundry list of problems. Each of us will always have a set of pet peeves in life. Such a question will only bring forward all our miseries in life. It could be not having the right job, not getting a promotion or people not subscribing to your point of your view. Whatever may be the reason, when we ask ourselves “Why am I unhappy?” we are setting ourselves for further unhappiness by dwelling on our problems in life.

The problem with the earlier question is that while it focuses on the issues in our life it does not point towards any solution. We will just be turned towards many things that are not in our control and we will feel helpless.

Rather the right question we should put to ourselves should be “How can I make myself happy?” With this type of questioning we are forced to look for constructive ways out of our present unhappy state. The answers could be as simple as starting a reading habit or it could be starting on some creative endeavor like painting, poetry or photography. Others may find peace in doing random acts of kindness.

So our strategy for happiness should be based on the right questions that we pose for ourselves. The art of asking the right questions actually goes beyond personal happiness. It can be used as an effective way of solving our daily problems in life.

Who am I?

“Who am I?” this question suddenly popped into my mind today. This question “Who am I?” has been plaguing philosophers for an eternity. Everybody from ancient Indian thinkers to Zen Buddhists has struggled with this question.

I was not interested in metaphysical concepts of the ‘I” as the soul or the atman. I wanted to look at myself as an ordinary observer and try to understand what this “I” is. With a little thought I came to realize that I am aware of my “I” through my pre-dispositions in life.

At the most basic level I am pure consciousness. “I” am the life force behind this mortal frame, the power behind my mind and intellect. However there is something unique in my “I”. I realized “I” was a bundle of fears, anxieties, likes and dislikes. I knew “myself” by how “I” reacted to external events. There were certain things that made me happy, certain things that made me sad, and other things that annoyed me. I had buttons which when pressed truly irritated me.

At a the surface it looked like “I” was just a product of my life’s experiences, a bundle of things I learnt from my childhood and things taught to me by my parents, teachers and friends and my environment.

So while “I” came into existence after my birth, am “I” just a sum total of my living years? With a little more thought I realized that this cannot be. Clearly “I” am more than just my experiences in life. I also have instincts and innate tendencies that were neither learnt nor taught to me in this life time. As a human being “I: was more inclined to go after pleasure and avoid anything either caused pain or disappointment. These came to me as a package from my birth. So where did these instincts and innate tendencies come from?

One answer, if one believes in the transmigration of the soul, according to Hindu and Buddhist philosophy we could say that my instincts are all the learned experiences of my soul which existed in other bodies before myself. Since this theory has neither been proved nor disproved I wanted a more rational explanation.

So I realized that my inborn instincts are the product of genetic transference from my ancestors. The experiences of my forefathers and ancestors were transferred from generation to generation to the now living and breathing “I”.

I came to the understanding that “I” was older than my own age. “I” had been living from millions of years. I realized that “I” was not just myself but much, much more.

The edifice of self-esteem

We are not born with self-esteem. Self-esteem cannot be thrust on us. We can only achieve our self-esteem in our lives. The esteem with which we hold ourselves is always the result of our own unstinting efforts in achieving the goals that we have set for ourselves.

A person with self-esteem exudes quiet confidence.

The way to build our esteem is to set ourselves small, achievable goals in life and go about in achieving them. Each success that we achieve in our life adds to our internal fund of esteem. Our esteem has to be built brick by brick in a similar fashion that a large building is constructed. We need patience and commitment in building our esteem.

There are no shortcuts to self esteem. Success and fame achieved by accident or through devious means will not add to our self esteem. They can only inflate our ego or makes us vain. The vanity that results will not have affirm foundation as we will know in our hearts that the success was by chance or not well deserved.

However l victories that are achieved through honest effort, however small, will truly increase our own esteem. These successes are truly enduring and manifest itself in the self-pride that we develop. This is because we know in every fiber of our being that the success was well deserved and was a result of one’s own efforts.

It takes a long time to build one’s self-esteem. But once it is built it is difficult to destroy it. Self-esteem is like a fortress around oneself. A solid self-esteem can withstand any amount of derogatory and deprecatory comments. On the contrary, vanity in a person as a result of an inflated ego can easily be crushed. A person can be easily hurt if his opinion of himself/herself is a consequence of his/her ego.

Self-esteem is that magnificent edifice that we build for ourselves through our own untiring efforts. A person with self esteem is aware of his/her strengths and is also aware of his/her weaknesses. While self-esteem instills confidence in the person it also brings about a certain amount of humility.

