Just as you cannot get happiness by seeking it, you cannot resolve a conflict as long as you see it as a conflict, because you will be thinking in terms of winners and losers, us and them. You will need to enlarge your thoughts … enough to see the problem as a solution rather than as a conflict. - Neerja RamanEverything you learned about decision making based on the fixed pie syndrome is simplistic. Today we require empathy and soul to deal with the complexities of globalization and multi-culturalism. - Neerja Raman
If you understand human nature and internalize the fact that all people are the same species, you will be non-judgmental. This will show through in all your behaviors. You will know that you mirror every deficiency you see in the person standing in front of you. And you will have compassion. Compassion brings you trust. - Neerja Raman
This profoundly states the non-zero approach, WE-story-thinking if I've ever heard it. I spoke once before about the creative conceptual age - it's about creators and emphasizers - magic quadrant. And the highest bestest yummiest box on that grid - way way up in the upper right - is reserved the non-zero sum game thinking, WE-Story mindset.
Neerja Raman is a Director at HP Labs . She has a double Masters from Delhi University in India. And she's just written a book, The Practice and Philosophy of Decision Making: A Seven Step Spiritual Guide, based on the principles in the Bhagavad Geeta or Bhagavad-Gita, an ancient poem of 700 verses divided into 18 lessons written in Sanskrit.
I am fortunate in having spent my childhood years in India where I routinely heard and read about the values espoused in the Geeta without knowing the source. - Neerja Raman
So Daniel Pink talks about his next book - A WHOLE NEW MIND: The Right Brain Revolution - and the six abilities of the conceptual age AS IF...As if those of us brought up in the dualistic West have any kind of advantage on this integral, intuitive, holistic mindset he speaks of.
Once in a while I attend Nipun Mehta of CharityFocus.org's Wednesday meditation evenings. It attracts a diverse set of people, but still far and away the majority of the attendees are Indian-American men, yes you heard right, I said men. I noticed that David Wolfe mentioned recently that Malcolm Gladwell was probably giving a wide berth to Carl Jung's theory of collective unconscious for fear of being thought too woo-woo (David spells it wu-wu, I spell it woo-woo). I'd laugh - except it's so prevalent and downright sad.
Not one of the men sharing in the circle on the weekly thought of the week appears particularly worried about being deemed woo-woo.
What will hold us back is this ridiculous fear. We're afraid someone will think we're sissies. Grow up already.
And we're afraid period.
An article in The Economist:
Chinese are cautious and drink tea; Americans prefer coffee and readily take risks. So run the stereotypes....Given the two nations' differences, from traditional values to political systems, Christopher Hsee, at the University of Chicago, and Elke Weber, from Columbia University, expected to find Americans readier to take risks.
The researchers were wrong - Chinese were more tolerant of risk. I don't know enough about Chinese culture nor their political systems. But EVERYTHING about their traditional values - their traditional philosophy handed down for centuries - says they'd be far more tolerant of risk. Risk implies a loosening in the semblance of (illusory in my book) control over the future and its outcomes. Something Westerners aren't great at. The Chinese sages' certainty is grounded in being attuned to the Way of things - the Tao - the intrinsic nature of the universe.
The fundamental sense of it is that the Tao operates of itself. All that is natural operates of itself, and there is nothing standing over it and making it go on. In the same way that one's own body operates of itself. You don't have to decide when and how you're going to beat your heart; it just happens. You don't decide exactly how you are going to breathe; your lungs fill and empty themselves without effort...Remember that your heart beats "self-so" - and if you give it a chance, your mind can function "self-so," although most of us are afraid to give it a chance. - What is Tao? by Alan Watts
The process can be liberating. You can make decisions faster because you're not reinventing it every time. - Los Altos Town Crier interview with Neerja Raman
The epic poem, The Bhagavad-Gita, is a dialogue between the warrior Arjuna and his charioteer, the god Krishna. It takes place on a battleground scene which is "symbolic of the inner conflict in man. Kurukshetra [the battlefield], is not only a physical place but is representative of the state of mind."
Ladies and gentleman, I assert the battleground is not between "us" and "them" - be it India or China or wherever. The real battle is happening inside of yourself.
Additional resources: The Practice and Philosophy of Decision Making: A Seven Step Spiritual Guide synopsis and rough draft available here. Books referenced in Raman's book include: The Bhagavad Geeta by Barbara Stoler Miller and The Concise Light on Yoga by B.K.S Iyengar
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