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Appeared in January 2005 Issue                                            Printable Version
Thus Spake the Master...
You are strong, you are young. It is time to arise. So arise! Lest through irresolution and idleness You lose the way.

Master your words.
Master your thoughts.
Never allow your body to do no harm.
Follow these three roads with purity
And you will find yourself upon the one way,
The way of wisdom.
—Buddha


In God’s Name be the course and the mooring: let us embark.
–Surah 11.41


Whatever share of this world Thou dost bestow upon me, bestow it on Thine enemies, and whatever share of the next world Thou dost give me, give it thy friends. Thou art enough for me!
–Rabia Ul Basra

These are the things whose interest a man enjoys in this world, while the capital remains for him in the world to come—this is what they are:
Respecting one’s father and mother,
Acts of generosity and love,
Coming early to the Synagogue for morning and evening study,
Giving hospitality to strangers,
Visiting the sick,
Assisting the bride,
Attending the dead,
Devotion in prayer,
Working peace between a man and his companion.
And the study of Torah leads to them all.
—Mishnah

Misuse of Ahimsa

The dialogue between Banda Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh (the tenth Sikh guru):

Thus Said Banda:
But do not the wise scripture say “Indifference toward the evil pay”?

Thus spake Guru Gobind:
Yes, we should indifferent stay
As we send evil on its way.
We never slay in passion’s throes,
For then we’d be what we oppose.
Nor do we loathe what we must do,
For through it Truth do we pursue.
We simply carry out our mission
So Dharma finds its own fruition.
We are instrument of fate;
It is beyond mere fear or hate.

—From “Celestial Song/Gobind Geet” by Swami Rama

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Appeared in January 2005 Issue                                            Printable Version
Beginnings and Endings
by Parmjit Singh
Amidst all the festivity of Christmas and New Year that engrossed us during the last few weeks, my mind slipped inevitably into the shades of our world.

It occurred to me that as we sat amongst our family members and feasted on the choicest and most carefully chosen menu, people in some part of our world were madly trying to outrun the mammoth wall of watery graveyard chasing them beyond its resting place in sea. When we were praying for familial and national prosperity, the people on the other side of the world were trying to piece together their broken lives. .

In a fatal quirk, I realized how a beginning and an ending are always fatefully intertwined—for some this New Year was a beginning and for others an end…and so life goes on in all its shades!

The hearts were hollowed in one swift swipe of fate and celebrations were drowned out by the rage of tsunamis in South Asia. As the world appeared poised to welcome New Year, someone’s life-span on this planet was being cut short unexpectedly.

When we were chatting and sharing laughter with our family members, others who are less privileged here and elsewhere trembled and shivered in their loneliness, homelessness and stared vacantly into the emptiness of hopelessness. We might have prayed for prosperity and they for subsistence, a bite of bread or a gulp of heart-warming soup, a news of alive family member and a piece of clothing to prevent the freeze seeping into their frail bones.

We all did something. The rich people had elaborate dinners while the poor contended only with meager ones. We invoked the same God, sought directions in life and called upon Him/Her for benediction. As the bells jingled in celebrations across our continent, death was dancing its macabre dance on the beaches of Asia. The people there just happened to be plain unlucky for as the world slept after hailing the birth of Lord Jesus, the Savior, the demons of sea were having a field day by swallowing the life of countless children and families. There were no hyphens or Savior in that tragedy—death came in the form of watery de-hyphenated terror and flattened all the dreams and aspirations in one stroke.

As the glittering shopping malls in our part of the world snapped back in fierce business, people in Tsunami-hit countries were scouring their ravaged homes to sustain their waning hopes. As we rushed in for Boxing Day freebies, they must be lining up for international dole to arrive or hear some news about their lost family members. It sounds so innocuously similar yet so poignantly different—there is a lurking pain in this verisimilitude because the same day brought hope and delight for some and life-long pain for others.

As some of us got back to the business of life, people in those areas were busy cleaning stench of death and destruction left behind by the waves. They too must have made some resolutions for New Year but fate had something else in its mind. And as I was pondering more and more on this, I was inevitably getting reminded of the inherent uncertainty of life. How many of them knew the impending doom as they stood bewitched with the walls of death hurtling toward them?