Self esteem is truly the amalgamation of confidence and humility. While self esteem takes a long time to build it is well worth the effort.

It's all in the mind

Life is not fair. How often does this thought crop up in our minds? We always feel that we are at the receiving end of the stick as opposed to our friends or colleagues who seem to have a great time. We can easily come up with umpteen reasons as to why we are worse off than our neighbor.

Why does this happen? Actually it all depends on our own perception of reality. We develop a distorted view of the world and our place in the scheme of things. For some reason our minds prefer to focus on the negatives of our life and the positives of others. For some unknown reason we prefer to feel miserable and lousy. To me it appears almost that by nature man tends to gravitate towards negativity in life. It is almost as if the mind would like to trick itself into believing that the world is loaded against it.

Our understanding of our own state is distorted and our perception of neighbor’s supposed cheer in life is completely incorrect. We tend to dwell on where things are wrong with us. Also we have only a partial view of our neighbor who seems to have it better than us.

Nothing can be farther from the truth. For one our neighbor has their own share of problems in the world to handle. Moreover our own life is not as bad as it seems to be. It is quite likely that there are certain areas where fate could have treated us better, but clearly there will be many things for which we need to be grateful for.

It is possible that at certain points in life, fate could have dealt us a bad hand. But what is important is how we respond to the situation. Rather than fretting and fuming about the unfairness of fate we could choose to take positive action to offset the effect of our fate. Moreover we should focus on the many blessings we have in life. For one we could be free of any debilitating disease or we could have a stable income and family etc.

If we only look around ourselves we will find many reasons to be grateful. We need to re-focus our mind to dwell on our little blessings rather than our faults.

We have to understand that our perception of reality and reality as it is are completely different. We have to free ourselves from the bleak picture that our mind creates for us.

Corruption: The descent into hell

Here are some really dark and disturbing statistics.
1) Recent estimates from UNICEF (2006) state that each year, under nutrition contributes to the deaths of about 5.6 million children under the age of five.
2) Malaria is estimated to cause around 3 -5 million deaths annually
3) AIDs responsible for 5% of deaths worldwide and caused 2.3 - 2.5 million deaths in 2003.
4) 1.1 billion people lack good, clean water supplies, and 2.7 billion have no access to proper sanitation

In the view of these issues confronting the world the Copenhagen Consensus in 2004 & 2008 investigated the various options to address the problems facing the world. The Copenhagen Consensus tried to identify the top 3 problems that would need to be addressed assuming that $50 billion was available at its disposal to solve these problems. Based on their analysis it was identified that HIV/AIDs, malnutrition, trade development and malaria were the top 4 issues that should be addressed for maximum effect.

Now in the light of these pressing problems of the world I would like to take a look at the issue of corruption in public life by those in power.

What level of depravity would a person have to descend to in order to amass wealth for himself, his kith and kin and his descendants through wrongful means and deprive millions of their share? How can a person ignore the problems of everybody else and only focus on hoarding wealth through illegal means.

Corruption truly indicates a distorted view of oneself and the world. It is truly the height of selfishness. The corrupt politician not only lacks a heart but is also probably blind. If not he/she would definitely would be aware of the poverty and problems facing society and he would not cheat the world.

In this world where millions are starving, children are undernourished and malnourished, and a large section of the population lack clean drinking water we have politicians who cheat the country and its people of billions of dollars and stash it in foreign banks. How heartless can these people be?

I guess the Copenhagen Consensus could be given its $50 billion if we could only recover the billions of ill-gotten wealth from the corrupt politicians and put the money to good use in solving the problems of the world.

The Grass on the other side is brown ...

Make no mistake “the grass on the other side of the fence is not green”. Usually our grouse in life is that our friends or neighbors are better off in life than we are. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

The reality is everybody in this world has his or her own share of problems. We are also given our own unique quota of problems. What differentiates one human being from another is how he or she goes about solving their problems.

The important thing in life is to recognize that though our friends and neighbors appear to have things that you don’t have they also go through tough times. The moment we realize this we need not fret and fume about how others have their lives all arranged and nicely parceled.

We just need to look at our own lives and tackle the problems that we are faced with. As long as we use our mind to skillfully solve problems we can tide over a lot of life’s difficulties.

