Why Enthusiast Brands will Betray You

Superb learning and understanding why a brand from enthusiast moves to mass market. The how's and the why's. So STOP whining, it is only natural!

Apple Retail Reduces Stress of Shopping on Black Friday

Now this is a Company that knows how to tackle people. Loved this line in the article...

 "Apple Retail has discovered what many retail and non-retail businesses have yet to learn: you’ll win the loyalty of your customers once you stop trying to sell them something. Instead figure out how you want people to feel when they’re doing business with you."

In other words, stop trying to shove things down people's throat, Respect 'em and you'll get Respect back :)

Do read...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2012/11/19/apple-retail-reduces-stress-of-shopping-on-black-friday/

The 11 Ways That Consumers Are Hopeless at Math

 

 By Derek Thompson

This is your brain on shopping, and it's not very smart

You walk into a Starbucks and see two deals for a cup of coffee. The first deal offers 33% extra coffee. The second takes 33% off the regular price. What's the better deal?

"They're about equal!" you'd say, if you're like the students who participated in a new study published in the Journal of Marketing. And you'd be wrong. The deals appear to be equivalent, but in fact, a 33% discount is the same as a 50 percent increase in quantity. Math time: Let's say the standard coffee is $1 for 3 quarts ($0.33 per quart). The first deal gets you 4 quarts for $1 ($0.25 per quart) and the second gets you 3 quarts for 66 cents ($.22 per quart).

The upshot: Getting something extra "for free" feels better than getting the same for less. The applications of this simple fact are huge. Selling cereal? Don't talk up the discount. Talk how much bigger the box is! Selling a car? Skip the MPG conversion. Talk about all the extra miles.

There are two broad reasons why these kind of tricks work. First: Consumers don't know what the heck anything should cost, so we rely on parts of our brains that aren't strictly quantitative. Second: Although humans spend in numbered dollars, we make decisions based on clues and half-thinking that amount to innumeracy.

Here are 10 more ways consumers are bad at math, with an assist from historian and author William Poundstone.

(2) We're heavily influenced by the first number. You walk into a high-end store, let's say it's Hermès, and you see a $7,000 bag. "Haha, that's so stupid!" you tell your friend. "Seven grand for a bag!" Then you spot an awesome watch for $367. Compared to a Timex, that's wildly over-expensive. But compared to the $7,000 price tag you just put to memory, it's a steal. In this way, stores can massage or "anchor" your expectations for spending.

(3) We're terrified of extremes. We don't like feeling cheap, and we don't like feeling duped. Since we're not sure what things are worth, we shy away from prices that appear too high or too low. Stores can employ our bias for moderation against us. Here's a great story:

People were offered 2 kinds of beer: premium beer for $2.50 and bargain beer for $1.80. Around 80% chose the more expensive beer. Now a third beer was introduced, a super bargain beer for $1.60 in addition to the previous two. Now 80% bought the $1.80 beer and the rest $2.50 beer. Nobody bought the cheapest option.

Third time around, they removed the $1.60 beer and replaced with a super premium $3.40 beer. Most people chose the $2.50 beer, a small number $1.80 beer and around 10% opted for the most expensive $3.40 beer.

In short: We are all Goldilocks.

(4) We're in love with stories. In his book Priceless, William Poundstone explains what happened when Williams-Sonoma added a $429 breadmaker next to their $279 model: Sales of the cheaper model doubled even though practically nobody bought the $429 machine. Lesson: If you can't sell a product, try putting something nearly identical, but twice as expensive, next to it. It'll make the first product look like a gotta-have-it bargain. One explanation for why this tactic works is that people like stories or justifications. Since it's terribly hard to know the true value of things, we need narratives to explain our decisions to ourselves. Price differences give us a story and a motive: The $279 breadmaker was, like, 40 percent cheaper than the other model -- we got a great deal! Good story.

(5) We do what we're told. Behavioral economists love experimenting in schools, where they've found that shining a light on fruit and placing a salad bar in the way of the candy makes kids eat more fruit and salad. But adults are equally susceptible to these simple games. Savvy restaurants, for example, design their menus to draw our eyes to the most profitable items by things as simple as pictures and boxes. Good rule of thumb: If you see a course on the menu that's highlighted, boxed, illustrated, or paired with a really expensive item, it's probably a high-margin product that the restaurant hopes you'll see and consider.