Each day as news flashed harrowing clips or video-grabs, my heart went out to those countless mothers and fathers who lost their children and children who lost their parents. How heart-rending it would be for a mother to make a choice of letting go of one of her kids because it was only one she could save at that time? The other one had to be left in the raging water. It is beyond comprehension the choice one has to make, given the horror of circumstances—and it is even more horrifying to bear with the consequences of one’s choice. As the Christmas and New Year passed, the world fell back into its normal pace. Some of us started progressing from where we left and others started piecing together their lives left asunder by tsunamis.

In a fatal quirk, I realized how a beginning and an ending are always fatefully intertwined—for some this New Year was a beginning and for others an end…and so life goes on in all its shades!

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Appeared in January 2005 Issue                                            Printable Version
Lohri
by Manjit Handa
Bonfires are as old as mankind. With the discovery of fire, primitive man used bonfires not only for warming his body from extreme cold or cooking meat (after he learnt that?), but also to protect himself from wild animals.

As Man grew more civilized, he made homes for himself. They protected him against rough weather and fire was still used for cooking and fireplaces. But the charisma of bonfire has somehow always lured mankind. Now bonfires have become more a fun-filled activity, especially popular in camps and outdoor activities. Not to undermine its significance, bonfires constitute a symbolic significance in various parts of the world still. Various tribes in different parts of the world still make bonfires during nights and that constitutes a social and congregational purpose. Pagans, we know worship the Fire-God and similarly Hinduism (the Indian religion) glorifies the Fire-God called Agni Devta. In fact there are festivals attributed to Bonfires in various parts of India and one such Bonfire Festival is called Lohri.

Exhibiting exuberance, gaiety, enthusiasm and robust energy, Lohri is also symbolic of fertility. It stands not only for the fertility of the land but also the human race.

Celebrated in the Northern parts of India, especially in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, it falls mid January, (13th) or the month of Paush, the coldest month, according to the Hindu calendar. Just when the Rabi (winter crop) is in full bloom but not yet ripe enough for harvest, mainly comprising of wheat, the festival is celebrated with enthusiasm. This is generally a rest period for the farming families and they make bonfires and relax by singing and dancing to traditional folk songs.

As per the custom, children in the community go from door to door singing and demanding Lohri ‘loot’ in the form of money and eatables like sesame and jaggery squares (gajak and rewri) and peanuts. They also sing songs in praise of Dulha Bhatti, a Punjabi Robin Hood like figure who looted the rich to help the poor. He is known to take one of the poor miserable village belles as his sister and arranged her wedding.

With the setting of the Sun in the evening huge bonfires are lit in open spaces and people of the community gather around them singing songs and dancing while circling around the rising flames and throwing puffed rice, popcorn and other munchies shouting “Aadar aaye, Daliddar jaye” (May honor come and let poverty vanish). In other words it is a prayer to the Fire God asking for his blessings for abundance and prosperity. The dance of the men is called Bhangra and that of women is called Gidda and they all dance to the beats of traditional drums until late in the night.

Exhibiting exuberance, gaiety, enthusiasm and robust energy, Lohri is also symbolic of fertility. It stands not only for the fertility of the land but also the human race. This is why the first Lohri of a newly-wed couple and a new born child is celebrated with much more enthusiasm. The family that has either of these instances usually hosts the Lohri bonfire and dinner for the community.

For a Westerner, Lohri would be reminiscent of Thanksgiving; the universal code of celebration is always the same!

Bonfire at once becomes a symbol of revelry and lunacy, corporeal and spirituality, destruction and purification. Just another reminder that life is full of paradoxes, but that is what makes it an eternal continuum.

HAPPY LOHRI!

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Appeared in January 2005 Issue                                            Printable Version
Editor on Line
There somewhere someone was so sad,
He formed an ocean of tears;
Elsewhere, Ocean walked, knocked and sucked so many.
There were so many oceans of tears.
The Big ocean and the small ones mingled
Sadness crossed all bounds?
The waters are salinized. . .

