Stop Thinking!

Ease Off Your Thinking

It’s tempting, when you don’t know what to do, when you don’t have an immediate answer, to try to force the issue. You try harder, think faster, attempt to figure things out, and struggle to come up with something. 

The most powerful and productive thing to do when you don’t have an immediate answer to a problem is to gently back off of your thinking, consciously ease up, 

let go, and extend less effort. Doing so frees your mind and allows your innate intelligence and wisdom to come into play.

Put another way, when you feel pressured and stressed, your wisdom is obstructed. But, as you ease off your thinking, it’s free to surface and help you. Ideas will come to you

~ Sridham Krishna Das

ಆಲೋಚನೆ ಕೈ ಬಿಡಿ

ಏನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕೆಂದು ತೋಚದಿರುವಾಗ, ಯಾವ ಉತ್ತರವೂ ತಕ್ಷಣ ಸಿಗದಿರುವಾಗ, ಹೇಗಾದರೂ ಬಗೆಹರಿಸಿಕೊಂಡು ಬಿಡಬೇಕೆಂಬ ಮನಸೆಳೆತವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಆಗ ಕಷ್ಟಪಡುತ್ತೇವೆ, ಆಲೋಚನೆಗೀಡಾಗುತ್ತೇವೆ, ಯಾವುದಾದರೂ ಪರಿಹಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಒದ್ದಾಡುತ್ತೇವೆ. ಅಂತಹ ಪರಿಸ್ಥಿತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಪ್ರಭಲ ಹಾಗೂ ಫಲಕಾರಿ ಕ್ರಿಯೆಯಂದರೆಃ ಆಲೋಚನೆಯಿಂದ ದೂರ ಸರಿಯುವುದು, ಪ್ರಜ್ಞಾಪೂರ್ವಕವಾಗಿಯೇ ಮೈ ಮನ ಸಡಿಲಗೊಳಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದು, ಯಾವುದೇ ಪ್ರಯಾಸಕ್ಕೆ ತೊಡಗದಿರುವುದು. ಆಗ ಮನಸ್ಸಿಗೆ ಒಂದು ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ ಸಿಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಅಂತರಂಗದಲ್ಲಿಯ ಸಹಜವಾದ ಬುದ್ಧಿಮತ್ತೆ ಮತ್ತು ವಿವೇಕ ಹೊರಬರಲು ಅನುವುಮಾಡಿಕೊಡುತ್ತದೆ.
ಇದನ್ನೇ ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ರೀತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹೇಳುವುದಾದರೆಃ ವತ್ತಡ, ಒತ್ತರಗಳು ನಮ್ಮ ವಿವೇಕಕ್ಕೆ ಅಡಚಣೆ ಉಂಟುಮಾಡುತ್ತದೆ. ಆದರೆ,ಆಗ ನಾವು ಯೋಚನಾಕ್ರಾಂತರಾಗದಿದ್ದರೆ ಆ ವಿವೇಕ ಮೇಲೆ ಬರಲು ಸಹಾಯವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ, ಸೂಕ್ತ ವಿಚಾರಗಳು ಹೊರಬರುತ್ತದೆ

"Me and God" in Bodhivruksha, a weekly magazine of the daily Vijayakarnataka.

http://www.bodhivrukshaepaper.com/Details.aspx?id=543&boxid=38399106

Touch of Roots / ಬೇರು ಸ್ಪರ್ಶ

Visited the land of green and cool, silence and peace, - Malnad - place of my birth and growing years -  Manchale in Sagar-Shimoga.

 Touched by the reception I got in Siddapur where I was invited by the Ganesh Hegde Foundation to distribute  its inaugural/annual award (this year)  to  Educational Field conferred to Canara Welfare Trust as well as by the sensitive and intelligent response got by the audience at Sagar where I was invited to deliver Special Lecture on 'Problems and Challenges in Education Today' under LT Thimmappa Hegde Foundation.

Love and affection, respect and concern, shown by all including my kith and kin there was indeed unbound.

ಓ ಇರುವೇ, ಈ ನೆಲ ಜನ ಋಣ ತೀರಿಸಬಲ್ಲೆನೆ? ಕಾಲದ ( ೭೦ ಕ್ಕೆ ) ಅಂಚಿ ನಲ್ಲಿರುವವ ತೀರಿಸುವುದಾದರೂ ಎನಿತು?

Gopal Shabaraya and his mother, my firends, nay my extended family, who joined me in the travel in my car made the travel and stay enchanting indeed without whom perhaps I would not have undertaken the trip.

Become a better listener

Effective listening is more than simply avoiding the bad habit of interrupting others while they are speaking or finishing their sentences. It’s being content to listen to the entire thought of someone rather than waiting impatiently for your chance to respond.

In some ways, the way we fail to listen is symbolic of the way we live. We often treat communication as if it were a race. It’s almost like our goal is to have no time gaps between the conclusion of the sentences of the person we are speaking with and the beginning of our own.

Slowing down your responses and becoming a better listener aids you in becoming a more peaceful person. It takes pressure from you. If you think about it, you’ll notice that it takes an enormous amount of energy and is very stressful to be sitting at the edge of your seat trying to guess what the person in front of you (or on the telephone) is going to say so that you can fire back your response. But as you wait for the people you are communicating with to finish, as you simply listen more intently to what is being said, you’ll feel more relaxed, and so will the people you are talking to. They will feel safe in slowing down their own responses because they won’t feel in competition with you for “airtime”!

Not only will becoming a better listener make you a more patient person, it will also enhance the quality of your relationships. Everyone loves to talk to someone who truly listens to what they are saying.

