Three types of Managers

Mark Hurd

Mark Hurd says that he comes across three types of managers at HP: reporters, managers and leaders.

Reporters – They tend to show up and report what happened. They say “Here’s what happened, results got worse or results got better”. Low value management skill.
Managers – They manage things, manage the events that occurs, fix problems. Better than reporters.
Leaders– They see opportunities and seize them, don’t have to be told what to do. They see opportunities and drive to achieve them. They speak like “Here’s the problem, here’s the solution to the problem, here is the number of steps to get that done and I have already done 2 steps”.

Dog – Man’s best friend

Man's Best Friend

A dog has no use for fancy cars or big homes or designer clothes. A waterlogged stick will do just fine. A dog doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he will give you his. How many people can you say that about. How many people can make you feel rare and pure and special? How many people can make you feel extraordinary?

Seek pleasure to preserve your power

Preserve Power

“Don’t seek pleasure” is hardly a practical precept for anyone who has a pronounced craving for pleasure in his nature. The illumined teachers of India, besides being knowers of truth, were masters of human psychology and compassionate preceptors. What they taught on this subject can be put in a few words: seek pleasure, but in a way which will not spoil your physical or mental health, or obstruct your higher development. If you must seek physical pleasure, seek them in such a way that your powers may be preserved for enjoying the joys of the mind; seek the joys of the mind in such a way that your powers may be preserved for attaining the bliss of the spirit. Do not seek pleasure in a way that will destroy you. This should make sense to thinking people. Ethical principles, the observance of which is helpful in controlling the mind, are all meant to protect a man from harming himself. Thus they serve his profoundest interest.

The wild pleasure-urge has first to be domesticated in the frame of the requirements of self-development before it can be ready for graduation. By graduation we mean passing from one kinds (or levels) of joy to the other. We must remember that the joy of Brahman is attainable by man not only theoretically but actually. A firm faith in this truth is necessary for graduation in pleasure-seeking.

Seek sense-pleasure (visayananda), if you must, then, but in a way which does not run counter to gaining the joy of worship (bhajanananda). This can be done through developing the habit of discrimination and being discriminating in the sense-pleasures you seek. All contact-born happiness is productive of misery. To remember this even while enjoying sense-pleasures will develop the habit of discrimination. Then it will be easier for a person to seek sense-pleasure within the frame of moral disciplines, which is meant to preserve him for enjoying the highest bliss. Along with this he should engage in suitable forms of spiritual discipline which are conducive to the joy of worship (bhajanananda). Gradually, as his mind gets more and more purified, his interest in sense-enjoyment will be less and less, and his interest in the joy of worship will increase proportionately.

A time will eventually come in the life of the person who sincerely struggles on in this way, when he faces the necessity of setting aside even the joy of worship, and becoming a firm seeker of the Supreme Spirit. It is one thing to seek the benefits of seeking God and quite a different thing to seek God for His own sake, benefit or no benefit. When the seeker has inwardly grown to the extent of seeking the Supreme Spirit for its own sake and for no other motive, then his desire for pleasure will have been sublimated, and this will be conducive to perfect control of the mind.

When does the attraction of sense-pleasure die away? When one realizes the consummation of all happiness and all pleasures in God – the indivisible eternal ocean of bliss. Those why enjoy Him can find no attraction in the cheap worthless pleasures of the world.

He who has once tasted the refinsed crystal of sugar-candy finds no pleasure in tasting dirty treacle. He who has slept in a palace will not find pleasure in lying in a hovel. The soul that has tasted the sweetness of divine bliss finds no happiness in the vulgar pleasures of the world.

Every normal person, in fact, is only normal on the average. His ego approximates to that of the psychotic in some part or other and to a greater or lesser extent. – Sigmund Freud

Your Mind is your personal IVR

If you are Obsessive Compulsive , press 1 repeatedly.
If you are Co-dependent, ask someone to press 2 for you.
If you have Multiple Personalities, press 3, 4, 5 & 6.
If you are Paranoid, we know who you are and what you want.  Stay on the line and we’ll trace your call.
If you are Delusional, press 7, and you call will be transferred to the Mother Ship.
If you are Schizophrenic, listen carefully and a small voice will tell you which number to press.
If you are depressive, it doesn’t matter which number you press. Non-one will answer you.
If you are Dyslexic, press 96969696969696.
If you have a Nervous Disorder, please fidget with the hash key until the beep, after the beep please wait for the beep. 
If you have Short Term Memory Loss, please try your call again later.
If you have Amnesia, press 8 and state your name, address, phone number, date of birth, social security number and your mother’s and grandmothers’ maiden names.
If you have Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, slowly and carefully press 000.
If you have Bi-polar Disorder, please leave a message after the beep. Or before the beep. Or after the beep.Please wait for the beep.
If you have Low Self Esteem, please hang up. All our operators are far too busy to talk to you.