(6) We let our emotions get the best of us. In a brilliant experiment from Poundstone's book, volunteers are offered a certain number of dollars out of $10. Offers seen as "unfair" ($1, let's say) activated the insula cortex, "which is otherwise triggered by pain and foul odors." When we feel like we're being ripped off, we literally feel disgusted -- even when it's a good deal. Poundstone equates this to the minibar experience. It's late, you're hungry, there's a Snickers right there, but you're so turned off by the price, that you starve yourself to avoid the feeling of being ripped off. The flip-side is that bargains literally make us feel good about ourselves. Even the most useless junk in the world is appealing if the price feels like a steal.

(7) We're easily made dumber by alcohol, time, decisions. When you're young and drunk at a bar, you're more likely to do stupid things with strangers. "Am I fully assessing this complex romantic situation?" is a difficult question to answer on seven glasses of wine, so we're more likely to ask ourselves a simpler question: "Is s/he hot?" When we're drunk, stressed, tired, and otherwise inattentive, we're more likely to ask and answer simple questions about buying things. Cheap candy bars and gum are situated near the check-out at grocery stores because that's where exhausted shoppers are most likely to indulge cravings without paying attention to price. Boozy lunches are good for deal-making because alcohol narrows the range of complicating factors we can hold in our heads at once. If you want somebody to take an under-examined risk, get him boozed, tired, or ego-depleted.

(8) We're pained by transaction costs... In a personal finance column here, Megan McArdle implored her readers to give up recurring payments like gym memberships and subscriptions to papers and services they don't use. "Don't buy stuff you don't consume" seems like obvious enough advice, but Megan had a great point. We're drawn to subscriptions and memberships and bundles partially because we seek to avoid transaction costs. We'd rather overpay a little than suffer the psychological pain of pulling out a wallet and watching our money go to each gym season/movie/etc.

(9) ... but we're weird about rebates and warranties. Now that I've just told you that consumers try to avoid additional payments, I should add that there are two additional payments we love: rebates and warranties. The first buys the illusion of wealth ("I'm being paid money to spend money!"). The second buys peace of mind ("Now I can own this thing forever without worrying about it!"). Both are basically tricks. "Instead of buying something and getting a rebate," Poundstone writes, "why not just pay a lower price in the first place?'

"[Warranties] make no rational sense," Harvard economist David Cutler told the Washington Post. "The implied probability that [a product] will break has to be substantially greater than the risk that you can't afford to fix it or replace it. If you're buying a $400 item, for the overwhelming number of consumers that level of spending is not a risk you need to insure under any circumstances."

(10) We're obsessed with the number 9. Up to 65 percent of all retail prices end in the number 9. Why? Everybody knows that $20 and $19.99 are the same thing. But the number 9 tells us something simple: This thing is discounted. This thing is cheap. This thing was priced by somebody who knows you like things discounted and cheap. In other words, 9 has transcended the status of charm price to become a cable of silent understanding between buyer and seller that a product is being priced competitively and fairly. Putting a 9 on a shell-fish platter at a high-end restaurant is ridiculous. Nobody spending $170 on lobster is looking for a discount. But the same person shopping for underwear is (research has shown, again and again) more likely to buy a product that ends in 9. Remember: Shopping is an attention game. Consumers aren't just hunting for products. They're hunting for clues that products are worth buying. In the number 9, the bargain-hunter/discount-gatherer corner of our brain spots a pluckable deal.

(11) We're compelled by a strong sense of fairness. I've already explained how our brains light up differently based on seeing a bargain vs. a rip-off. The shopper's brain is motivated by a sense of fairness. Again, it comes back to the idea that we don't know what things should cost, and so we use cues to tell us what we ought to pay for them. An experiment by the economist Dan Ariely tells the story beautifully. Ariely pretended he was giving a poetry recital. He told one group of students that the tickets cost money and another group that they would be paid to attend. Then he revealed to both groups that the recital was free. The first group was anxious to attend, believing they were getting something of value for free. The second group mostly declined, believing they were being forced to volunteer for the same event without compensation.