It was indeed a catastrophic start this year. Earthquakes, Storms, Volcanoes, Floods, Tornadoes, Tsunamis?Furies of nature, merely different names, different elements. It angers me to see the dance of death in South Asia. If only we had a foolproof world where there was no dread of calamities. Wishful thinking! What can we do to prevent them? Marshal more warning signals for next time? But what of those who never had a next time? Their lives would never be the same. People all over the world share their grief and needless to say all are trying to reach out and help in little ways and immense. Perhaps that is all other vulnerable creatures of the same genus can do?lend a hand.

Let there be more empathy, compassion and concern in the present circumstances in the world!
For all those who survived let them have the strength to combat this oceanic anguish!
Let God consecrate all!

Sharing the grief,
Manjit


..................................................................
Organizations where you can make a donation
(Please note that we do not endorse these organizations and provide these links for information only. For more information, you should ask these agencies how they distribute or utilize aid in affected areas. You may also donate in your local organization involved in relief work.)


Salvation Army
1-800-725-2769

Canadian Red Cross
1-800-418-1111

Save the Children Canada
1-800-668-5036 or 416-221-5501

Canadian Relief Organization for Peace in Sri Lanka
416-429-2822

UNICEF Canada
1-800-567-4483

Oxfam Canada
Asian Earthquake/Floods Relief, Oxfam Canada
1-800-466-9326

World Vision Canada
1-800-268-5528

CARE Canada
1-800-267-5232

Canadian Tamil Congress
416-751-8777



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Appeared in January 2005 Issue                                            Printable Version
Opposeless in Okanagan
by Manjit Handa
What is it that makes some people stand apart, evokes our respect and makes them extraordinary amidst the crowd of ordinary people?

It is the attitude they have towards life and the way they spend the hours, days, weeks and years of life; the assiduousness with which they work and most of all the “selflessness” that becomes them. We had the pleasure of talking to one such woman. Name: Mohini Singh. Age: Around 43 years. Occupation: Reporter for The Okanagan’s Very own CHBC. Her selfless contribution to the society: Tremendous. All this, in spite of the fact that she continuously battles with MS (Multiple Sclerosis) for the last four years.

Mohini was around twenty two when she emigrated from India to Canada in the year 1983 with her mother and sister. Her father had passed on by then. With Bachelors in History from St. Stephens College in Delhi, Mohini along with her family had to face a lot of “challenges”. Although language was “not a barrier” it was all about “adjustment” and attunement to the new society and a “whole new way of living” which she feels “takes years”. She received her Broadcast Journalism Diploma from British Columbia Institute of Technology and started working in radio for eight months before moving onto television. She has ever since been working in Radio and TV in both Vancouver and Okanagan. She asserts that she finds her job “challenging” and “exciting” especially going “out in the field” and “meeting new people everyday”.

“If you set your mind on something there is nothing you cannot do and live life with complete passion”.


Life was smooth until she was diagnosed with MS about four years back. She vividly remembers that she had gone to Lake Louise with her husband on a skiing trip a few months after their marriage and she could not ski down the slope suddenly and “couldn’t see anything”. When she visited her doctor she was told that she had the disease. For a “high energy” person who represented the basket ball team of the College, it certainly is a “sad” feeling. But Mohini faces and overcomes this situation everyday by “staying positive”, having a “healthy diet” and “getting lots of sleep”. She has made up her mind “not to have children” of her own lest something goes wrong during the pregnancy. While earlier she used to go for walks in the evenings, now she is “aware of her limits” and keeps her energy stored for her job, community work and family. She strongly believes that “half the battle is won in your head.

Although Mohini used to take few hobby classes earlier, it was after she got MS, that she seriously started thinking about her hobbies, one of which is clay art. When she cannot go for walks, she goes to her art work studio down in the basement of her house which her husband has built and designed especially for her. Working on her plaques and bowls of clay “calm her down” and give her an “inner peace”. If each of her pieces of clay art sells not below $125(Can), she also happily donates a lot of these models. Drawn particularly to Indian Art she uses images described and shown in the Kamasutra (Visit her website).

