I have been practicing meditation for just over five years now, during COVID-19 it was one of the tools that enabled me to stay mindful and deal with the crisis. Most mornings I practice meditations, different types of practices such as Gratitude Meditation, Manifestation Meditation, Guided Meditation, Breath-work Meditation and Stoic Meditation. This past weekend, I drove for two hours to Nan Hua temple, where I meditated guided by a monk for two days, we ate vegetarian food, did some Yoga and Tai Chi and spent most of our time learning to be mindful in the meditation hall. Out of all the teachings, I would choose three to impart to my business world and hope you will find them equally meaningful.
- Silence : I chose the Silence badge this weekend, mostly because I didn't want anyone asking me questions, but most importantly I wanted some solitude within myself. In our fast-paced world, where we spend over 10 hours every day in front of a screen, on teams, on social media etc, we have forgotten the importance of Silence - " The power of quiet in a world full of noise." This type of silence that I chose at this meditation retreat, I call the Noble Silence. In our busy lives, indoctrinated by numerous distractions in terms of pings and pokes (do we still do that?), when we are eating, walking or working we aren't doing these things, we are talking, we are catching up. I also at times end up eating my lunch in between my meetings in boardrooms and often I hardly remember how the food tasted. The idea here is to be mindful while doing our activities and just do them instead of pairing it with something else. Mindfulness gives you the inner space and quietness that allows you to look deeply, to find out who you are and what you want to do with your life. The practice allowed me to Actively Listen, and that is a business lesson for me, When we listen to something at work we do that with an intent to respond, not to listen to understand, if we just incorporate this state of being present we will be able to actually get to our PnL faster, or whatever, at least we will be a better human being.
- Compassion : Do not treat others as you would not like them to treat you, this is basically what Compassion is, the monk at the retreat taught us the four noble truths and everything related back to the practice of Compassion and Kindness. We do not know what the next person we meet on teams is going through, staying mindful goes a long way. On the topic of compassion and our human nature, this book I read last year speaks about a significant fact of human condition: the feedback to which life exposes us is perverse. Because we tend to be nice to other people when they please us and nasty when they do not, we are statistically punished for being nice and rewarded for being nasty. Is there a way to be better than this, in my opinion the answer is yes. Compassion is not only for our primary and secondary relationships like spouse, parents, and close friends but also for tertiary relationships such as colleagues, clients, partners etc. The three most difficult things is for a human being are not physical feats or intellectual achievements. They are, first, returning love for hate; second, including the excluded; third, admitting that you are wrong. Is it that difficult for us to pause, remember and implement the practice of Compassion in our daily lives? My most important business value is “Embracing customer empathy”, without compassion I or my team that follows that value will never be able to actually implement it in our business.? ?
- Simplify : At the end of the retreat, there was QnA for 30 mins, and loads of great questions such as "How will we know we are enlightened" etc popped up, the monk responded to each one of them with Humor, Respect and Simplicity. In our day-to-day we are focused on Influence after conceptualisation, and embracing Simplification will enable us to be more efficient. When my Baba (grandfather) used to teach me Maths or English, he used to make me write the questions first as I had understood it before I attempted to answer and then we debated on it, this practice enabled me to think towards simplifications. Our lives are complicated because we have made it that way, our intent as a species, in my opinion, is always to act via-negativa, which is by removing rather than adding. Most importantly can we bring this value to our business, can we simplify the buzzwords, can we make it simpler?
Thanks for reading, Cheers until next time!