What's a poetry recital by a behavioral economist worth? The students had no idea. That's the point. I don't know, either. That's also the point. What's a button-up shirt "worth"? What's a cup of coffee "worth"? What's a life insurance policy "worth"? Who knows! Most of us don't. As a result, the shopping brain uses only what is knowable: visual clues, triggered emotions, comparisons, ratios, and a sense of bargain vs. rip-off. We're not stupid. Just susceptible.

Source
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/07/the-11-ways-that-consumers-are-hopeless-at-math/259479/

8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses

Here is a wonderful article on, what it truly means to run a business and manage people the right way! Where are you in this list?

This is perfectly in tune with Yoga, perfectly in tune with followers of light.

8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses
http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/8-core-beliefs-of-extraordinary-bosses.html

India - Culture of self interest

Think about it !...


Hobbesian (culture of self interest)


Corruption in India is a cultural aspect.

Thomas Hobbes

Indians seem to think nothing peculiar
about corruption . It is everywhere.

Indians tolerate corrupt individuals
rather than correct them.

No race can be congenitally corrupt.
But can a race be corrupted by its culture?

To know why Indians are corrupt ,
look at their patterns and practices.


First:

Religion is transactional in India.
Indians give God cash and anticipate
an out-of-turn reward.
Such a plea acknowledges that
favours are needed for the undeserving.

In the world outside the temple walls,
such a transaction is named- “bribe”.

A wealthy Indian gives not cash to temples,
but gold crowns and such baubles.

His gifts can not feed the poor.
His pay-off is for God.
He thinks it will be wasted
if it goes to a needy man.

In June 2009, The Hindu published
a report of Karnataka minister
G. Janardhan Reddy gifting
a crown of gold and diamonds worth
Rs 45 crore to Tirupati.

India’s temples collect so much that
they don't know what to do with it.
Billions are gathering dust in temple vaults.

When Europeans came to India they built schools.
When Indians go to Europe & USA, they build temples.

Indians believe that if God accepts money for his favours,
then nothing is wrong in doing the same thing.
This is why Indians are so easily corruptible.

Indian culture accommodates such transactions morally.


Second -

Indian moral ambiguity towards
corruption is visible in its history.

Indian history tells of the capture of cities
and kingdoms after guards
were paid off to open the gates, and
commanders paid off to surrender.

This is unique to India.

Indians' corrupt nature has meant limited
warfare on the subcontinent.
It is striking how little Indians have actually
fought compared to ancient Greece and modern Europe.

The Turks’ battles with Nadir Shah
were vicious and fought to the finish.

In India fighting wasn't needed,
bribing was enough to see off armies.

Any invader willing to spend cash
could brush aside India’s kings,
no matter how many tens of thousands of
soldiers were in their infantry.

Little resistance was given by the Indians
at the “Battle” of Plassey.
Clive paid off Mir Jaffar and all of
Bengal folded to an army of 3,000.

There was always a financial
exchange to taking Indian forts.
Golconda was captured in 1687
after the secret back door was left open.

Mughals vanquished Marathas
and Rajputs with nothing but bribes.

The Raja of Srinagar gave up
Dara Shikoh’s son Sulaiman to
Aurangzeb after receiving a bribe.

British bribed Dogras to defeat the Sikhs
by promising Dogra General Gulab Singh
and appointing him as the Maharaja of
Kashmir.

There are many cases where Indians
participated  on a large scale in
treason due to bribery.

Question is: Why Indians have a
transactional culture while
other 'civilized' nations don't?

 
Third -

Indians do not believe in the theory that they all can rise
if each of them behaves morally, because that is not
the message of their faith.

Their caste system separates them.
They don't believe that all men are equal.
This resulted in their division and
migration to other religions .

Many Hindus started their own
faith like Sikh, Jain, Buddha
and many converted to
Christianity and Islam.

The result is that Indians
don't trust one another .

There are no Indians in India, there are
Hindus, Christians, Muslims and what not.

Indians forget that 500 years ago
they mostly belonged to one faith.

This division evolved an unhealthy culture.
The inequality has resulted in a corrupt society,

In India every one is thus against everyone else,
except God and even he must be bribed.



CAN WE CHANGE OUR MIND SET?????

(The interesting read was sent via email)

For those wondering, Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson was highly influenced by Hobbes' philosophy and therefore the comic cat character Hobbes was given the name. You can see similar thought provoking ideas in his cartoons at the official site.