A peek into Mohini’s resume leaves no doubt about her selfless extraordinary endeavors. Be it promoting a “Run against Racism”, supporting the Central Okanagan Visible Women’s Society to get women employment in Canada, helping the Women’s Shelter in Kelowna and Penticton especially in crisis situation, assisting police in situations where language becomes a barrier, both in Kelowna and Penticton or helping immigrants from Bosnia, Rwanda and India settle into life in the Okanagan Valley, Mohini has been in the forefront of community service. She was rightly chosen the most suitable candidate By Canwest Global for the 2004 Community Spirit Award for Volunteer work.

She considers her mother to be a strong inspiring force who she thinks has always been a very “strong lady” taking two jobs at a time as a nurse to support her family. It has been more than twenty years ever since Mohini moved to a prosperous Canada but she has not forgotten the “poverty” that handicaps India and thinks that one should never “forget to turn back” and help at least “one person a family” lest you fail “as a person”. Sometime in Fall next year Mohini is planning to go to India with her husband to “adopt a child”. Mohini’s Irish husband Finbar O’Sullivan needs a special mention here who has always been supportive of her work and remains by her side battling through MS. Mohini thinks that “wherever you come from in the world you have to be proud of who you are and what your culture is because a tree cannot grow without roots. . . .I strongly feel about my Indian past and the Canadian reality”.

She catches up with all the activities she likes to do in her holiday time like hiking and canoe trips. As if all she does is not enough if given a chance to relive her life, she would like to be a “risk taker”. Keep up the good work Mohini.

Her message to the readers:
“If you set your mind on something there is nothing you cannot do and live life with complete passion”.

Should not we all be a part of the relay Mohini has started and be of some help somewhere in our community and NOT BE FAILURES AS HUMAN BEINGS?

Come let’s take the baton!

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Appeared in January 2005 Issue                                            Printable Version
Silence and Words
Sukhpal Singh
Years later I realized:
I did not know how to speak. . . .
How to write. . . .

My own words, I disown
Today I utter them
Tomorrow shoo the same

Poor words little rabbits
Fell prey —
To the violence of my inner noise

Words are an echo —
Of my entity!
I am insane —
So my words are insane
Words deny me
Because I deny myself

Should I accept myself —
That order returns to me. . .
And in my inner universe
It spreads like silence. . .

When silence will speak —
That is when words will echo like music
And come down forming verse

That is when, poetry —
I will not ‘sit and write’
It will happen, every moment. . . .

Translated from Punjabi by Manjit Handa


Dr Sukhpal Singh has a Doctorate in Veterinary Sciences from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada and is now a Lecturer in the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. He published his first collection of poetry in Punjabi transliterated as And Silently Came Spring.

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Appeared in January 2005 Issue                                            Printable Version
The Art of being Happy at Work
by Parmjit Singh
“Work is love made visible”, wrote Kahlil Gibran in his masterpiece The Prophet. But this seems a far cry in the present productivity-driven corporate culture where the job/work satisfaction is gradually taking a direct hit. Taking into account the recent research and surveys, it is clear that somehow as our life is improving in amenities and cornucopia, the level of satisfaction drawn from work and living is sliding gradually. Life is getting worse around the same time as we are making substantial headway into architecting eye-popping technical gadgets, entertaining the possibility of lunar habitation and teleportation.

But why is it that more than 50% of workers hate or do not like their jobs? If work does not satisfy their inner desire and impart satisfaction, why do they stay locked in their professional rut? Why can they not change? Why do people not want to let go of their misery? What is really wrong with the whole culture of work in the times of email and broadband internets? What is the real meaning of money or work and how can one cultivate a right livelihood? Or what can we do when everything else fails?

In a highly-commercialized life of 21st century, we have also come to equate money with happiness—the more money you make, the happier you would be.


These and countless other pertinent questions related to work from the perspective of money, relationships and identity are explored in The Art of Happiness at Work by His Holiness Dalai Lama and psychiatrist Howard Cutler. Coming as a sequel to their previous book The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, the current book extends the theme set in the first book to its practical use. Synthesizing monastic wisdom with scientific commentary is never an easy task because both of these streams draw from different realms of knowledge. But given the inherent beauty and simple practicality of Buddhist thought coupled with Howard Cutler’s analytical commentary, this book presents us with the recipe for making our work a joyful enterprise regardless of its kind.

