What I want for myself, I want for everybody

i am fortunate to be able to revisit wonderful book that i read some time back - The Science of Getting Rich in a group setting where we discuss one chapter every week on tele-conference - the wonderful interactions of friendly reading buddies (despite of being couple of thousand miles apart in physical distance!) make the understanding much deeper - and the motivation/cohesiveness of the group ensures there is discipline along with fun
[power of संगच्छध्वं ? :-) ... to know more about the invocation/prayer; refer to page 4 of Yoga doc here https://yoga.ayush.gov.in/yoga/public/assets/front/pdf/CYPEnglishLeaflet.pdf ]

Chapter 14 ends with ... the favorite declaration of the late "Golden Rule" Jones of Toledo: "What I want for myself, I want for everybody." (NOTE to SELF - explore more about it/him - TODO)

it reminded me of blog post in Dec 2008 and one more in Feb 2013 :-)

life?

i have read somewhere (some long time back?) -

life is a bitch .. and then you die

Certainly, it sounded pessimistic to me - so, i had to twist it to something happier

Life is a BLISS .. and then you FLY :-)

why be angry? let go :-)

past weekend, i was reminded of a childhood incident - i am kind of ashamed, but i was very young - (when my age was somewhere between 5 to 7?) - and i have forgiven myself now :-)

[from Intenet search]

i was mad at my elder sister for something (since we both were so young - it must have been something trivial or silly - which i don't remember) .. and started running after her - she started going around our dining table - and since she seemed to be out of reach, my 'anger' increased - i noticed simple knife on the table - and i grabbed it in my right hand and started scaring her with that .. while i was 'blinded' by the 'rage', i started to rub the knife on MY own left palm (while continuing to chase her) .. after a round or two around our small dining table, i started feeling some pain and noticed that my sister too had stopped going away from me (saving herself) but came towards me pointing to couple of drops of blood that had fallen on the ground from my delicate and hurt left palm (or fingers) ... soon, i realized that with intent to just express my anger at her, i had actually hurt my own self - And, yes, I forgave my sister too :-)

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned" .. internet search attributes this quote to Gautam Buddha - so, i tag this post on 6th May 2020 (Buddha purnima)

want to hop on the 'happy' train?

universe is a 'happy' bus (or train) ... it takes any happy passenger that hops on to wherever he or she wants to go :-)

it probably doesn't like whining or unhappy folks - hence it makes them detrain for sometime ... don't worry - it goes round and round - so it will again happily take you onboard once you have dealt with your cribbing - so, be cheerful and you will get where you want to go !!

life lesson - from a 'toilet story'?

i was recently reminded - by my son - about how funny i sounded when i shared a 'toilet story'

we all had joined a life skills and leadership development 'camp' for holistic growth - as participants - but maybe because of my grey hairs i was also given some additional responsibility of being 'in charge' of many young participants

many were teens - and some were away from family/home for the first time .. for the entire week. the camp was not planned for five-star experience - it was meant to be 'harsh' enough to induce growth - they wake up early in the morning - clean their own dishes (or use the same for their own future meals!) and show up for activities at expected times (at the call of a whistle) till late in the night.

on the first or 2nd day itself, i encountered a situation - i entered the shared (not so posh) washroom - and noticed the 'flush' task had not completed successfully - on further exploration (not elaborate) i could figure out it was probably one pin that had moved out of place from its required position in the lever/valve 'system' - and trying to put it in place took fraction of minute - i was hopeful it had 'fixed' it and yes, i was true - just pressing the knob made it work at first attempt - and the problem was solved!

i then asked the camp organizing team to share the story for life lesson (during the evening assembly - when they are required to be all attentive to official announcements) - and i started saying how i found un-flushed toilet - purpose was not to 'scare'/'scold' them (even my son was one amongst the crowd - easy to be kind and sensitive, when your 'own' skin is in the game, isn't it?)

then i explained the whole incident and said - if i were such a young boy in a place where i might have either 'broke' it or noticed it dys-functional i too might have chosen the safe option to ignore or walk away ... but many times (like in this case) life's problems are not that hard (or dirty) as they might appear - it probably needs just some careful observation and a simple fix OR talking to someone 'experienced' for whom it is easy enough to solve it in a jiffy .. so don't be shy - if you have a problem (or see something around) just try or get help and you might be pleasantly surprised!

i am not sure - how others took such a talk/lecture - but my son even now remembers it as 'funny' that i mentioned 'toilet story' ..  :)

this note also reminded me of another (similar?) blog i had posted long back here