About Thomas Hobbes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes

Multitasking: Your brain on media consumption

Click image to enlarge

Source - http://www.bitrebels.com/lifestyle/multitasking-this-is-your-brain-on-social-media/

Deadlines

Here is a wonderful video to show all those clients that keep asking you to finish stuff in less time.




Source - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jgvx9OfZKJw

Mind like water

Mind is like Water, Negativity is like Mud....


Click on the image to view larger

7 Myths of Starting Up – Busted here!

Good article and encouraging...read the 8th myth underneath.
Just what I needed in my life right now, as I'm floating an idea in my head!

http://rodinhood.com/7-myths-of-starting-up-busted-here

Nithya Shanti – Power of the Mind

 

Do you really want a glimpse to the true Power of your Mind, then see this video.

 

Source (the Original Video link)

Who is this Nithya Shanti?
He worked in the field of Human Resources and Corporate Strategy until he decided to drop it. He went to Thailand stayed there as a forest monk (in solitude) for 6 years when he got a calling to spread awareness to people. Read about this his interesting life here.

Yes, it is worth it

Yes, it is worth it / Si que vale a pena

Published on November 3, 2010 in News. 171 Comments

_________________________
ESPANOL CLICAR AQUI: Si, que vale a pena
_________________________

Life is like a big bike race where the goal is to fulfil you personal legend.

At the start, we are riding together, sharing the camaraderie and enthusiasm. But as the race progresses, the initial joy gives way to the real challenges: tiredness, monotony and doubts about our own abilities.

We notice that some have withdrawn. They are still running, but only because they cannot stop in the middle of a road. They are numerous, pedalling alongside the support car, talking to each other and performing only their obligations.

Eventually we distance ourselves from them and we are forced to face the loneliness and the surprises of the unknown curves with the bikes. And after a while, we begin to wonder if it’s worth the effort.

Yes, it is worth it. Just don’t quit.

Source - http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2010/11/03/yes-it-is-worth-it/

Hope Is Not a Budgeting Strategy

A fantastic article on the difference between “hoping for positive change” and actually “working at positive change”. Carl Richards blog is worth a read. The original link is at the bottom.

Hope Is Not a Budgeting Strategy

By CARL RICHARDS
Carl Richards
Carl Richards is a certified financial planner in Park City, Utah. His sketches are archived here on the Bucks blog, and other drawings are available on his personal Web site, BehaviorGap.com.

Maybe you’ve already learned the truth the hard way, but the universe is not going to pay for that BMW you want.

In case you missed it, I’m referring to one of the teachings from the best-selling book that goes by the ingenious name “The Secret.”  The premise relies on the law of attraction. The idea is that you can create your own reality through your thoughts. If you focus intently enough on something, it will happen.

Most of us believe in some version of this law because we recognize that thinking good thoughts will generally make us happier and more attractive to other people. We also see some logic in the fake-it-until-you-make-it strategy. After all, how many of us are really qualified for the jobs we apply for?

Where “The Secret” takes us off track, however, is in telling us that changing our physical reality only requires us to will it to happen. This attitude gets particularly dangerous when applied to money.
Using positive thinking to motivate ourselves to make healthy financial decisions is one thing. It’s something else entirely to lease a BMW you can’t afford and hope that the universe will make your payments because you thought about it really hard.

Maybe this sounds silly to most of you, but I see something similar happen on a regular basis. It starts out simple enough. I’ll see someone who believes that getting to the next level, however they define it, requires faking it at an unsustainable level using material goods as part of the ruse.

For example, think about the people you know who believe that more expensive clothes or a flashier car will help them appear more successful and thus lead to closing more deals. The real question is whether there’s anything to back up the flash, like hard work, patience and discipline.

There is indeed some evidence that focusing on the positive does bring about positive change in our lives, both at work and at home. But the positive change happens and lasts because of hard work. And that’s the part left out of “The Secret.” If it were all about thinking, we’d all be billionaires. Instead, when we apply the law of attraction to our financial lives, it’s important to realize that patience and discipline over long periods of time make the biggest difference.

Source - http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/hope-is-not-a-budgeting-strategy/

Carl Richards Sketchpad Gallery
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/your-money/carl-richards-gallery.html

The most Charming Geeky Wedding Card 2.0

This is a wedding card from a close family friend. The card is certainly the most geeky wedding card I’ve ever seen. This shows what an influence technology has on our lives that the lovely couple chose to post it on their own wedding card!