What makes this book even more thought-provoking is that Dalai Lama apart from giving practical advice about how to iron out troubled work habits, he also straightens out some commonly misunderstood Eastern concepts like contentment saying, “…that you should not confuse contentment and complacency. You should not mistake being content with one’s job with just sort of not caring, not wanting to grow, not wanting to learn, just staying where one is even if one’s situation is bad and not even making the effort to advance and to learn and achieve something better.” (pg. 28) Here Dalai Lama presents the real essence of contentment, its inherent yin-yang nature where the practitioner does what needs to be done and not care much about the rewards that might accrue from his/her action.

Because we live in consumerist society, work has become a singular source of identification for most of the people where hierarchy of the personal position tends to feed our self-talk as to ‘how good we are’ in terms of social usefulness. Though there is nothing wrong with associating our self-perceived prestige with the kind of work we do, yet if it is the only source of our self-identity then we might end up in trouble sooner or later. Given the fluidity of job market, one can get fired any time or if you were lucky enough to hold on to your job even then you have to retire at one point or another. What would your identity be, once you no longer have any position or work? Is that why so many retiree feel socially useless once they are out of job?

Here Dalai Lama gives a profound advice which is that our identity should be based on our self-understanding—who am I? rather than being dependent upon the quantum of money one makes or a badge of honor one earns throughout life time. Once work is purpose-driven, one never retires. It is known that people who, “see their work meaningful, having a higher purpose” or “view their work as a calling tend to have significantly higher work satisfaction as well as overall life satisfaction, then those who view work as job or a career.” (pg. 99)

In a highly-commercialized life of 21st century, we have also come to equate money with happiness—the more money you make, the happier you would be. That is the grand illusion of corporate culture and we must, “simply pause and reflect upon the whole process of wealth creation.” (pg. 57) Recent research and old wisdom suggests that happiness largely depends upon our mental states rather than the prestige or the amount of money you earn.

Here one thing needs to be noted that western penchant for material/object-acquisitivenessSlow motion legs of business people walking.jpg is largely rooted in the dominant scientific and philosophical doctrine of Rene Descartes who downplayed the role of ‘subjective self’ in life and attached eminence to physical aspect only. That is why our efforts are focused on accumulating, acquiring and possessing external objects/things-there is always something to be gained, even happiness. Therefore, we call it a pursuit of happiness. But can happiness be pursued? Or have we gained some while having pursued it for last three decades? If current statistics are to be believed, this does not seem to be the case—people are miserable than ever.

Conversely, happiness is a byproduct of doing things rightly. It is just akin to lighting a lamp to dispel darkness. Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler have enlisted all the right ingredients such as better relationships, purposeful work, right livelihood, proper understanding of personal self and why you make money, etc. for nurturing happiness at work. It is an outstanding synthesis of monastic advice in the context of productivity-and-achievement-driven Western work culture.

These are base conditions that allow the growth of happiness and satisfaction. If we understand these things properly we set the stage for a harmonious living and “…the states of mind that lead to destructive activities or harmful kinds of work, states of mind such as unbridled greed, hostility, anger, or even hatred, are simply incompatible with a person’s long-term happiness.” (pg. 173)

Pursuit should be focused on eliminating these negative conditions. Happiness can not be chased or pursued, rather it can only be allowed to blossom by eliminating all the conditions which prevent it in the first place. This book defines this pursuit superbly given the complexity of the issues it attempts to hammer out.

This review is based on Hardbound edition.

The Art of Happiness at Work
Dalai Lama & Howard C Cutler
Riverhead (Penguin Books)
Hardback, $37.50, 224 pages, Aug 2003
Paperback, $20, 160 pages, Sep 2004

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Related book by His Holiness Dalai Lama & Howard C Cutler

The Art of Happiness

Hardback |336 pages | Jan 2002 |
Riverhead(Penguin Books) | ISBN 1573221112|


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Appeared in January 2005 Issue                                            Printable Version
Tragedy of Errors
by Manjit Handa
Most of us, it seems, are born to work and work more and then accumulate a desired amount of wealth (some succeed and some do not) and then enjoy that accumulation of wealth, blow it up to eventually retire. Holly Krauss is no different.