~ Bhadrarupa Krishna Dasa

BJP: COMMAND LESS HIGH COMMAND

BJP and Karnataka

B.S.Yedyurappa, the first Chief Minister of the first BJP Government in Karnataka State was forced to resign after Ombudsman, Lokayukta, indicted him with charges of corruption, favoritism and nepotism as he seem to have de-reserved the government land to distribute to his kith and kin for a song, took bribes to grant mining licenses and so on. He was jailed for months, came out on bail and is still continuing to seek anticipatory bails for the charges that are being leveled against him on other similar charges even now. When the successor to him was to be appointed as Chief Minister, he insisted that his own men should be installed to the post and the BJP  High Command yielded , notwithstanding the demands of the propriety that running the writ of  tainted and accused would damage the Party. However, the successor D.V.Sadananda Gowda, had a better sense, did not tow the line of BSY as that would have ruined the Party and the State beyond repair and went about reconstructing with proper governance which was not to the liking and benefit  of BSY and his henchmen. BSY organised a revolt with the connivance of the similar elements in his caste group including support by some of his religious leaders, insisted that his own trusted men be installed to the post succeeding DV. Again, BJP High Command yielded and agreed to install Jagadish Shettar. Shettar is being installed not because of his merit, not even merely because he is Lingayat, a dominant community which is supporting BSY's BJP government in the State, but because he is BSY man of Lingayat. Who is this BSY's BJP men Lingayats in the State?- majority of them are tainted like him, and the High Command yields to them. It is an insult to Lingayats themselves that such men are brandied as their leaders. It is an insult to the people of the State that they are made to endure such people as the only available leaders. It is an insult BJP too that its wisdom can can find and put up with only such crooks. The worst kind of caste politics is being played in Karnataka today and the National Party like BJP becomes privy to it.

 Leadership lies not in playing along with the baser elements in society like caste and community divides, asocial activities and electoral gains. Enlightened leadership lies in rising above such consideration and guide the people and the Party to move on higher planes that are in them that would contribute to peoples empowerment and progress. Instead, if we call such baser barbaric elements as 'reality', 'practicality', 'pragmatism', 'the way things are', and go along with it,  we are doomed to remain barbaric only.

There is no wonder that in spite of such a sorry state of affairs in BJP, it may still be get elected next time primarily because the other Parties are no better, they too are riddled with the same malady. People have no options, each alternative available is worse than the other and they keep changing every five years after five years hoping that the other one they had defeated last time would have learnt a lesson and would fare better this time, but to be disappointed again!  Quo Vadis?

Looking Through the Glasses!

Looking Through the Lenses!

Seeing letter double and the distant object hazy for the last year and a half or so, now at 69, decided that I may need other than my present reading glasses which I am using since more than twenty years, and went to a ‘super specialty high tech’ eye care hospital. It was a cataract, on both the eyes. Operation was on 28 June 2012 afternoon, a matter of five minutes each, although preparation took nearly an hour. A very neat job done indeed. Only a tiny local anesthesia, fully aware and watching the show in the eyes, what with dazzlingly brilliant light, a few dark patches getting removed, yellow light intervene briefly, dark with tiny speck of brilliant red dots ensued and finally ended up with fantastically bright fully crystal snowy white all over the inside eyes with a two smaller hallowed white ball one around the other at the center emanating dazzling sun yet with a mellowed assurance. What a fantastic site it was, Never felt anything entering my eyes to repair! Dark glasses were put immediately after the operation and you are ready to go home,
walk and talk straight away. Twenty four hours later you are into to reading, writing and computing.  Dark glasses are however to be worn non stop including during sleep for next 48 hours. 

The ease and comfort with which operation was done, knife less, drug less and painless, bloodless surgery performed, hassel free postoperative care, the accuracy, perfection,  thoroughness and the effectiveness of the whole procedure was amazing. One marvels at the technology available today for the quality of human welfare.

Lo! World do not look the same anymore! Be it a TV screen, print material or the surrounding people object and environment have become high definition(HD), bright and distinct with clarity and a strangely evocative. World is looked now through the man made lenses, not the gene made lenses!

TEACHER ( acharya ) AND GURU: THE DIFFERENCES

The Teacher and guru - The Difference

1. A teacher takes responsibility for your growth

    A guru makes you responsible for your growth

2. A teacher gives you things you do not have and require

    A guru takes away things you have and do not require

3. A teacher answers your questions

    A guru questions your answers

4. A teacher helps you to get out of the maze

   A guru destroys the maze 

5. A teacher requires obedience and discipline from the pupil

    A guru requires trust and humility from the pupil

6. A teacher clothes you and prepares you for the outer journey

    A guru strips you naked and prepares you for the inner journey

7. A teacher is a guide on the path

    A guru is a pointer to the way

8. A teacher sends you on the road to success

    A guru sends you on the road to freedom

9. A teacher explains the world and its nature to you

    A guru explains yourself and your nature to you

10. A teacher makes you understand how to move about in the

      world

      A guru shows you where you stand in relation to the world

11. A teacher gives you knowledge and boosts your ego

      A guru takes away your knowledge and punctures your ego

12. A teacher sharpens your mind

      A guru opens your mind

13. A teacher reaches your mind

      A guru touches your soul

14. A teacher gives you knowledge

      A guru makes you wise

15. A teacher helps you solve problems

      A guru shows you how to resolve issues

16. A teacher is a systematic thinker

      A guru is a lateral thinker

17. A teacher is to pupil what a father is to son

      A guru is to pupil what mother is to her child

18. One can always find a teacher

      But a guru has to find and accept you

19. A teacher leads you by the hand

      A guru leads you by example

20. A teacher instructs you

      A guru constructs you

21. When the course is over you are thankful to the teacher

       When the discourse is over you are grateful to the guru


Tattvaloka, Vol.35, No.2, May 2012 Pp. 34-35.