We have to learn to accept that we are given a set of issues in this finite life of ours to solve and clear away. We need to put our minds in cleverly solving problems. We need to use our ingenuity to solve the problems that confront us and not fritter away our energies in sulking and envying the lives of others.

The moment we realize that everybody their share of problems and we fully confront our problems wholeheartedly we can keep our spirits cheerful and soaring high!

Key strategies to power your career

Success in professional life is rarely accidental. It is the result of a well thought out plan carried out to perfection as one moves from rung to rung in the organizational hierarchy. Here are some key strategies, which if pursued, will give a better control over your career and will make your rise in the organization fairly smooth

Learning to learn: This is by far the most important quality we need when we enter the professional world. We need to learn how to learn. We need to be able to absorb the essence of our task, assignment or project. Any work that we perform we need to know both what to learn and how to learn. We need to able to look above the immediate project requirements and appreciate its function in a holistic way. We need to fully understand the product, the technologies involved, what problem it solves and how it ultimately benefits the end user.

Depth over breadth and vice versa: If you are in the technical ladder make sure that your swim deep and long. Spend time learning the implications, intricacies and nuances of the technologies involved. Learn to appreciate the various tradeoffs that have to be taken in the work being done. On the contrary, if you are a project or a program manager focus on breadth rather on depth. Understand the benefits and shortcomings of the involved technology and various allied technologies. Understand industry trends and how the project fits in the organizational business plan.

Make the right moves: At every stage one has to be aware of where one is with respect to the goal. We need to monitor and make mid course corrections. It is quite likely that as you move along in your professional life you may want to switch technology domains or shift to management. These are conscious decisions that you will have to weigh and take as you go along. As you grow you have understand where you want to go and how you want to get there. This is the mark of a true leader. We will hit several crossroads during our career. Our decisions should be directed towards our long term goal. Make sure the choices you make contribute to your professional, monetary and emotional accounts.

Look from the other side of the fence: If you are technically inclined learn the basics of project & program management. Understand and appreciate the challenges of people management. Don’t pigeon-hole yourself into a technical-only slot. If on the other hand you are a project manager you must spend time becoming tech savvy. Try to get an all round view of all related technology. Technical people prefer managers who are tech savvy.

Plan for Success: This is critical for career growth. Make sure you plan for success. In the words of Yogi Berra “If you don’t know where you are going you might wind up someplace else”. Bring focus to both short and long term goals and work towards achieving them.
Understand and appreciate “Management Speak”: This is something that is very critical to your career growth. Make sure you understand the jargon that senior management tends to use “for e.g. 10,000 ft view”, “project risks”, ”quality improvement”. Do not shy away from this type of management jargon. In the early years most of tend to take management jargon lightly. Put yourself in your boss’s shoes and understand and appreciate the challenges he faces. It is good idea to understand the direction your organization is heading with respect to other peer organizations

Network: Networking is a critical to your success in the long run. Get to know your peers, subordinates, your boss and his peers. The more you network, the better are the chances of your success. It is imperative that you not only grow your professional network but also keep it well-oiled. You will learn a lot of people skills by networking. Networking will keep you abreast of all the latest trends in the industry, besides many organizations prefer referrals while recruiting.

Visibility speaks: Success in the professional world depends a lot on your visibility to the top management. Make sure that you help or lead any effort that is organization or at least department wide. It is very important that you grab opportunities to lead. This will not only increase your visibility but will also improve your organizational skills and make you understand the challenges of making things happen.

You will spend close to a quarter of a century in your professional avatar. Having a proper plan and working towards your career goal is important to both your financial and emotional well being. So ensure that you make all the right moves in your career.

Diversifying Happiness

Man's primary goal in life,from time immemorial, is the pursuit of happiness. Our every endeavor in life is geared to the increase of our happiness quotient. We may be interested in joy through the attainment of Nirvana or in happiness through the acquisition of material wealth, power or glory.

Whatever be the pursuit the common denominator of all mankind's activities is for an increase in his happiness.

Given that we are interested in increasing our happiness or contentment levels it makes sense to identify ways to keep our happiness levels brimming or overflowing.

A common sense way to make sure that we are happy and joyful in life is to diversify our investment in many activities that can bring to us consequent happiness. We need to pursue several activities each of which can bring a certain level of happiness to us.