She is a successful businesswoman, always on the go. She takes care of all the bills at home and at the office. Her husband, an artist, sits at home, waiting for the right break and the right platform when he is going to make it big. In the meantime he dabbles with his art work at few places and helps with errands in the house. With the piling bills and he not working, Holly, just as any young wife (she is twenty seven), gets anxious and worked up. Infatuated with the personality of an artist, she hardly understands their likes; she is actually baffled with him: “He always said he’d do it in his own time. Sometimes this meant he wouldn’t do it at all. Deadlines passed. . . I hated it so much that I felt itchy and crackly with rage when it happened.” With her reservoir of patience drying up, she even suggests to him that he could try being a successful plumber.

But there is something else she does. Mostly shouldering responsibility for the economic/financial quarters in the house, she also takes liberties with enjoying her life the way she wants. Young and attractive, she makes friends effortlessly, sometimes good ones, other times ending up at places she should not be. What with the fact that she is married. She hangs out late in pubs and has a one night stand with Rees. He stalks her ever since, perhaps because of the kick he derived out of the act or there is something more he wants from her?? But he keeps saying she was a tiger in bed.

Then Holly fires Deborah from her company for a trifle, not even giving her a chance to recover; she meets with her company’s middle aged client called Stuart. He introduces her to more troubles that include her mindless shopping at an art gallery and a date with Stuart and his buddies/poker players. They are six men and she the presiding woman. She ends up losing at the game and now she owes a huge amount of nine thousand pounds to Vick Norris which she could possibly never pay. The amount keeps increasing with each passing day and suddenly a smooth going life is in a rut.

Dean, the messenger of sorts from the poker group terrorizes and threatens her and once even pees at her house. What a plight for Holly! She would never in her dreams have thought of such consequences. And most of all her husband, the dear Charlie, who cared for her so much that he finally loses patience. In league with Meg (Holly’s dearest and loyal of friends), he takes her to the doctor and Holly is declared suffering from bipolar affective disorder. A perfect trap to kill her and get away with the case of suicide! Meg, the loyal Meg, rescues Holly from a deplete house in Suffolk where Charlie had planned to leave her (or declare her) dead. Order is restored as Charlie is sent to jail and we are happy with the poetic justice.

For a seasoned reader it is easy to perceive who could possibly be responsible for Holly’s misery. More important, are the questions that will preoccupy him/her.

What are the lines of demarcation when you are married? Is it ok to have a one night stand once in while? Will it ever be forgiven? Then knowing it all, why do people still get into the trouble? Is it the escape Holly so badly craves from this life that drives her to a gang of gamblers or merely her nature, just a flaw? There will be various answers and counter questions. We could keep going.

Quite beautifully, the author changes the voice of the narrator. First it is the mind of Holly that speaks, then Meg. In this opportunist set-up, each one gets a chance. But it is more about reallocating, I think. If Holly was actually persecuting happiness, then soon she becomes the persecuted. If she is the light and life of every party and everyone looks up to her positive energy even in her office, Naomi rightly puts it in the end, “Everyone was doing fine until Holly came along.”

It is all about the perspective. And Nicci French proves it structurally by looking through each one’s. And because Meg is Holly’s dear friend, she would never look at her that way.
The author presents us with every perspective and each equally convincing.

More convincingly Nicci tells us that when we err, it is solely our responsibility; there might be times when someone could rescue you, but that will not always be the case. Holly recounts her experience: “When I was a little girl I used to go on long walks with my father. Whenever we got to a fence or a wall, I would clamber up to the top, and he would tell me to jump down into his outstretched arms. I never hesitated. Even when it was high up I would throw myself forward and know he would catch me. . . Then he left and I was flying through the air but there was nobody who could save me anymore, nobody to catch me when I fell.”

Well, even the places from where she fell had changed. Wall is one thing and virtue another. Good book with great psychological insights, worth a read.

