Jettisoning the Dysfunctional Baggage with Dr Thimappe Hegde (IIMA - 4th & 5th Oct'14)

When a Director and Senior Consultant Neurosurgeon at Narayana Hrudayalaya Bengaluru  flies down to Ahmedabad to help a bunch of 45 students untangle their past, its reason enough for celebration. His stated objective - to give you an 'escape velocity' that allows you to trespass the chaos around you and catapult yourself into the higher orbit of the cosmos. Clearly he made it clear that the mantras weren't new. By the time you cross the age of 30, you advertently do end up reading a couple of self-help books which are perfect from a prescriptive point of view but never implemented properly.

Events kickstarted at 7.15 PM on Saturday evening. Dr Hegde shared some instances of the complex neuro surgery cases he manages on a routine basis, operations that run into a timespan of 10 hours and where every moment is a battle between life and death. And look at the calm and radiance on his face. There is no element of EGO-Edging God Out. He considered himself as a mere cinduit through which the larger providence gets the destined act together for the individual. 

According to Swami Sukhaananda: "Rukmani loves Krishna so much that she is very possessive about him. But she hardly gets time to spent with her beloved one. But she always has marked one thing, that the flute which Krishna plays is most of the times with him, except when he takes bath or when he goes out for some specific reason. Once Rukmani thought of asking the flute as to what is so special about it a mere bamboo stick. One day, when Krishna went to take bath, Rukmani took his flute, breathed life to it and asked it "Why are you so close to Krishna! Despite being his wife, I am not able to spend that much time with him?". The flute gave a surprise look to Rukmani and told her " Even I don’t know why it’s like that. Look at me, I am empty. I am just a stick with some holes and I am of no use to anyone. But once Kirshna puts air into me, nice music comes out of it. I don’t have any mental blocks so I am close to him. So you too take out all blocks (remove your ego), be empty, then only you will be close to Krishna". Rukmani realised that Krishna’s flute represents a devotee, who has transcended his ego self and has become an unobstructed medium for the music of the soul.

This conduit approach instantly wins hearts. 

TheAnger/upset/hate, whether justified or not, are always self-destructing. Could we keep making an FIR (Frequency, Intensity and Recovery) report of our getting upset?

Are happy people grateful or is it vice-versa.?

Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words. 

Be careful of your words, for your words become your actions. 

Be careful of your actions, for your actions become your habits. 

Be careful of your habits, for your habits become your character. 

Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny.

-- Chinese proverb, author unknown

मातृ देवो भव्  पितृ देवो भव् आचार्य देवो भव् " 

Matru devo bhava Pitru devo bhava Acharya devo bhava

What a wonderful way to start the way each morning with a spirit of abundance. Much better than our usual method of getting bogged down by the workload for the day ahead or rushing to check the emails and FB statuses.

The concept of detaching the body from the embodied, the physical from the spritual was depicted.

The connect with mountaineering and the Sherpas !!!

Gratitude and misery can never co-exist. Why can't we live a life of 'Thank You, Thank you an Thank You' for having a vision, power to talk, family - innumerable things for which we can feel blessed 

The effective first session ensured that we didnt think even twice before agreeing to report at KLDMC at 6.30 AM the next morning. Even a 1.0 credit core technical course often fails to muster that kind of enthusiasm.

“Breathing in, I know that my in breath has become deep and I enjoy it. Breathing out, I see that my out-breath has become slow and I enjoy it.” - Buddha. A comprehensive session on Stress Mgt ensured that we moved out of our usual slumber and get the  tendons/ligaments [unused by modern laptop users :] moving. We realise how we were expediting the ageing process by living 24*7 on adrenaline. Why can't we pause for a while? Why can't we consciously waste time? Why can't we prolong the REM (rapid eye movement)  sleep?

The importance of paradigm shift would not have been explained better than this story by Stephen Covey.

"I remember a mini-Paradigm Shift I experienced one Sunday morning on a subway in New York. People were sitting quietly -- some reading newspapers, some lost in thought, some resting with their eyes closed. It was a calm, peaceful scene. Then suddenly, a man and his children entered the subway car. The children were so loud and rambunctious that instantly the whole climate changed.

"The man sat down next to me and closed his eyes, apparently oblivious to the situation. The children were yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people's papers. It was very disturbing. And yet, the man sitting next to me did nothing.

"It was difficult not to feel irritated. I could not believe that he could be so insensitive to let his children run wild like that and do nothing about it, taking no responsibility at all. It was easy to see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated, too. So finally, with what I felt was unusual patience and restraint, I turned to him and said, "Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn't control them a little more?"