For example we could learn some new skill like playing a musical instrument, involving ourselves in creative activity etc. As we become more proficient we will can bask in a sense of achievement. We could also involve ourself in doing our bit to the needy and the underprivileged. From this activity we can derive satisfaction when we do our bit to the needy. We could try to spend quality time with our family on a regular basis. This can greatly contribute to your joy at home.

In any case it is important that our returns to our happiness pool is from several different and diverse activities that we have spawned off. At no point in time should we pin our happiness on the outcome of just one single event. For example if we were to pin our hopes on getting that promotion in office, getting a raise or for example getting admission in some college in which you have set your heart on you are setting yourself for some painful experience.

The key take away is that if our joy at any point in life is dependent on just one single event we can feel crushed if that does not happen.

The important thing in life is to ensure that we invest in several parallel activities in life and reap the returns from some or all of these events turning in our favor.

Hence to lead a happy life "diversify your happiness" and reap rich dividends of joy.

In search of power, glory and prosperity

What distinguishes man from animals is his ability to reason. Man has the ability to choose an action from a set of valid alternatives. The action that he chooses should be based on the values that he cherishes. Values can be anything as long as they are founded on true north principles of integrity, kindness and compassion.

How should man conduct himself in life? Are there valid goals that are worth pursuing? What should be basis for goals that we set for ourselves?

Any goal in life is good as long as it is the result of a rational choice that man makes based on his inner values in life.

For example one’s value could be acquisition of great wealth through legitimate means. The person may be keen on gaining riches through dint of hard work, judicious choices and opportunities that he is able to see.

On the other hand a person’s value could be attainment of power and the ability to drive things on attainment. Similarly others may yearn for fame.

All these are perfectly valid values and do give a person a purpose in life. What is wrong in wanting to be multi-millionaire, or to have the immense power or far flung glory? All these are perfectly reasonable goals in life. It is only necessary that achievement of these goals is done through legitimate means.

Wealth, if it is not just for one’s own selfish pleasure, can be put to great use for the uplifting of the underprivileged. Similarly, power, if it is not misused can drive a lot of good actions.

There is nothing wrong in wanting riches, power or fame as long as one is willing to put it to good use for oneself and for society. We do have a Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, who is using his fortune to eradicate diseases like malaria and polio from the face of the earth. We are all aware of Mahatma Gandhi who used his enormous moral power to win India’s freedom and to eliminate the evils of casteism and untouchability. Similarly we have a Michael Jordan or a Sachin Tendulkar who have achieved great fame and are role models for aspiring youngsters.

As long as our ambitions are grounded in good values of integrity, human kindness and compassion there is every reason to chase the dreams that we have.

The Rationale of Values

Ayn Rand in “Objectivist Ethics” discusses her reasoning behind ethics. Ethics are nothing but a code of values. Values represent a choice among a set of possible alternatives. How are values defined? Who has defined them and against what have they been defined. Ayn Rand argues that life is the standard against which any code of ethics should be measured. Anything that prolongs life is to be pursued against anything that results in death.

While life is the basis for measurement of ethics how does one decide what is “good” and what is “evil”? Is the concept of “good” and “evil” based on the whim of a person, or on whims of society or does it just come from some mystical books. How does one define what is “good” and what is “evil?” To this Ayn Rand suggests that anything that results in pleasure to mankind must necessarily be good and anything that induces pain must be evil. So all things that promote pleasure or happiness can be assumed as being good and those that cause suffering can be assumed to be evil. Also man has to use his reason to determine what causes happiness and what causes suffering and not base these on what has been said or told to him. He has to use his reason and make rational choices in life.

Based on these premises Ayn Rand shows that there is virtue in selfishness where the primary purpose of man is the pursuit of happiness based rational choices in life. She explains that a selfish pursuit of pleasure does not imply the harm or the hurting of others. She advocates a policy where each individual works towards his own happiness and collaborates with others in society through a policy of give and take akin to trade.

Based on the premise that life is the standard of measure for a code of ethics and definition of “good” as anything that promotes happiness and “evil” to be anything that causes suffering I would like to investigate whether the commonly known values stand up to this test. The only additional condition that I would like to add is that “good” is anything that promotes happiness for the individual and the larger happiness of the society and “evil” is anything that causes pain to individual or the larger part of the society.

Integrity: Integrity is the virtue where one follows one’s convictions based on what is right and what is wrong. Assuming that the individual has exercised his reason he is bound to have a sound system of convictions. When somebody goes against his/her own conviction then he/she is bound to feel unsettled resulting in suffering. Hence integrity can be shown as maintaining inner peace and is definitely a value to be adhered to.