 

This is the front of the card. Note the WINDOWS icons and the entire Windows desktop, I guess they aren’t Mac fanatics. Check the bottom, you’ll spot a Windows 7 start button, Gmail, Gtalk, facebook, skype and towards the extreme left (the system tray as it’s called), you’ll see volume, battery icon and the date of their wedding reception.

 

 

This is on the inside. Oops, I guess I was too soon to judge about them not being Mac fanatics; here’s an entire iPhone with a chat log mentioning facebook and the internet.

How innovative and charming as it’s from the heart.

I wish the “geeky couple” best of luck and a happy married life!

3 shockingly bizarre things about Christopher Columbus

Here’s a great reminder why not to trust history written by humans completely and to imagine we and current generation of kids are learning the same nonsense. Take History with a pinch of salt I say!

Every second Monday in October, we celebrate Columbus Day in honor of the day Columbus “discovered” America. Without a doubt, it was a great accomplishment for 15th century Europeans and everyone likes a good holiday.

But is what we teach kids about Columbus the truth? Was the man we celebrate worthy of celebration? Columbus was an interesting dude, but what you think you know might be completely untrue. And that whole world-was-flat thing? Read on.

1. His name wasn’t Christopher Columbus

Let’s start with a simple item: his name. Columbus’ might not have had an Italian name. Instead, he might have had a Genoese name.

This actually becomes an interesting discussion of the self-referential nature of the Web. If you do a search on Columbus’ name, you’ll find that his father’s name was apparently Corombo. But if you keep digging, you’ll find that Wikipedia, referencing “Rime diverse, Pavia,” written in 1595, states that Columbus’ name was actually Christoffa Corombo.

The question is: was it? Interestingly enough, a Web search on “Christoffa Corumbo” shows a lot of references, including mainstream media reports, using that name. But there’s not a single scholarly reference to Christoffa anywhere (well, unless you consider the game Assassin’s Creed II to be scholarly).

He’s also been referred to as Christoff Columb, and a variety of other variations. The real truth is we don’t know his real name, but it was almost undoubtedly not Christopher Columbus.

2. Columbus wasn’t a great leader, he was a brutal one.

You may not know it, but Christopher Columbus (or whatever his name was), spent six weeks in jail. Eight years after landing in the New World, Columbus and his brothers were thrown into jail by Ferdinand and Isabella.

According to Consuelo Varela, a historian at Spain’s Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas and reported in the Christian Science Monitor, Columbus was a tyrant during his time as governor of Hispaniola.

He was apparently a big fan of using torture and slavery to keep his constituents in line (insert poor-taste joke about Congress here). Apparently, the level of brutality was so great that the rulers of Spain had enough, slapped him in chains, and threw him in jail.

Given that Ferdinand and Isabella were the warm, gentle folks who started up the Spanish Inquisition, you’d have to think that Columbus had to be pretty nasty to even begin to show up on their radar.

3. He didn’t think the world was flat.

We’ve all been taught that 15th century sailors thought the world was flat. One of Columbus’ biggest contributions to modern thought was the conclusion, based on his adventures, that the world was, in fact, a giant ball.

According to Paul Boller who wrote Not So!:Popular Myths about America from Columbus to Clinton, most educated people of Columbus’ day thought the world was spherical.

They weren’t sure about the size, Boller says, but the roundness was accepted and had been for centuries.

Apparently, it wasn’t until Washington Irving wrote his book about Columbus in 1828 that we all started believing that they all believed the world was flat.

What’s true?

Time fogs our understanding of what really happened. Archeologists and academics are hard at work trying to truly understand who Columbus was and what he really accomplished.

In the meantime, as you celebrate Columbus Day, remember that not all is as you’ve been taught, not all is as it seems, and not everything those in positions of power, authority, or influence tell you is true.

Keep that in mind when you vote next month.

Happy Columbus Day, and I’ll grill a burger for ya!

 

 

Source - http://www.zdnet.com/blog/government/3-shockingly-bizarre-things-about-christopher-columbus/9515

Railroad Tracks - Human ingenuous stupidity

This is dedicated to not only human ingenuity but also the human stupidity! Two sides of the same coin. It is also interesting to note how "one thing leads to another" in ways that we would not understand.