Three kinds of Joy

Joy

There are three kinds of ananda, i.e. joy:

• Visayananda – The joy of worldly enjoyment. It is the joy of sense-objects which people always enjoy.
• Bhajanananda – The joy of worship. One enjoys this while chanting the name and glories of God.
• Brahmananda – The joy of Brahman. It is the joy of God-vision. After experiencing the joy of God-vision the rishis of olden times went beyond all rules and conventions.

How to overcome the pleasure-motive?

Overcome the pleaure motive

As already mentioned: “Unless the pleasure-motive is overcome, no matter what else we do, we can never perfectly control the mind”. This statement may give a rude jolt to many who struggle with their minds. But it is a statement of fact and the implications of this fact need to be grasped.

It is easy to say bluntly that unless the pleasure-motive is renounced one cannot have a strong will to control the mind. But the pleasure-urge, being elemental in us, is so deeply engrained in our flesh and blood that it can be got rid of, if at all, only with greatest difficulty. We must not, however, complicate our inner situation by imagining that we are wicked in seeking pleasure. The pleasure-motive is not in itself sinful, though, of course, indulgence in immoral pleasures which create greater bondage and retard our higher self-development, is. Except for a microscopic minority – who, in response to a higher call, have renounced worldly pursuits and about whom we are not speaking here – except for them, life itself will hardly be possible without some satisfaction of the pleasure-urge. “What to live for, if not for pleasure?” will be the honest question of the majority of mankind. This urge is a living force in man, and a force by which he lives. Yet it is true that the pleasure-motive eats away our will to control the mind. What then is the solution of this inner problem?

To be sure, ascetic denial is not the answer for the vast majority. Neither is the answer indulgence. The answer is in gradually educating our pleasure-urge, and in understanding the dimensions of our own being and how to harness the pleasure-urge for the purpose of self-fulfillment. This will need some elaboration.

Incidentally it is as well to make it clear that we are now discussing a general problem that faces beginners who are worldly in their dispositions. For those who are advanced aspirants, some of the points we are going to discuss will not hold good. They will know what these points are; for example, the enjoyment of legitimate sense-pleasure is permissible for the ordinary person who has yet to make a start in spiritual life, but not for the person who has take several steps in it.

Complete remedy

Point out the mistake but also offer a solution. If you pose a problem, and do not give a solution, then it is only half done. If you cannot find an immediate solution, then work on finding a remedy together.

Avoid criticism

Stop blaming others, and yourself, and begin praising others and yourself. This doesn’t mean that you should not make a comment when it is needed. You can criticize, but the criticism should not come from your heart – it should be lip critism only.

Honour your sacred life

The spirit that is running your life is sacred, honour this life energy. As you honour the life force, then naturally, all the other virtues will become your expression effortlessly. You become generous, you have a sense of belonging, and you feel connected to everyone and everything.

Mind control leads to Spiritual Illumination

Spiritual Illumination

Through the control of mind one can attain spiritual illumination. There are also many other blessings of life attainable through control of mind. A controlled mind can easily be concentrated. Through the concentration of mind one gains knowledge. And knowledge is power.

One of the spontaneous results of control of mind is integration of personality. Such a person succeeds, even in adverse circumstances. A controlled state of mind leads to calmness, and calmness leads to peace of mind. Peace of mind leads to happiness. A happy person makes others happy. The quality of his work improves steadily and he often attains enduring prosperity as a matter of course. It is not that such a person does not have to face the trials and tribulations in life, but he never lacks the courage and strength to face them. At home where he is the head, there are greater chances of order, discipline, joy, culture and excellent human relations. Society looks upon such a person as an exemplar of good life.

A person of controlled mind will be free from mental maladies and physical troubles caused by mental tension. In a person who has controlled his mind his higher nature asserts itself and his hidden powers are released. Friends wonder how this person could become, before their eyes, so great. A popular Sanskrit maxim says: “Who conquers the world?  He alone who conquers his mind”.

Progress, prosperity or peace – nothing of an enduring nature can be achieved in any field without control of mind. People without self-control will not retain even the prosperity that they have. Such are the stakes in control of the mind. To develop a strong will to control the mind, we must teach our own minds that, without it, we are nowhere. We must impress upon ourselves the fact that the character of our entire future depends on whether or not we control our minds. After fulfilling man’s basic physical needs, other things also may be important; but for the attainment of the highest objective of life – spiritual illumination – nothing in life is more important than controlling the mind. Once we really understand and believe this, our will to control the mind will become strong, as strong we need to have it.

“The pleasure of satisfying a savage instinct, undomesticated by the ego, is uncomparably much more intense that the one of satisfying a tamed instinct. The reason is becoming the enemy that prevents us from a lot of possibilities of pleasure” – Sigmund Freud