Honesty: Honesty denotes that we deal with reality as it is and we done misrepresent reality to ourselves or to others. Imagine a world where this value is not adhered to. Then we will never know what reality is there will be utter confusion resulting in chaos or in other words suffering. So logically honesty is a value that promotes peace and contentment in the individual and the society

Kindness: What is the reasoning behind kindness? Clearly when somebody is kind to us our happiness increases. So it makes perfect sense that we can increase the happiness quotient of others and consequently our own by being kind to others. This is simply based on doing unto others those acts that would have made us happy if we were on the receiving end of the act.

Trust: Trust is the axis around which society revolves. Being trustworthy is necessary and basing our actions on trust is extremely important for the smooth progress of society. This value also clearly stands to reasoning and promotes the well being of the individual and society.

Humility: The virtue of humility signifies that one has a balanced view of one’s own achievements and capabilities. It implies an absence of arrogance while at the same time denotes strong self-esteem. The value of humility is clearly a virtue that promotes contentment as opposed to excessive which can cause untold suffering if the ego is hurt.

So it clearly can be seen that the values of integrity, kindness, humility, trust and others truly stand to the test of reason and logic and promotes peace and contentment which should be basis for all actions. Hence a life that is based on sound north values is surely a life worth living.

Virtue - Defying definition

Virtue denotes moral excellence according to the dictionary meaning. But can virtue be defined? We normally consider acts of honesty, kindness, humility, compassion as virtue. But on closer observation we find that virtues cannot be so easily defined.

In fact nothing is more nebulous than virtue. Every act that we perform cannot be viewed in isolation. We need to take a holistic view of the act - the situation, the circumstances, the cause and the consequences of the act before classifying the act as being morally excellent or not.

A naive definition of truth is generally understood to be a simple statement of a fact. This is what we as kids learn. However as we grow older we learn that sometimes we need tact rather than direct statement of facts - hence we sugar coat the truth. Other times we may have to tell a white lie where we withhold a certain part of the fact when we know that mere telling of the fact can cause greater harm than good. This brings to mind the anecdote in which a sage on being asked by bandits with murderous intentions whether he saw a man flee in a particular direction simply states the fact, resulting in the man being caught and killed. The sage could have told a white lie in this situation. In these situations truth which is pure and the highest virtue cannot be the simple statement of fact.

Another situation that can be considered is when a corporate needs to retrench a part of the workforce. For the employees affected by this move it does appear cruel. But in the eyes of the CEO such a move is necessary for long term health of the organization. In these situations again virtue cannot be easily defined. On the one hand it resulted in people losing jobs and earning capacity at least temporarily, while on the other hand it prevents further decay in the organization.

Was Robin Hood, who stole from the rich, to give to the poor justified in his act? While it may appear that Robin Hood was stealing on the other hand he was using the stolen wealth to help the poor. With this view can virtue be defined as an act in which the ends are noble, though the means are not? Or does virtue necessitate that both the means and the ends be morally justifiable.

The reality is virtue is relative in many ways and really needs to be viewed in totality. We can think of virtue as any act that provides the greatest good for the greatest number or the greatest good for the greatest time. In many ways the Hindu concept of dharma is closest to this view.

In fact at the highest realm of virtue, one virtue is really indistinguishable from another, Hence if we look at virtue as an act that produces the most beneficial consequence then truth, kindness, non-violence and compassion all merge together becoming virtually distinguishable.
Hence virtue at the highest level cannot be easily defined and is in reality an amalgam of many virtues.

Dissecting Desire

Desire, we are often told, is the root of all misery. But what is the root of desire? Is there something behind desire that makes us crave for certain things?

We may have desire for wealth, material possessions, an office promotion or fame. Is there a common denominator behind desire?

Whenever we want something we are usually prompted by thoughts of increased happiness, more satisfaction etc. For e.g. the reason most of us desire wealth is because we think that more wealth implies more happiness. To a large extent the thoughts of an increase in our happiness quotient is the result of our memory. We can easily recall our experiences when we have a pleasant experience because of more money. So in many cases the cause behind our desire is the memory that tells us that when we achieve the object of desire we will be happier. Our memory is based on past experiences of similar events. So our experience coupled with the pleasurable recollection of the experience is one of the causes of desire. Another factor behind desire is the thought of an increased comfort that will be ours when we get what we desire.