Railroad tracks.

The   US  standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.


 

Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates designed the US railroads.

 

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

 

Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

 

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in   England , because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

 

So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial   Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including   England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.

 

And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels.

 
 

Since the chariots were made for Imperial   Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.

 

So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with this?' , you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses.)

Now, the twist to the story: 

 
 

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in  Utah

 

 

The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds. 

 

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important?

Put the Glass Down

Professor began his class by holding up a glass with some water in it.  He held it up for all to see; asked the students "How much do you think this glass weighs?" 

'50gms!' ..... '100gms!' .....'125gms'  ...the students answered.       

"I really don't know unless I weigh it," said the professor, "but, my question is: What would happen if I held it up like this for a few minutes?"

'Nothing' ..the students said.     

'Ok what would happen if I held it up like this for an hour?' the professor asked.         

'Your arm would begin to ache' said one of the student.

"You're right, now what would happen if I held it for a day?"           

"Your arm could go numb, you might have severe muscle stress; paralysis; have to go to hospital for sure!"  .. ventured another student; all the students laughed.

"Very good. But during all this, did the weight of the glass change?" asked the professor.       

'No'. Was the answer.       

"Then what caused the arm ache; the muscle stress?"           

The students were puzzled.     

"What should I do now to come out of pain?" asked professor again.       

"Put the glass down!" said one of the students.

"Exactly!" said the professor.     

Life's problems are something like this. Hold it for a few minutes in your head; they seem OK. Think of them for a long time & they begin to ache.             

Hold it even longer; they begin to paralyze you. You will not be able to  do anything..         

It's important to think of the challenges or problems in your life, But EVEN MORE IMPORTANT is to 'PUT THEM DOWN' at the end of every day before You go to sleep...     

That way, you are not stressed, you wake up every day fresh;strong; can handle any issue, any challenge that comes your way!

So, when you leave office/college/workplace today,

Remember to ' PUT THE GLASS DOWN ! ‘

An Island Of Peace

AN ISLAND OF PEACE

I would like to tell you a story that will help you to understand better the practice of taking refuge in the island of self.  About 30 years ago, I was practising and living in the northern part of France and there was a hermitage called “Les Patates Douces” and I went to a solo retreat in that hermitage, and that morning, it was beautiful, and I decided to spend the whole day in the wood.  The hermitage was situated in a kind of forest called “La foret d’Othe” and I like to do walking meditation and sitting meditation in a wood, so that morning, I decided to spend the whole day in the wood.

I brought with me a bowl of rice, some sesame seeds, a bottle of water, and off I went to the forest and wanted to stay the whole day there.  I enjoyed it very much, but at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon black clouds began to gather and I knew that I could not stay longer in the wood, that I had to go home to the hermitage.  Before I left the hermitage I had opened the door and all the windows so that the sunshine could come in, and now the wind had begun to blow and I knew that I have to stop my stay in the wood and go home to the hermitage to take care of it.  When I arrived at the hermitage, I found the situation not pleasant at all.  The wind had blown very hard, and all the papers I put on my table were blown a little bit everywhere, and then it’s cold, it’s miserable in the hermitage, cold and dark and disorder, it’s a mess!

The first thing I did was to go and close all the windows because I didn’t want the wind to continue its work of destruction, so I closed the windows and I also closed the door.  And then I made a fire in the chimney and when the fire began to come alive, I began to collect all the sheets of paper on the ground and put them on the table and then took the little brick I had to put on it, and tried to make the hermitage tidy, in order.  By that time, the chimney was very pleasant already.  By that time it was warm, it was pleasant, it was cosy in the hermitage.

There are days when you feel that it’s not your day, everything goes wrong.  And the more effort you make, the situation becomes worse.  Of course you have gone through days like that in your life.  You fail in everything, you suffer, you get angry, people blame you, you are not happy, you are frustrated.  And you tell yourself that you have to make more effort, but the more effort you make, the worse the situation becomes, and then you know that it’s time to stop, it’s time to stop everything, it’s time to go home to yourself and take refuge in yourself.  You have to close your windows, the eyes, the ears; you have to close the five windows.

