Learnings from USA trip - Part 2

While attending the tech review meetings - I happened to meet a colleague whom i had only spoken on phone and seen photograph but never seen directly. His name was Dan E, we happened to be in the same team during the tech brainstorming sessions. I had heard about him from my manager - he was one of the smartest software engineers in the company.

During the architecure - sequence diagram brainstorming - we all were kind off stuck in one placve due to too many engineers giving too many opinions. And it was hard to figure of which was the right way. Every one involved were in confusion and we werent going anywhere for 2 - 3 hours. Thats when Dan sprang into action. he calmly opened his laptop - didnt pay attention to anyone around - just kept on jotting down his thoughts in a sequence diagram. His design was so good and so easy that people wondered why they didnt think about it before.

i observed that Dan had the ability to think and "see" clearly even amidst confusion. He was very good in memory and reasoning faculties (the muladhara and svadhistana chakras). He also served the US Navy for 6 years due to which his willpower was extremely good. If you observe people who have come from the army they dont have the word impossible / difficult in their dictionary. They just come up with solutions and strategies. Dan was one of them. I realized how well Dan was functioning in the higher chakras - firing all cylinders. He had very clear vision of the goal when discussing design - never lost sight of it. He had even implemented one of the trickiest modules in an earlier project - he had written the code which would do the replacement of Tactical softwares Serial IP Ethernet. He was designing the next gen product using SilverLight Technology. He was the best architect i had ever seen for a long time. We became very good friends from aquaintances and he told me all his army stories.

The key to the functioning of Manipura chakra is never losing the sight of the Goal - and then using other faculties of reasoning and memory to shoot like an arrow towards the goal.

Learnings from USA trip - Part 1

This month has been a lot of travel – which also means a lot of learning's. Travelled from Bangalore –> Mumbai –> Frankfurt –> Chicago –> Wauwatosa, USA.

My Very first Observation

I’m sitting in the Mumbai Airport inside the Indian Airlines Flight to Frankfurt – at the moment Sharath is next to me and i realize that i have forgotten my jacket back in the waiting area. the flight is almost full and getting ready for closing doors. At this moment my mind started speaking that there is no way i can make it back outside and get the jacket. Sharath calmly advised – You may not make it but you should at least try. His comment reminded me of the basic structure of the mind – it likes to believe what it already believes. In other words i was so much actually believing that i would NOT make it back and get the jacket – that i was seeing ways why i would not make it (such as a long queue of people trying to put cabin baggage up which would prevent my exit). At that moment i wanted to challenge my mind – I reversed my belief and told myself – yes, I'm going to go to Frankfurt with that Jacket – come what may !

When i reversed on my belief and meditated on it for a few seconds – I was now looking for solutions on why I can make it - found an alternate route out of the plane and jumped into action. I made it to the exit – then a cop asked me why I’m going out. i informed him that i missed my jacket – he accompanied me to the waiting area and I found my jacket lying there – Thankfully nobody had taken it away. I got it and i made it back into the aircraft and the doors closed after i entered.

This experience explained me the way the mind works – You simply have to believe if you want something. Belief will lead to positive thoughts on how to attain the goal – this in turn will make a person happy in life.

 

Overcoming Non-persistence

 

There is a famous saying - “Persistence is what makes it sound like that the Impossible is possible, possible – likely and likely definite”

A river cuts through rock – not because of its softness but because of its persistence.

The slogan “Press On” has and always will solve the problems of the human race.

I was concerned about my being Non-persistent in my important goals of life. I observe that I am persistent in some small jobs of life – such as “brushing teeth”, “getting ready & going on time to office” etc. But was not able to apply the same in my spiritual and personal goals.

The search continued on how to attain consistency. That’s when I found this beautiful article through the help of a friend.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/athletics-physical-education-and-recreation/pe-550-designing-your-life-spring-2009/lecture-notes/MITPE_550iap09_s09_lec01.pdf

Its is from Massachusetts institute of Technology and it really helped me beat inconsistency. I’m able to beat the odds using this approach.

Goal 1 - Daily Meditation for at-least 1/2 hr.

Consequence (of not doing it) – Walking 2 km to Ganesh Temple

Goal 2 – Read Master Course lessons from Gurudeva’s Trilogy

Consequence (of not doing it) – Give 200 bucks to Wife.

BEFORE I adopted this strategy – my Success statistics were 2/8 (2 days out of 8 i was able to work consistently on my Goals)

AFTER I adopted this strategy – my Success Stats are 10/12 (10 days able to work on Goals consistency on 12 days) which is not Bad. Of course I had to walk 2 km on 2 days and also lost 400 bucks to wife :-)

As mentioned in the article – the consequence is not meant as a punishment but meant as a means to enforce integrity within myself. Now i can confidently say “Yes I can, I am able”

Aum Nama Sivaya