However another of the causes of our desire is an imagined future. For example when we crave for fame, power or a promotion at office we usually imagine that when we achieve that power or fame we will also win the esteem of our friends and relatives. To some extent the motivation for the need for an increase in the self-esteem in the eyes of others is driven by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in which esteem is the second most important need of mankind below the need for self-actualization. This feeling of an imagined increase in one’s value in the eyes of others is a powerful driver for a lot of our desires.

Hence the root of desire is either the lure of pleasure, the promise of more comfort or an increase in one’s esteem in the eyes of others.

Whatever the drivers are for our desire it is difficult to get rid of desire. Without the exercise of powerful restraint we really cannot suppress desire.

Repressing desire will only result in conflict and will usually result in a losing battle. The more judicious approach is to sublimate the desire we have for wealth, power or fame.

In my opinion, it is not wrong to desire more wealth, power or fame as long as one utilizes what one gets also for the benefit of others.

Clearly if the desire of wealth, recognition or power is not merely selfish but is also used for the benefit of society at large then it makes very good sense to go after what one desires.

The Center of Happiness

To most of us happiness depends on us getting that raise, a promotion, acquiring some material things or achieving recognition and respect etc. In all these cases the center of our happiness is our own petty self. Our happiness or lack of it is dependent on our own self-centered view of the world.

We expect some external event to happen which results in our happiness. We hold our happiness hostage to the occurrence the external event. We are in a way helpless as we are dependent on events happening to make us happy.

Why can’t we shift the center of our happiness from being centered on oneself to being centered on others?

This requires a radical shift in our mind set.

Can we change our world view such that we strive to make other happy in anyway? Can we make others happy by alleviating their suffering of others? Can we derive our own satisfaction and consequent happiness from this effort?

We can help others monetarily, mentally or morally.

That is the key? Why do we have to hold our happiness slave to some external event because our joy is centered on our self? Why cannot we move this center to the world around us and derive joy by making others happy.

If we are able to look beyond our own self-centered view of the world, to a more encompassing view of society at large, then the happiness that we gain by making others happy will be more enduring and more long lasting.

The other important fact is that we are in control of our actions in making others happy. We don’t have to feel helpless in waiting for some things to happen in our lives. We can proactively work towards help others and centering our happiness in our service for others.

Causes of suffering

Suffering and misery are inevitable in life. While we cannot wish away our suffering it is definitely worthwhile to understand some of the causes behind our suffering.

The causes of misery are either in our past, in our present or in an imagined future.

Painful Past: Quite a few people suffer from this sort of misery. These people look back at their past lives and keep wishing that it had occurred in a different way. They are not able to come to terms with their failures, their sorrows and their indiscretions of the past. It really does not make sense to moan a painful past. What has happened has happened and we need to get over it. There is no sense in tying oneself into knots about the past which cannot be changed. We just need to get over it and move on in life.

Imagined Future: Then there are others who wish for a rosy future and fret and fume in the present. They sincerely hope for something in their future - a promotion, getting through some exam or acquiring some material possession. They are so are wound up in all their fantasies that they find the present drab and hence suffer. They live in an imagined world and fail to see reality as it is. It does not make sense to spoil the present based on an imagined future

Unbearable Present: The third type of suffering happens in the present. The causes behind this kind of suffering are many.

Conflict with our world view: This is the most common type of suffering that we face in the present i.e. we expect the world to behave in a certain way but people act in a completely different way. We expect our friends, our spouses, our colleagues to treat us with certain sensitivity. When this does not happen we feel utterly miserable.

Ego: This is another root cause of our misery. We tend have a certain opinion of ourselves. In some it may even border on vanity. When somebody treats us with disdain or insults us we feel utterly hurt and our ego is crushed. This can cause a lot of undue suffering.

Desire: This is the third cause of suffering in the present. We want many things in our life. We want money, wealth, recognition and respect. When our desires are not met we suffer.

While there is no easy way out of our suffering, becoming aware of the causes of our misery enables us to handle our lives better. As we learn the root causes we can devote our attention to the causes and eradicate them.

In this way we can at least strive for a more peaceful existence.

Directing Mental energy

Thought in action utilizes energy. All kinds of mental activity require mental energy to be performed. All mental activity, whether it is for creating, analyzing, getting worked up or being jealous requires energy.

