In Christianity, people believe in an Almighty God who is the Creator of the earth and who has absolute power over nature and human destinies. In such sense, Buddhism has no God.
Buddhists believe in gods who are defined as heavenly beings or Devas. Devas are believed to inhabit the heavens above the human realm, but are still unenlightened, bound to Samsara or subject to birth and death. Many such beings have been converted to Buddhism and become its protectors (Dharma Protectors). Any living beings can be reborn as one of the gods if that living being has the required merit and virtue.
Some basic truth about our beliefs:
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in tradition because they have been handed down for many generations.
Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumoured by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because, it is found written in your religions books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. All that we experience begins with our good, truthful and beautiful thoughts. Our words, actions, thoughts, character and hearty deeds spring from our realization and enlightenment.
If we speak or act with evil thoughts, unpleasant circumstances and experiences then inevitably our life and living will result in evil ways. Wherever we go, we create bad circumstances because we carry bad thoughts. We cannot shake off this suffering as long as we are tied to our evil thoughts.
So let your words, actions, thoughts, character and heart enlighten you.
The Basics of My Way of Life
I am a sentient human being and have my roots in the Hindu family but my way of life differs from the old traditional Hindu living of my parents. I have many of my own experiences with my own way of existence and I do not think, behave and conduct my prayers as my parents and grandparents have been doing only because I have felt that there has been a need to change. I have changed and I feel better with the path that I have been following.
Although I speak from my own experience, I strongly feel that no one has the right to impose his or her beliefs on another person. I have never professed that my way is the best. If those people, including my children and grand children, find some points, which may be suitable for them, then they can carry out experiments for themselves and follow my way.
On the other hand, if they find that my way is of no use to them, then they are free to discard them.
I believe in the essence of truth, beauty and goodness of humanity. Since my God has no particular religion, my way of life is my own development. I wake up in the morning and after my cleansing, I say my universal prayer to inculcate peace in my mind and ensure that my brain and brawn are in some form of balance. This process synthesizes my thinking and my compassion.
I have always wanted happiness in life and wanted to be away from pain and suffering. For this reason, alone I conduct my prayers to the Almighty. For me there is no absolute way so everything is relative and I judge everything according to circumstances. I therefore pursued three means in my everyday living; mental development, material development and spiritual development.
For my mental development, I am indebted to my parents, family members and my friends and teachers. I have had good working life to sustain my material development. I have retired from active working life and live alone in my own home free from all encumbrances. My spiritual development has come from my own experiences where I do not depend on any religious faith but on basic good human qualities. I have developed a sense of involvement, honesty within me, reasonable self-discipline and my human intelligence has been properly guided by my own motivation.
On this basis, I have been able to use my intelligence to transform myself by instilling the good human qualities and reducing the negative aspects of life. I am not a blind follower of any principle or faith and all unnecessary traditional ceremonies make no sense to me, hence I have abandoned all of them.
I firmly believe that many years have passed since Hindu religious traditions started; so many aspects are out of date and obsolete. I understand that religion, as a whole is irrelevant in this modern world. I conduct my own kind of prayer daily and perform a peaceful interaction with Almighty God once a month using my own independent method.
After this my daily life begins to roll as usual and I do all my proposed work which is my karma- reading, writing, cleaning, gardening, volunteer work to help people in the community and communicating with people. I believe that I should not waste the opportunity that has been offered to me in this life. Human life is so precious and so difficult to achieve that it has to be well utilized. Life is transient but valuable so it is important to do something meaningful with it and try to bring all elements together for cumulative effect on our daily practices.
There is no doubt in my mind at all that God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient so there is no need to go and seek for Him at any particular place or in a particular way. He is merciful, kind and amenable so a simple genuine prayer is answered for anyone who loves and surrenders his or her life to Him. I just do that.
This is all that is required for me to live a healthy and peacefully rewarding life and I will continue to do this as long as I am in a position to do this.
This is my way of life and whoever in my family or friendly circle wishes to follow is free to do so.
I too believe that in order to practise the application of joyful effort successfully, I must have the ability to concentrate, to focus on my events, actions and objectives. Thus, my power of judgement to judge between what is desirable and what is undesirable, what is negative and what is positive becomes very important for me. That is why I am a sentient being.
I have my total freedom to conduct my way of life the way I want and do not need any pressure or preaching from anyone. This is the true essence of my way of life. I have done this and I will continue to do this as long as I live.
So I always ask God to help me achieve my objectives in life. To further explain myself in detail I need to establish my argument in a more vivid way.
I was born in a supposedly Hindu family and have tried to live a Hindu way of life for the last 75 years. However, after my extensive reading, personal experiences and a variety of interactions with people of various ideals I now have culled my own main principles of living a fruitful and complete way of human life.
I know that God exists and He is the One Absolute Om. Over the years people have split the one trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh into several divine forms to suit their needs, understanding and interpretations.
I take all human beings as equal and if they behave well they all are divine. I believe that we are able to co-exist in this world through love, peace and empathy.