..........................................
Catch Me When I Fall
by Nicci French
A Penguin Book
ISBN 0-14-301418-8 | Pgs. 300 | CAN $ 24

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Appeared in January 2005 Issue                                            Printable Version
A Novel Resolution For 2006
by Parmjit Singh
Western nations have done wonders in explaining the outer material world. Their success story is undoubtedly impressive. However, despite stellar achievements, something is crying for attention.

Despite the material prosperity in the West, there is a simmering discontent and unhappiness among people. Dr. David G. Myers of Hope College calls this a, ‘spiritual hunger in the age of plenty’. Evidently, material acquisition and success have not been able to create happy people in an equal measure.

Balancing material and spiritual prosperity

If you look around, the people in the western hemisphere are comparatively more prosperous than the ones living on the fringes of countries like India or Bangladesh. They drive better cars, have better housing facilities, better resources, access to a better medical system, and have all the comforts that one can aspire in ordinary circumstances. But still their happiness and life satisfaction index is commensurately lower than many poor countries.

There is a profound reason for such discrepancy. People in the West have adopted a flawed assumption that they can solve all the problems through analysis, pure scientific and logical explanations. E.g. pure and logical explanations can help to propel a rocket into space and map out its astronomical dimensions, but it will not be able to provide an answer when your life seems dull or meaningless for no apparent reason or when you lose a job or every material possession in a single stroke of natural calamity or even when your boyfriend/girlfriend dumps you for another person. Then you need another kind of science to help you come out of that emotional devastation.

In order to live a harmonious life, you have to balance the material pursuit with emotional/spiritual training. Mental and physical are two parts of the same reality and if we ignore one part, we do so by imperiling the balance in our life.

Both material and spiritual pursuits are akin to two embankments of a river. If one embankment is broken down, then the flow of the river is seriously disturbed. Same thing happens in real life. When you become too much involved in material pursuits and don’t pay attention to your spiritual needs, the balance in your life is disturbed. You may succumb to various addictions or become sleepless for no apparent reason.

Go slow and reach faster

Aggressiveness is part of western culture and most of the times it is used to achieve goals and material things within a specified timeframe. According to a North American banter if you have not had a heart attack by the age of forty than you are not a successful person. This undoubtedly symbolizes the philosophy of aggressiveness and possessiveness towards living.

There is nothing wrong with achieving material or professional success. Indeed, it is very essential for a healthy self-esteem of any individual and can make you happy and content to some extent. But if you are always worried about achieving external success in the form of getting an early pay-raise, a promotion or stress yourself to buy an expensive car to impress your neighbor, then there is something seriously amiss in your approach.

What would you do with an expensive car, if restlessness simmers in your heart? What would you do with an early success if you become a victim of heart diseases at the age of forty? On the contrary to your expectations, these material things may bring you more restlessness than the restfulness for which you invested so many efforts and spent so many sleepless nights.

Balance your efforts of achieving external success with deepening the internal satisfaction. Then you will enjoy the fruits of labor with more relish. With this approach, you can have the best of both worlds. Try not to become a person who spoils his health to earn money in the first half of his life and then spend the same hard-earned money to get back the health in the later half of life.

To do so, engage in emotional/spiritual training so that you are able to coach the neglected portion of your soul. It should be kept in mind that spirituality does not necessarily mean adopting a religion; it is a simple device to care for your spirit and can be non-religious. Scientific research has shown that mental/spiritual balance is very important for living a productive life. Controlling your emotions and having mastery over your moods can add valuable experience to your daily living.

These practices, which help control and train the mind and deepen connection with spirit, could be in any form, ranging from Meditation to Gregorian chants. All these practices done with complete commitment and dedication can enrich the core and meaning of life.

Therefore, let us make a novel resolution for 2006: Let us follow ‘The Middle way’; rather than simply deciding that ‘I will eat healthy’ or ‘I will work hard’ or ‘I will lose some weight’, let us work toward balancing aggressive and active modern lifestyle with emotional and spiritual training. The by-product might be that you will end up achieving all that you set out, without having to kill yourself. Not only will this approach help in achieving more success in your external goals but will also deepen the joy and satisfaction in life.

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