You should not be in touch with the outside any more; you have to close the windows of your hermitage.  Because there is a hermitage within yourself – that is the island of self that I want you to discover.  If you continue to be on the outside, then you continue to suffer, you know.  That is why in moments like that, you have to go home to the island of self, and the first thing you do is exactly what I did with my hermitage, to close the five windows.

And you know that eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, are the six windows you close.  Don’t look, don’t listen, don’t touch, and don’t think.  Stop everything in order to prevent the strong wind from the outside to continue to blow in and to make you miserable, because the eye is a window, the ear is a window, the mind is a window, and if you keep them open, the wind of suffering, the wind of disturbance will continue to come and make the situation worse and worse.  Don’t try any more.  Stop trying and shut the windows.  You shut also the door, and you have to go to the chimney and make a fire.

You want to get a feeling of warmth, cosiness, and comfort by practising mindful breathing, going home to yourself.   And rearrange everything, your feelings, your perceptions, your emotions, they are all scattered all over, it’s a mess.

You have to recognise each feeling, each emotion, and you have to collect them like I collected all the sheets of paper that were scattered a little bit all over.  Practise mindfulness and concentration, and tidy up everything within yourself.  You are going home, you have gone home to your island of self, and you are transformed into a place that is cosy and pleasant for you to take refuge in.  Everyone has a hermitage within, very safe, very cosy, very comfortable, very calm, and they have to go home to that hermitage.

The expression that the Buddha used is “dípá atta dípá saraná.”  “Atta” means self, “dípá” means island, and “saraná” means refuge.  “Taking refuge in the island of self.”  This is the dharma talk that the Buddha gave when he was 80 to many groups of friends and disciples.  If you rely on the outside, you get lost.  That is why you have to go home and rely on something that is reliable, that is the island of self.

There are many ways to go home to the island of self.  One of the ways is to practise mindful breathing and concentrate on your breath.  You will discover the island of self.  The other way is to do walking meditation.  Every step brings you home to the here and the now, and then you can open the door of the island of self and go into it.  We remember the teaching of the Buddha when we are tired, when we feel that we are not solid, we feel we are victims of the environment and victims of our emotions, and then what we should do is to go home right away, to the hermitage, to the island of self.

And with the practice, we will discover that is the safest place to go back to. And after some time being in the island of self, in the hermitage of self, you recover yourself and then you are in a much better position to get in touch with the world outside.  And Thay has said that it takes time, it takes practice in order to recognise, to find our island of self, because the island of self is not exactly in the body.

When we say inside, that does not mean exactly inside the body, it is not really located in the body.  We have a better chance to find it in the dharma body than in the physical body.  And everyone has that island.  No waves can reach that island, so standing on the island, we are very safe, we recover ourselves, restore ourselves, become strong, and then we are ready to go out again, to help.  And so even if you are still very young, you know that there is an island within yourself.
Every time you feel you suffer so much, nothing seems to go right, you have to stop making efforts, you have to go home to that island right away.  And taking refuge in the island for five, ten, fifteen minutes, half an hour, you know that you feel stronger, much better within yourself. 

THICH NHAT HANH
www.plumvillage.org
Author of " Old Path White Clouds"

The Greatest Enemy: Ego

The Greatest Enemy: Ego
The age old greatest enemy is not outside but within. Many psychologists, doctors, spiritual guides speak in this short 1:41 min video. Do see! Be Awake!



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ralgm95jeM

Perception, taste and people's priorities - a social experiment !!!

Perception
        ...Something to think about...

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with
a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time
approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their
way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician
playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried
to meet his schedule.

 4 minutes later:

   the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the
hat and, without stopping, continued to walk...

 6 minutes:

   A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his
watch and started to walk again.


10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid
stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the
child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was
repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced
their children to move on quickly.


45 minutes:

The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a
short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.
The man collected a total of $32.


1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded,
nor was there any recognition.


 No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest
musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever
written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua
Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was
organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about
perception, taste and people's priorities. The questions raised: in a common
place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected
context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:  If we
do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the
world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most
beautiful instruments ever made.... How many other things are we missing?

The Problem With Airbrushing Kim Kardashian

A very interesting article about how magazines alter looks of women (kim kardarshan i this case) and how the world goes round by impression made of what they see. Very well written and true. This is typical case of the idiot user!


http://rightwingnews.com/mt331/2009/03/the_problem_with_airbrushing_k.php