I believe that our good and effective conduct and activities enable us to live in harmony.
I believe that water is the greatest purifying agent; all good believable scriptures are excellent means to cleanse our body, mind and soul and the sacred prayers need to be chanted for posterity, peace and efficient living. There should not be blind following and all unnecessary ceremonies need to be condemned. I call this as Paakhand Khandan.
I have learnt that there are certain disciplines that a good human being should follow in order to co-exist in this difficult and increasingly precarious universe. These, among many other acceptable human qualities, include the following:
• Truth, Beauty and Goodness
• Non-violence
• No desire to possess more than what one needs
• Refrain from stealing
• Non corruptive existence
• Cleanliness
• Contentment
• Intelligent reading and discourse
• Austerity
• Perseverance
• Penance
• Prayers
Unfortunately, I have not been very successful in following all these disciplines and thus I have not properly followed the right way of life myself at all times. However, I tried to be a good human being and that is what matters for my modern living. Therefore, my conclusions about my way of life differ from many of my contemporaries but I stand by my contentions because they give me satisfaction to press on regardless.
I have sinned in life and almost everyday I ask for forgiveness and repentance in the following words and sentiments:
MY REPENTANCE & FORGIVENESS
I repent, O God most merciful; for all my sins; for every thought that was false or unjust or unclean; for every word spoken that ought not to have been spoken; for every deed done that ought not to have been done.
I repent for every deed and word and thought inspired by selfishness, and for every deed and word and thought inspired by hatred.
I repent most specially for every lustful thought and every lustful action; for every lie; for all hypocrisy; for every promise given but not fulfilled, and for all slander and back-biting.
Most specially also, I repent for every action that has brought ruin to others; for every word and deed that has given others pain; and for every wish that pain should befall others.
In your unbounded mercy, I ask you to forgive me, O God, for all these sins committed by me, and to forgive me for my constant failures to think and speak and act according to Thy will.
Whatever sins have been committed by me, in thought, word or deed, may the Supreme Lord, the source of all strength, wisdom and purity, forgive me and purify me of them all.
May my body become pure.
May I be free from impurity and sin.
May I realize myself as the light divine.
May my mind become ever pure.
May my self become pure.
May I realize my self as the light divine. Peace be in my mind and in the
entire universe.
In fact, I strongly feel that all human beings should take note of my repentance and forgiveness and do the same every now and then to feel at ease.
For me Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life for people who want to follow certain principles and disciplines. In my view, it is a culture more than a religion.
Hinduism does not have any one founder and it does not have a Bible or a Koran to which controversies can be referred for resolution. Consequently, it does not require its adherents to accept any one idea. It is thus cultural, not creedal, with a history contemporaneous with the peoples with which it is associated.
For me Hinduism is a unique faith! The most obvious misconception about Hinduism is that we tend to see it as just another religion. To be precise, Hinduism is a way of life, a dharma. Dharma does not mean religion. It is the law that governs all actions. Thus, contrary to popular perception, Hinduism is not just a religion in the tradition sense of the term. Out of this misinterpretation, have come most of the other misconceptions about Hinduism.
Over the years, the people who followed these traditions have been misinterpreting a lot of ideas and beliefs. Therefore, by now many of the original ideas and ideals have lost their originality and have become either obsolete or unbelievable.
Writings we now categorize as Hindu scriptures include not just books relating to spirituality but also secular pursuits like science, medicine and engineering. Some can be believed but many are myths and legends to substantiate certain contentions. This is another reason why it defies classification as a religion per se. Further, it cannot be claimed to be essentially a school of metaphysics. Nor can it be described as 'other worldly'. In fact, one can almost identify Hinduism with a civilization that is flourishing even now and hopefully will flourish in the future.
Words like Hindu or Hinduism are anachronisms. They do not exist in the Indian cultural lexicon. People have coined them to suit their needs in different points of history. Nowhere in the scriptures is there any reference to Hinduism. So people who still cling to these archaic ideas need to change and adapt and adopt the modern way of life to suit their current and future needs, situations and circumstances.
Incidentally, these are my personal beliefs. This is the reason why I do my own prayers in the form, style and methods that I strongly feel are free from all superstitions and unnecessary ceremonies and conducts. There is no need for any person with my similar intellect to engage any other person to do or perform the prayers for them.
Every human being should be able to perform the prayers as they think fit and proper in order to obtain the necessary peace, prosperity and progress in family or individual life.
Success for Everyone.
Success for anyone has multiple explanations. Different people look at their success differently. If you have worked for over fifty years in the human services areas of various businesses, educational and political fields like I have done, you have the capacity to measure and provide some valid explanations for the success of people in their respective organisations.
Many wise people have asked some very valid questions on this topic. Is there a power that can reveal hidden veins of riches and uncover treasures of which we never dreamed? Is there a force that we can call upon to give health, happiness and spiritual enlightenment? When we talk of a power or a force we look at our success spiritually but it can be considered generally as well. We know fully well that all our success in life does not altogether depend and impinge on our ability and training because it also depends on our determination to grasp the existing or arising opportunities that are presented to us.