Since any activity that involves the mind requires energy it is important that we direct our mind into only towards fruitful and beneficial activities.

Whenever we get angry against someone, get irritated or frustrated we expend a lot of mental energy. When we spend a lot of time just getting worked we will feel exhausted after some time. There will be times where we repeatedly relive some situation and keep getting angrier and angrier. We will dwell on some cyclical thought which will enervate us. The energy that is spent in our irritations, frustrations or anger serves no purpose. This will only make us feel drained of energy.

On the other hand if we spend time directing our thoughts towards fruitful activities then the mental energy that we expend will give us some useful result. For example we could direct our thoughts to solving our immediate problems or in learning some new skill that will help us in our personal or professional life. Alternatively we could focus on planning for our future and taking necessary steps so that our path in the future is smooth.

This is judicious use of our mental energy.

But the problem with most of us is that we fritter away our mental energies in petty disagreements, in hate games, in irritations and anger. We do not realize that this sort of mental activity is a waste of our mental resources and will only makes us feel drained after some time.

If you feel angry about something or someone try to see the futility of it and get rid of it as soon as you can. Do not prolong this feeling. Re-focus your mind on some other useful activity.

Expending energy in wasteful activity like anger, frustration or irritation is equivalent to banging your head against a wall. It serves no useful purpose and we will only tend to feel tired.

So we must learn to avoid any sort of mental activity that serves no useful purpose and direct our mental energies towards creative and problem solving effort.

Delusions

Human beings are the only creatures who are capable of completely deceiving themselves. Our mind can create a web of lies and so completely fool us that we will not know what is right and what is wrong.

Take for example the mindless bomb blasts in Mumbai today. What can one think of the perpetrators of such a cruel act. What must be going through the minds of these people.

Clearly these terrorists must harbor a lot of hatred for all mankind in general. How can they justify the loss of lives. I am certain that they must be justifying their deeds by thinking that to achieve their goal they have to sacrifice lives. They must be rationalizing their actis by arguing with themselves and completely fooling themselves of what is right or what is wrong,

What propels them to commit such acts? Do they think of lives lost, the people injured? Do they realize that they will be putting a lot of people in pain. Do they choose to ignore all of this and subjugate all human suffering to their cause whatever it might be.

Are the terrorists incapable of feeling or is their mind so warped that they cannot comprehend tenderness and love.

They must be utilizing their reason for all the wrong purposes.

When people do not pursue their lives by following true north principles of love, compassion, kindness are bound to be led astray by their mind.

The mind can become the vessel for dialbolical deeds accompanied by thoughts justifying and reasoning the devilish act.

The mind of these terrorists must be devoid of any possible human trait.

May they wake up to good sense and truth. May these people see the innocent smile a child. May they realize the joy of happiness gained by making others happy.

Imagination - Friend or Foe?

Our imagination can either behave as our friend or our foe. This depends on how we use this powerful faculty that has been bestowed on us. Our imagination can provide great service to us if we employ it properly, alternatively it can also be our greatest enemy.

Our imagination enables us to think creatively. We are able to visualize many things over and above they really are because of the faculty of our imagination. Some of the greatest works of art, music and literature are the products of fertile imagination. The eternal works of Shakespeare, Kalidasa, Mozart or a Vinci are the results of vivid imagination. Imagination if used properly can help us create, visualize and solve difficult problems. In these aspects our imagination is our greatest ally, helping us transcend ordinary realms of mortals and helps us to leave behind a lasting legacy.

But our imagination can also be our greatest enemy if we let our mind run loose. Sometimes when we are faced with problems in life our imagination starts running wild. We start to imagine all sorts of problems. We see disasters where there is none. We get overly stressed because we lose control of our minds and our imagination makes our lives a virtual nightmare.

The other side of this coin when our imagination can work against us is when we assume our own greatness where there is none. There are times where we assume that people are either praising us or criticizing us. Our imagination takes over our normal cool and reasoned approach and concocts a situation that is totally untrue. There are many times we start to assume things and attributing meaning to chance remarks because our imagination makes us do so. These are situation we have to be careful against. In these situations our imagination is our enemy and we have to step back and reason out logically any assumptions or conclusions we make.

Hence our imagination can be our ally or our worst enemy. We must know not only how to utilize our imagination but also when to utilize it. That is the most important lesson of all.