"The man lifted his gaze as if to come to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and said softly, 'Oh, you're right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don't know what to think, and I guess they don't know how to handle it either.'

"Can you imagine what I felt at that moment? My paradigm shifted. Suddenly I saw things differently, I felt differently, I behaved differently. My irritation vanished. I didn't have to worry about controlling my attitude or my behavior; my heart was filled with the man's pain. Feelings of sympathy and compassion flowed freely. "Your wife just died? Oh, I'm so sorry. Can you tell me about it? What can I do to help?" Everything changed in an instant.

"Many people experience a similar fundamental shift in thinking when they face a life-threatening crisis and suddenly see their priorities in a different light, or when they suddenly step into a new role, such as that of husband or wife, parent or grandparent, manager or leader.

"It becomes obvious that if we want to make relatively minor changes in our lives, we can perhaps appropriately focus on our attitudes and behaviors. But if we want to make significant, quantum change, we need to work on our basic paradigms.

"In the words of Thoreau, 'For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.' We can only achieve quantum improvements in our lives as we quit hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior and get to work on the root, the paradigms from which our attitudes and behaviors flow."

Could the mandate of neing humble when wrong and all the more humble when right be followed so easily? 

Could we surrender to the इंशाल्लाह  - inshallah philosophy of life?

Why can't we forgive yourselves just like the tingue forgives the teeth and Charlie forgives his younger brother.

According to legend, an awestruck admirer looked at Michelangelo’s finished statue of David and asked him how he had done it. To which Michelangelo replied: “David was always there in the marble. I just took away everything that was not David.”

We then heard the Golden Buddha story , of how we forget the greatness that was beneath us

We are stardust. We are golden. ― Joni Mitchell

A long time ago in a distant land there stood a majestic golden Buddha statue at a monastery just outside a city. When the monks learned that an army was about to invade the city, they realized they needed to somehow protect the Buddha. Wisely they covered the Buddha with mortar and stones, so when the army came they would see but a stone Buddha and not give it a second thought. Their plan worked.

 The army remained in occupation for many years ― so many, in fact, that there came a day when no one in at the monastery or in the city remembered that the Buddha was golden. Everyone who looked upon it thought it was simply made of stone.

 One day after a young monk had been meditating on the knee of the Buddha, he rose and accidentally chipped off a piece of stone. To his amazement, he saw something shiny beneath the dust. Looking further, he realized the Buddha was not made of stone, but gold. “Come quickly!” he shouted to the other monks. “The Buddha is golden!”

 His fellow monks ran to the Buddha with tools and chipped the stone away until they had revealed the original golden Buddha in all his glory. To this day you can see the golden Buddha in Thailand.

  

The story of the golden Buddha is your story, and mine. We are all golden by nature, but the illusions and density of earth have caused us to believe we are the facades and protections we have developed. When a challenge chips away our armor, we gain a glimpse of the gold that lives within us. Then we become excited about releasing our imprisoned splendor, and we will not settle for less than our true golden nature. 

Group Games to check the agility of our minds were fun.

We had exercises where we shared the negative childhood experiences that cast a deep influence on us and where one could trace traits of our current personality. Some even had tears in their eyes, narrating an incident 20 years after its occurence, which was hitherto always a closely guarded within the family and the pain.

The humorous way of looking at things was also discussed.

We discussed ways and means of handling complex interpersonal relationships in marriage, parenting etc.

And in conclusion, cathartic exercises to eject the pent up negativity of our life

Drinking From My Saucer

I've never made a fortune

and it's probably too late now.

But I don't worry about that much,

I'm happy anyhow.

  And as I go along life's way,

I'm reaping better than I sowed.

I'm drinking from my saucer,

'Cause my cup has overflowed.

 I don't have a lot of riches,

and sometimes the going's tough.

But I've got loved ones around me,

and that makes me rich enough.

  I thank God for his blessings,

and the mercies He's bestowed.

I'm drinking from my saucer,

'cause my cup has overflowed.

   

I remember times when things went wrong,

My faith wore somewhat thin.

But all at once the dark clouds broke,

  and the sun peeped through again.

  So God, help me not to gripe about

the tough rows that I've hoed.

I'm drinking from my saucer,

'Cause my cup has overflowed.

  If God gives me strength and courage,

when the way grows steep and rough.

I'll not ask for other blessings,

  I'm already blessed enough.

  And may I never be too busy,

to help others bear their loads.

Then I'll keep drinking from my saucer,

'Cause my cup has overflowed.

~ John Paul Moore ~

Thanks Dr Hegde and DVR Sir for Inspiring Leadership Through Personal Mastery.

I wish we cna implement the " I am what I am' mantra for life