Those of us who have had meaningful interactions in business, social and political life can categorically say that opportunities come by creation and not by chance. If we are ready to create opportunities for us then our paths of success become smooth, controllable and manageable. Since we have created them, we can earn the benefits out of them and use them to our best advantage.
If we are determined to use all the available outward means as well as all our natural abilities to overcome and manage every obstacle that come in our path we will then gradually utilise and develop the unlimited potential that lies within us to succeed in any aspect of life. We just have to think positively and generate our will-power. These internal human gifts will make us see all our successes revealed for us.
We alone are totally responsible for all our actions, words, thoughts and deeds. It is believed that we demonstrate our success or failure according to our daily activities. If our mind is always looking in the negative direction then an occasional positive thought is definitely not enough to give us the success that we envisage. However, if we set our minds to think well and ponder rightly then we will definitely be able to plan our future properly and find our goals and objectives even if we face multiple dark spots in our life.
This power of positive thinking can be achieved by everyone through constant effort and proper practice but it requires volition or will power. We need to establish mechanical as well as conscious will and be determined to be constructive in all our efforts and endeavours. If we search hard within us we will find the needed talents and strengths to combat any weaknesses and shortcomings. If we take advantage of all the opportunities that knock at our door then we will be able to devote our entire energy to mastering one thing at a time and move towards success step by step.
Almost all successful people have tried to attempt simple tasks first and then as their confidence strengthens they have become more dynamic and aimed for more difficult accomplishments. Those successful people neither scattered their energies nor left something half done to begin any new venture. They have often made wise selections and refused to submit to failure. This led them to success for them. We can learn a lot from many of such examples.
Motivation is Inspiration
In my view the most powerful motivating force is the recognition of one’s peers. When we look carefully around all our religious and professional organisations, we will probably notice dramatic differences in the energy and enthusiasm our people bring to their respective jobs and work places.
The best of these workers perform their respective tasks harder and longer to meet their responsibilities and duties of either building sales or way of life, serving customers or making the work place safer and more productive. So recognising them publicly with tangible, personalized and custom rewards encourages their continued efforts and motivates fellow employees to strive for the same achievements and rewards.
It is unfortunate that not all our workers are adequately enthusiastic about the work they are assigned to perform. This is not what a modern commercial enterprise expects from the work force. These kinds of individuals need to be inspired to move with the rest of the team members.
|
There are a few schools of thought on the issue of motivating the unmotivated workers of our workforce. Some are possible, some are difficult and almost all can be looked at professionally. Therefore, even if we have some workers who are not able to meet the challenges facing them, we can do a lot to inspire them to do peak performance. The one that sounds very positive is that every member of our workforce can be additionally encouraged and inspired to do better to reach the expected peak performance. I know that many successful managers have been successfully motivating the employees by giving them a clear sense of direction rather than just being preoccupied with paperwork and procedures. Then there is another view that no matter how hard we try there are some people who have slipped into our team who cannot be motivated and should be put out of the system. This is unfortunate but sadly enough there are work places where such views are still maintained. Of course, another view is that an eager or enthusiastic worker does not need to be pushed beyond his or her limits, hence does not need to be motivated. He or she is inspired enough to perform the duties assigned quite well with least or no supervision. These are the top performers with appropriate knowledge, information and skills. Shall I say that this should be part of our human nature. From time to time I have had similar views on motivation but as work places and workforce have been changing so have my opinions and views seen some modifications and transformation. Now I am a liberal thinker on this issue. I am a firm believer of listening to our people because wherever I have worked I found that the successes we achieved in productivity have come from the employees who are actually doing the work. They assisted us in developing ideas for doing the jobs faster and more economically. However, now my views on this subject are somewhat different. I believe that motivation is similar to inspiration. It is a personal choice of a person to be motivated or not to be motivated. It must initially emerge from within a person. It is epidemic. It is self-generated and yet we have able training personnel who prepare appropriate prescriptions to tackle the issue. If a leader is able to provide personal inspiration and has been successful in creating an inspiring work environment then this innovation can easily bring out the best in the employees by inspiring them to emulate their leader. Thus the inspired workers will be in a position to perform at their individual and collective potential. It makes sense to me that the most powerful motivation of the employees comes from their internal inspiration and they are willing and eager to do peak performance for their equally inspired leader of an inspirational setting. Such should be the case at all work places that are following the revolutionary leaders and inspirational work environments and practices. It is therefore the belief of some leaders to detect those uninspired and unmotivated employees early in the induction process and replace them with more suitable choices, otherwise our efforts to inspire and motivate the other members of the workforce will go in vain. So our first task is to find out if our workers are ready and willing to be motivated. This is where I do not agree that we cannot motivate the unmotivated. At least we can give it a try and keep trying until we see tangible success.
You may also like...
|
